白聖女と黒牧師

SAINT CECILIA AND PASTOR LAWRENCE

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
April 20, 2017
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

Saint Cecilia is beloved by the townspeople—not only is she elegant and composed, she benevolently shares her wisdom with all who seek it. That is, until the last person has left—at which point she becomes totally hopeless! Only Pastor Lawrence, is keeping the Saint put together enough to do her duties...and though she may test him, it's all in a day's work!

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CAST

Cecilia
Lawrence
Frederica
Hazelita Aldridge
Abel
Mel
Gieselbert Aldridge
Erik

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO SAINT CECILIA AND PASTOR LAWRENCE

Cover Art for Saint Cecilia & Pastor Lawrence

ANIME ComedySaint Cecilia & Pastor Lawrence

REVIEWS

R2R
75/100
A Feel-good Fluff in a Fantasy tale
https://anilist.co/manga/107112/Saint-Cecilia-and-Pastor-Lawrence/ ___
An incredibly oblivious & overprotective pastor 'Lawrence' and the lazy & loving saint 'Cecilia', treasure one another's company as they live together in a church.

The entire story is about the two main characters, their daily life activities, and their interactions with other characters. It's part slice-of-life story that portrays the themes of love and kindness, and part love story that gradually reveals each of the main character's personalities and develops the relationship between them. The remaining gets their own spotlight, but even their characterization is mostly tied to the protagonists in one way or other. There are hints of a side romance, but it didn't dwell on it too much (so far).

Though it's a slice-of-life/romance, I think a better term to describe it would be an 'Iyashikei' (Think of something like Natsume, except it's more of a romance). Iyashikei stories are feel-good series that are meant to relax the viewer/reader, and an obvious technique to do so, is to progress the plot slowly, letting the audience connect with the characters, setting, and world. The comedy is giggly type. It might not burst you into laughter, but it can make you smile like an idiot.

Each chapter can be read in an average of 3-5 minutes. Half or more than half of the chapter will be filled with easily readable and funny character interactions in 4-koma format which basically builds the setting for that chapter, while the rest of the chapter uses that setting and puts more emphasis on the drama side, like talking about someone's past, their own feelings, etc. which are often filled with plain characterization.

The fantasy element isn't something extravagant that is filled with different types of creatures or power systems but is more akin to a fairy tale, like the fairies which only exist as small glowing orbs of light or the protection spell that the saint often blesses with. And the art is gorgeous, perfectly capturing the magic and innocence within the story and characters.

Summary

As I said before, the plot progression is slow, and so far, it mostly takes the romcom route but didn't dwell on the fantasy part too much and leaves some important backstories in the dark.
If you like the overprotective-tall-guy-and-clingy-short-girl combo, then read this, or wait for the Anime adaptation that's going to air on Summer 2023.
If you don't like the 'clearly in love but are not realizing it' or 'dense main character' kind of love story, then you probably won't like it.

I guess the mangaka, Hazano Kazutake, likes this overprotective-tall-guy-and-clingy-short-girl stereotype because his other work, The Fairytale-Like You Goes On the Assault, is pretty much same as this, except its high school romance. I would also recommend that if you like this one.
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