Seeking a way back to her world, Anna becomes a maid at the infamous "Swan's Grave." When the marquis mistakes her for his vanished wife and offers a forbidden bargain, Anna is drawn into the haunting legacy of the Lorengreen house.

Swan's Grave has a story by Antstudio and art by Antstudio and gumul.. English localization by Manta. Published by Manta (March 3, 2026). Rated M.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

The Gothic novel's heyday was in the late 18th century, its revival in the 1970s, and apparently it's once again having a moment in the 2020s – and Swan's Grave is a pretty stunning example of how to update an archaic genre. (Although I daresay it would make Ann Radcliffe, grande dame of the 18th century Gothics, swoon as if she'd peeked behind a black veil in a moldering castle.) Borrowing liberally from Swan Lake and the contemporary isekai genre, Antstudio's dark tale is the sort of story that, if you stop and think about it, doesn't work at all. But if you just go with the insanity, it pulls you in before you quite know what's happening.

The plot follows Anna Lee, a Korean college student who, along with her boyfriend Seunghyun Jo, winds up in a fantasy world reminiscent of 19th-century Europe. They end up on the estate of Marquis Rothbart Lorengreen, a man who has been mourning his mysterious wife, Lianna, for a decade. Lianna was a “swan,” which in this otherworld is basically the romanticization of an isekai'd woman, blending the whole “holy maiden” summoning plotline with the worldwide fairy tale of the celestial maiden/selkie. Like a proper Gothic protagonist, he's locked up Lianna's chambers and forbidden anyone entry…although as Anna discovers when she steals the key and sneaks in hoping to find a way back to her world, he routinely goes in there for a little masturbation in front of his wife's portrait. And of course, it turns out that Lianna didn't die at all; she went back to her world, and Rothbart is determined to summon her back.

As you may have noticed, “Lianna” sounds a lot like Anna's name in Korean name order – “Lee Anna.” If I were a betting woman, I'd say that Lianna and Anna are the same person, and that Rothbart did, unknowingly, manage to summon his wife back, just from an earlier time or a parallel timeline. His son, Svanhild, sure seems certain that the maid Anna is his mom, and if Rothbart himself isn't sure, he's got zero compunctions about sleeping with Anna and making her his second marchioness. Meanwhile, Anna and Seunghyun have been masquerading as siblings rather than a couple, which is almost certainly going to complicate things…

If you've ever read an 18th-century Gothic, this sort of plot insanity will be familiar. Seriously, no one could throw plot twist after plot twist into a story like an 18th-century Gothic novelist. This one is very much in that tradition, although substantially racier (though readers of The Monk might disagree), with several explicit sex scenes throughout the first eight chapters. It also features noncon/dubcon (your interpretation may vary), so it's not going to be for all readers. Still, if you like attractively dark art, a plot that only makes sense if you don't think about it too hard, and a brooding hero, run over to Manta, because you're going to love this one.

Bolts
Rating:

Reading this story made me feel wildly uncomfortable. Have you ever read something that felt like it was specifically engineered to make sure no one had a happy ending? That's what I was thinking when I read the first couple of chapters of this story because every time I turned the page, it felt like things were just getting progressively worse for all involved. This ultimately is a story of tragedy, about a woman and her boyfriend, transported to an alternate world, and they need to keep it a secret. However, it turns out that there is a lot of mystery revolving around the lead and her mother, who might have ties to this world, along with the evil-looking lord of the manor that she is now working for. That is a solid mystery, but those elements are tied together by some really problematic tropes.

This woman's existence is the definition of depression and anxiety. In a lot of ways, I find that relatable, but oh my God, this woman's life is never going to be easy, given the overall premise. It's implied that she was going to kill herself before she got transported to this world, and you would think that being transported to an alternate world would offer a new opportunity for life, but instead, I feel like this woman is just being driven further to despair. Her forced sexual relations with the master of the house that she serves are upsetting, especially when it's brought about by pheromones outside of her control, and this creates a problematic ripple effect on future dynamics. I don't know if the story is going for an NTR angle, or if it genuinely wants me to feel bad for the lord of the manor, who seems broken up over the loss of his wife, but I don't trust that this is a story designed to make me feel good unless I have these particular fetishes.

Facial expressions are incredibly intense, and while I'm not a big fan of the body proportions for the guys as they look a bit too unrealistically built, the use of red and dark colors really emphasizes the despair of what is going on. I especially like the detail of how a lot of backgrounds are presented monochromatically to reflect the protagonist's depression, but instead of using color to emphasize happier moments, color is almost used to emphasize just how dangerous certain things are. It's a really well-presented story, but I'm not quite sure where its intentions lie, and that can definitely be a good thing to keep me surprised. However, there isn't a lot of fulfillment in reading the early chapters of this story outside of the enticing mystery and considering that this mystery is revolved around some pretty daunting and explicit subject matter like a forced sexual relationship alongside the destruction of a potentially good relationship that was established before the story even started, I'm not sure if I can quite stomach this one. But who knows, maybe you might.