Well, although the author’s name sounds Korean (SilentMaru), it seems the webtoon is originally English, so no original Korean name this time. It’s a complete webtoon, with 101 chapters and available for free to read on webtoon. Please note that this a review and not really a recommendation. Then, let’s dive into it right away.
Shimizu Anya is the child of world’s best two tennis players. And hence, she carries this weight of expectations around her to be the best in tennis as well. She might not have been as passionate about tennis as her parents might have wanted her to be, but provoking from this kid called Axel Koizumi ignites a fire within her to conquer him and become the best. The guy Axel, on the other hand, seems to be an effortless genius in tennis, who doesn’t need much effort to overpower Anya, much to the chagrin of the girl. And thus starts a journey, of the girl, to show everyone how her genes and hard work can lead to her taking the crown of tennis queen of the world.
If we go into depth a bit, Anya is your everyday girl and I relate a lot to her, especially as an Asian kid. This excelling in every field in school and developing rivalry with your classmates hits home too hard.
And Axel is that guy who doesn’t seem to be working as hard as you but still winning at life more than you. He has his own past and problems for sure. But, you can’t help but feel jealous. He helps Anya become better overtime. Oh man! This takes me back to my school days.
Again, the backdrop of the story is quite common. To sum it up in one line, it’s just a girl’s one sided rivalry dating back to her childhood days which leads to a lifelong love. Now that we have got that out of the way, let’s talk about the plus points of the webtoon. I just love the art of this one. Aesthetically pleasing, amazing use of colors, as close to real world as it could be. Sometimes can be too shiny but still lovely.
Plot starts great, there is good character development for Anya and Axel both initially. A lot of chapters come with background music on the official website, so that’s a plus too, gives another dimension to the whole thing. For people, who are interested, there are too many pictures to drool over, it’s got that great an art.
Too bad, oh, too bad. The author fell ill towards the end of the webtoon. They might have fell ill earlier but I guess the pressure of releasing the chapters each week took a toll and apparently an old injury came to haunt them back. The abrupt ending of the webtoon led to a lot of complaints and frustration from readers.
The plot reduced to a bunch of unfinished story lines, deviating from the tennis arena altogether and just focusing on the relationships between the characters. Which might not be that bad but departing from the whole premise is just, basically, crumbling down the whole thing. None of the characters got their deserved ending (actually any ending), and we readers were left with hundreds and thousands of questions.
However much high rating I wanna give this webtoon, I just cannot bring myself to give it a good rating nor can I bring myself to rate it too poorly. Now that I think about it, I probably actually vested myself into it. So, if you come across this webtoon, and find yourself enjoying it, just tread with caution. I’ll warn you against the disappointment you’re in for.
I just hope, as every other fan, that the author gets well soon and provides us with an alternative ending, may be a season 2? But who knows. For now, it is what it is. The unfortunate thing about this webtoon is, there is no one to blame for. It was great at the beginning. It had unlimited potential to become one of the best webtoons out there. But well, unfortunate things happen, this is life.
So, there you go.
Conclusion: Great art, awesome characters, cliche story, poor ending. I will rate it 5/10 just because I put so much time into it. In terms of number of chapters though, it is, well short. And I like it that way, so I shouldn’t be complaining much about it.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention but there are too many hot scenes in this one, so I would suggest reading it with discretion.
Final Feelings: ╮(╯ _╰ )╭
Read here: Ecstasy Hearts on Webtoons.com
Personal Section: Nothing much to write here. It has been truly hard to juggle everything with my lack of sleep. But I am finally getting Fridays off, so I have something to celebrate lol.
I’m heading out to my Sunday work after finishing this post real fast. Everyone, let’s look forward to Thanksgiving holidays where it is celebrated.
Tis the season of winter, a chill is running down everywhere, including my relationship with some people. Hope, spring comes soon 😀
Today’s song: Let’s go with this guy, I don’t even know why I chose it:
Many webtoons ended this year, I dropped almost all of the ones I was reading because updates were really slow. Same with manga. I dropped Dice, Thousand Nine Tails, TAL, City of Dead Sorcerer, Skip Beat, Haikyuu (Damnit! Didn’t know they were these many) I am still waiting for Barakamon updates. I started reading Tsubaki-chou lonely planet, again courtesy to my sister. Another one is Fujiwara-kun no Daitai Tadashii, because I was translating it.
The Joys and Worries of an East Asia Lover 