A beautiful story of two women's contrasting lives

Introduction

Pride follows a group of three artists raised by single parents as they develop from the start of their careers, where they have talent but not experience until they have developed into fully formed people. The cast includes Moe: a child of a single mother with dreams of making it in opera, Shio: the daughter of a now-deceased opera singer who struggles under her mother’s legacy, and Ranmaru a young pianist who is looking for his place in the world.

Characterization

The way that Yukari Ichijo plays the cast off each other to show their strengths and weaknesses is incredible. From the start, you have a very clear idea of everyone’s personalities and goals which only makes the changes they experience throughout the Manga feel more incredible. Ichijo is keenly aware of where the audience's sympathies will naturally lie and abuses this to subvert expectations throughout the story. The result is a product that values the humanity of individuals instead of a perfunctory moral judgment and feels incredible for it. Even minor characters stand out a lot for me in particular Pavarotti who you can feel the warmth radiating off of in his design and way of speaking. Fumiko is another standout, serving a similar but very different role.

Plot

The plot does a great job of highlighting the differences between their worldviews while giving the characters opportunities to develop. The result is a wide-feeling story that allows you to experience the changes over the months throughout its 100 chapters. Particularly I found it surprising how well surprise upsets are integrated, something that many mangakas struggle to avoid feeling arbitrary. Their arbitrary nature is acknowledged within the framework of the story for the fact of life that they are and they serve as the growth opportunities they would in real life. However, I do feel some of these events didn’t need to be repeated and could’ve been replaced with a similar but different disaster. Regardless the result is a plot that is heartwarming, gut-wrenching, and joyful with expert callbacks to previous situations to show change.

Thematics

As the title suggests, the theme is the tension between pride and ambition. Moe represents the ambition of someone who has nothing and feels constantly under attack, while Shio has an almost inhuman pride. These aspects are not static but subject to change, and the Manga’s exploration of how these traits impact their lives and reactions to opportunities and setbacks is very well done.

Art

I found the art to be spectacular in Pride with the backgrounds feeling detailed and well-integrated and the character design being stellar. With the exception of Professor Rudi who was at first hard to follow due to his stage persona’s swapped gender, it’s immediately clear who everyone is despite outfit, situation, and hair changes and you can feel their personalities.

Conclusion

Pride is a character drama that works in the very best way and manages to keep me heavily engaged with its themes and characters. The choice to play the leads off of each other to show their development is an old formula but is accomplished so expertly that it feels brand new. Combined with stellar art and good plot direction the resulting piece is something incredible. If you are interested in these types of stories I strongly suggest you give it a chance as there’s nothing else quite like it that I’ve read so far. 9/10