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Manhwa Review: The Tyrant’s Only Perfumer

Story by Fairy Dragon
Art by Team DEAD SHELL
Genre: Isekai, Historical, Romance, Comedy
Chapters: 87 + 3 side story
Status: Completed
Read it on Tappytoon (Please support the author)
My Rating: ★★★★ ☆ (4/5 Stars)

STORY:

A young woman sick with an incurable illness closes her eyes for the last time, only to wake up as Ariel Winston, an antagonist of the novel she had loved reading before her death. Knowing that death lies before her if she continues down the path the real Ariel has been going towards, she quickly breaks up with Duke Cedric Evans, who is not only the protagonist of the novel, but a man who is cursed with a condition which causes him to become bloodthirsty when he does not smell a specific scent constantly. However, Cedric, who had been forced to date Ariel due to her status as his personal perfumer, suddenly seems reluctant to distance himself from her. Just what is wrong with this man, and how will this change the events of the novel? Will Ariel be able to live the life she wants?


NOTE: This is a review and may contain spoilers.

REVIEW:

Quick summary/My thoughts:
The art is beautiful and gets better after season 2. The outfit everyone wears, especially the Female Lead, Ariel is beautiful. When a new perfume is introduced, the perfume bottle are amazing! My favourite scene is when the perfume is first sprayed in the air and whoever smells it (most of the time her personal maid), the next scene was funny because the character is overjoyed and they image been teleported to a different location. It was cute and funny.
The Female Lead is ambitious but I wouldn’t call her smart because she tends to think of a plan and just hopes for the best and walks straight ahead. The Male Lead is one of those men, that does a 180 degree backflip when the FL acts different and then throughout the story he is always trying help her. But with the OG Ariel he wouldn't lift a finger or glace at her.
Overall, there are funny moments and if you continue with this story, it will be for the art and perfume bottle designs. Not so much for the story and romance side of things.

Story:
This is a isekai story. The Female Lead does not get hit by Truck-kun, instead she dies from sickness in a hospital (which you will find out in chapter 1). She wakes up in an online novel, which she was reading before she died.
The Female Lead was quick thinking and she didn’t want to end up like the original story, which is getting hanged. She decides to break off her relationship with the Male Lead, Duke Cedric Evans and focuses on making lots of money with talented skill to stay alive.
Like most stories, because the Female Lead attitude has changed, she has now caught the Male Lead’s attention and that is how he will fall in love with her bit by bit.
Throughout the story it introduced her rival, Fonta Magnus. Female Lead and Fonta Magnus goes head to head with owning a shop. Most of the time Fonta Magnus is stealing ideas from the Female Lead. It gets tiring watching them go back and forth with each other.
As the story advances, the female lead keeps getting ideas for new perfumes and goes out to get certain ingredients. But no matter where she goes or what she does, the male lead is always there to help her or guide her in the right dirtection.
Once the main story finishes, the author gave us 3 side stories, which focus on their wedding.
The main story near the end felt rushed. After the female lead gets kidnapped at the ball, everything after that goes by really quick. The author added a flash back of the original female lead and male lead as children. I don’t know if that part was needed because it left a lot of unanswered questions.
Like, what happen to the original female lead? Did she die?
If they were together as kids and original female lead LOVE the male lead, then why was he being so cold towards her.
Overall, the story was nice to read but don’t expect a lot of romance. You have to wait a while for their first kiss. The male lead never really expressed he’s love. He kept on questioning he’s feelings.

Characters:
The Female Lead, Ariel Winston is ambitious and she wants to change her ending straight away, so she doesn't die by getting hanged. Which I appreciate instead of waiting 10+ chapters for something to happen. But her plans aren't very logical, so it is best to turn your brain off and just go with it when you are reading this manhwa. I do like the Female Lead and she isn’t annoying. Her main plan is to buy and open up a store and make money. Although she runs into the problem of not having enough money to buy small shop, so the florist told her to get an investor. Can you guess who that will be? Yes, it’s the Male Lead.
The Female Lead has a good judgement in character, like when she was hiring staff for her shop. She chose dedication and passionate people over upper class people who knew nothing.

There’s only one Male Lead in this story, Duke Cedric Evans. At the beginning of the story, he becomes the ex boyfriend, but after the female lead stops giving him attention, it made him rethink about he’s feelings. Male Lead is a caring character and helps protect the Female Lead throughout the story.
Although he's personality falls flat because he doesn't express he's feelings much and follows her around. He’s not very interesting BUT he has a hot body.

The 5th prince was added as a potential Male Lead . At the beginning is self centered and had stupid ideas. Like when he wanted to make the Female Lead fall in love with him, even though he had join forces with the competitor. As the story moves along, he has a character grows and he cleans up he’s act.

Fonta Magnus was introduced as the rival. She is jealous of Female Lead from the very start and creates the same perfumes as Female Lead, which shows she doesn't have any ideas of her own. It's nice to have a bit of rivalry but it drags on in this story.

Female Lead father is annoying because he doesn’t appreciate her talent and calls it a useless hobby and wants to marry her for money to an old men. I don't think this story mentioned about her mother.

The minor characters like Female Lead’s maid and the knight are the comic relief in the story. They are funny and loveable characters. Both characters are dedicated to serving the Female Lead.

Art:
The art style is beautiful from beginning to end. The artist was very detailed when designing clothes. The Female Lead has a wonderful wardrobe and minor characters also gets to wear pretty outfits too.
I felt like everyone was very pretty in this story (minus Female Lead’s dad), like the knight, bad guy and personal maid.
If you don’t like the story, you will stay for the gorgeous perfume bottle design.

I’ll this post with this gorgeous perfume bottles. Have I convinced you to read the manhwa? (^-^)

The bottles are so pretty!