Content Warning: Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way With You contains explicit sexual content and scenes depicting sexual assault and rape, dubious consent, threats of physical harm with a knife, violence, attempted suicide, and some blood. Please refer to The Spice section for more details.
At a Glance:
Spice Level: 5/5
Mosaics: Yes
Recommend: Yes
Content Warnings: Sexual assault, rape, dubcon, threats of physical harm, attempted suicide, some blood
Agnès has been in love with Lucilleur for as long as she can remember. As the daughter of a powerful Marquess, she and the crown prince were engaged as children, and despite his cold demeanor towards her throughout the years, Agnès never stopped trying to win his affection. Though most of the time he would flat-out ignore her, there were small glimpses of kindness from Luc that Agnès clung to. She assumed the status quo between them would slowly change with time, and it did–just not in the way she had envisioned.
One day, Luc calls Agnès to the palace and tells her that he is ending their engagement so that he can marry Lilie Villsner, the daughter of an Earl and her family’s political rival. Agnès is distraught but resigned to her fate, and better yet, she has a plan. Leaning into her pitiful position as a lover scorned, Agnès takes control of the situation and uses her magic to subdue the prince, sexually assaults him, then flees to the neighboring country to hide.
Agnès is ready to face whatever punishment comes her way for her actions, but she’s severely unprepared when Lucilleur himself shows up and takes her away.
The Good
This is easily the spiciest manga that Seven Seas Entertainment has published under their Steam Ship imprint, and in my opinion, it might be the best. The beautiful art, the dynamic characters, the political war, and the tidbits of world-building shown had me flying through the volume only to then go back and reread it to savor the emotional drawings and descriptive dialogue.
The multiple political and emotional wars going on–between the Drafilles and Villsners, Lucilleur and Agnès, and Agnès and Lilie–kept the novel feeling like it had high stakes. Everything that each character does is incredibly layered and multifaceted. Watching Agnès uncover her enemies’ plans and divert them, or how she finds ways to maintain control in situations where she is seemingly powerless, shows how carefully crafted her character is. It was so enjoyable to watch her play a game of power with Luc and Lilie and hold her own despite being at a severe disadvantage.
Lilie is a fantastic villain, as well. I love seeing the happy-go-lucky “pure” maiden tropes twisted into something more, and Takao Midori doesn’t disappoint. Lilie is the sort of villain that is so easy to hate, and watching her get away with all of these horrendous acts piles on the desire to see her caught and punished. But that’s what makes the story so good. Lilie sets up an incredibly tough situation that Agnès has to fight her way out of, and it is that journey and watching Agnès’s careful planning around Lilie that makes the story so captivating. Like Cersei and Jeoffrey in Game of Thrones, or Gaston in Beauty and the Beast, or countless others, the more heinous their crimes, the more you hate them. Yet, at the same time, the more you can’t stop watching the story unfold.
As if the characters weren’t good enough on their own, the art that Selen brings to the story is incredible. Every panel has amazing detail on everything from the outfits to the background, but the raw emotion that is portrayed is some of the best I have ever seen. Lilie’s crying face as she talks about being bullied before turning into something more devious; Luc’s glare and frosty disposition towards anyone who gets in his way; Agnès’s feelings of unrequited love and her conflicting position between what she wants and what she needs to do–everything is portrayed so clearly and powerfully that you don’t even need the dialogue to understand what is going on. And those last three panels of Agnès at the end of the volume? Extraordinary.
The Bad
The only bad parts about this manga are not being able to recommend it to everyone because of the content and the fact that the magic system doesn’t get fleshed out or explained.
The Spice (Contains Spoilers)
Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way With You doesn’t sprinkle the spice on–it dumps it like a child given free rein over the Ready Whip can for their ice cream. Over 30 pages of this ~170-page manga are devoted to showcasing Agnès and Luc’s affair in great detail (except for the mosaics that cover Luc’s fun bits, but even those leave hardly anything to the imagination). And the best part of this sundae is that there’s more than just scoops of vanilla!
The manga has quite a few dark and mature themes that make it unsuitable for all readers, and this is a title where content warnings need to be read by anyone thinking of picking it up.
The very first sex scene is possibly the most problematic. In it, Agnès casts a spell so that Lucilleur cannot speak or move. She dumps him on a bed, then proceeds to rape him. Because of the spell, Luc is unable to say no or fight back, and with some added problematic dialogue, this scene by itself should come with a warning label.
In another scene, after Luc has found Agnès and brought her back to the palace, she is handcuffed to a bed and he threatens her with a dagger. While cutting away the top of her dress, Agnès’s skin is nicked accidentally, and there is a little blood. This sex scene and the following ones fall into a hazy dubcon situation. While she’s being held prisoner and is being taken advantage of by Luc, Agnès’s love and desire for him physically is a prevailing plot point, blurring the lines between consent and assault.
Towards the end of the volume, Lilie attempts to drug Agnès and have a guard rape her while she’s incapacitated. This plan fails, and not long after, Agnès runs out onto the balcony where she jumps off in an attempt to kill herself. The volume ends with her falling.
The Verdict
Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way With You is a messy, dark romance full of blurred lines, horrible people, and depraved plots, which make it unsuitable for all readers. But on the flip side, it’s all of those same points that made me love this josei so much. The external political struggles along with the internal emotional ones made this manga one of my favorite reads of this year, and I cannot wait for the next volume.
If you liked Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way With You, you might like…
- Outbride: Beauty and the Beasts
- Fire in His Fingertips
- The Villainess and the Demon Knight
You can purchase volume 1 of Before You Discard Me, I Shall Have My Way With You on Amazon, Bookshop, Crunchyroll Store, and Barnes & Noble.
Credits
Art by Selen
Original Story by Takako Midori
Character Designs by Mami Surada
Translation by Amber Tamosaitis
Lettering by Giuseppe Antonio Fusco
Cover Design by M. A. Lewife
Copy Editor Leighanna DeRouen
Proofreader Alyssa Honsowetz
Production Designer Stevie Wilson
Editor Suzanne Seals
Published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment
The Good
- Fantastically written characters
- Beautiful and highly expressive artwork
- Interesting plot that deviates from other Steamship titles
The Bad
- Content makes this manga unsuitable for all readers
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