My comment title says it all. This story used to be so charming, with nice ambiance and art, likeable characters, and a story that was fairly interesting. The best thing about this story is the cute but pure romance between Shirayuki and Zen. It's nice reading about healthy relationships where the couple respect and love each other. It's so rare in shoujo, and the unique, pretty, and clean art only boosts this story's fluffy pureness.
Then the story becomes stale and dragged out. Recent arcs have too much story time put on Shirayuki doing academic research (which is quite boring, honestly, after several volumes of it (which takes years for the mangaka to make), and I read this for entertainment, not the work I have to do in real life). Compared to the first few story arcs, which were exciting with an interesting and unique plot, the current arcs really pale in comparison. It's derailed into a slice of life that's pretty dull.
There's also not enough interesting character interaction happening. And by that, I mean our main couple don't even get to see each other for months! This translates to several volumes of chapters with them being apart, which is equivalent to years of waiting in the readers' real world. The main issue is that the charm of this story is Zen and Shirayuki's interactions with each other, which lasted several story arcs in the beginning. Their romance took centre stage, so it gives hope for readers to see more of that, but recent arcs fail to deliver on that aspect.
Obi and Shirayuki also have way too much screen time together in the recent arcs. I get the feeling the author wants to nurture second-male-lead syndrome in the readers, but that's the author setting a writing trap for herself (imho). I also like Obi's character so I don't want to see him stuck in this unrequited love situation for 15 years and counting (2006-2021). Shirayuki and Zen are already set in stone as the lovely main couple in the story, so Obi being with Shirayuki is only going to happen if:
a) Shirayuki has a change of heart (unlikely),
or
b) Zen dies and Shirayuki moves on and falls for Obi (which isn't likely either).
The chances of Shirayuki having a change of heart is as likely as cats turning into dogs since that's not the character profile the author set up for her (so it's not going to happen unless her character does a 180). And if it does happen, it will be seen as cheating, which is out of sync with her personality, and the readers are not going to like the cheating or change in character. Besides, this manga's genre isn't the angsty drama type so it doesn't make sense to go there either, plot-wise.
In short, watching Obi and Shirayuki having so much screen time together without Zen is like watching sizzling meat never becoming fully cooked (and this applies to both ships, whether you ship Shirayuki with Zen or with Obi). This is happening for years now in real time, so readers are going to feel frustrated with this development (or lack thereof) when all they have in the meantime is stale dry research to read about. It gives the impression the author wants to keep milking this story. I don't fault the author for doing this though. This story is the author's livelihood since it has a big readership, which means $$ for the author. And that's fine. I just don't like the author not having better writing skills when she needs to stretch the story out to make it last a few more years. Because the initial readership is not going to last if she keeps this up.
I've been reading this since 2013 so recent developments are quite disappointing after so much waiting. I'll probably just read the ending (and that would likely be years away from now, at the rate the mangaka is making this (T_T)
This story went from 9/10 to 7/10 but I'll wait for that ending to adjust my rating.
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