Moon Boy 6 by Lee YoungYou: C+

March 8, 2009 by 3 Comments

From the back cover:
The Black Rabbit disappears again, this time leaving behind the Fox Tribe’s only means of tracking him! Worried that the tribal elders will discover the truth, student council members Sa-Eun and Jin-Soo split up in a frantic search for their ward… only to find themselves facing off against the most improbable of enemies! After this battle, will the student council ever be the same?

Review:
Wow, things actually happened in this volume. Unfortunately, they weren’t the most coherent of things, but progress is progress, I suppose.

The most major event is that Yu-Da stops acting like he’s still under the foxes’ spell and allies himself with… some people. I cannot tell whether they’re foxes or rabbits or what, but their leader is the same guy (now possessing a schoolgirl’s body) who made it possible for Yu-Da to regain his own consciousness at age fifteen. They’ve liberated a bunch of low-level, animal-like foxes and have some kind of agenda. That’s about as specific as I can be about it, since it’s all very muddled.

Belatedly, some backstory is superimposed upon a couple of the foxes on the student council, but it’s rather too little too late. It would’ve been nice if either of these two had had much personality before one ends up betraying the other, or if we’d had some notion of the real depth of their history together before that happened.

Moon Boy really has a making-it-up-as-I-go-along kind of feel to it. True, we’ve seen a couple of members of this new gang for a little while now, and heard about the leader, too, but it just doesn’t feel… final. This volume is a lot more serious than those before it, which I appreciate, but I’d like it more if I could feel confident that we’re approaching a planned-out ending, and not just veering randomly down another ambling path.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manhwa Tagged With:

Moon Boy 5 by Lee YoungYou: C

March 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Having survived the battle with the Soon-La renegades, Myung-Ee can’t remember anything about the fight! In her quest to know what really happened, she finds herself crossing paths with Sa-Eun more than once. Though he stays silent about the battle, he lets slip a shocking secret about himself to his rabbit adversary! Meanwhile, Yu-Da has returned safely with the help of two mysterious friends… who appear to be intent on wreaking havoc on both the Rabbit and Fox tribes! Is the Black Rabbit slipping away from Myung-Ee for good?

Review:
The plot of this series really is meandering now. Here we are in volume five, and nothing has really happened. Yes, Myung-Ee’s skills are developing. But otherwise Yu-Da’s exactly where he was (in the Fox tribe’s clutches) and nothing has progressed at all.

We do get clarification that Yu-Da really is faking the sunny personality he has around the foxes, since the spell on him wore off when he turned fifteen. This isn’t really inconsistent with what’s come before, but I don’t even care, since at least it makes Yu-Da’s present situation clear at last. One does wonder, however, if Yu-Da is himself and has all these powers, why doesn’t he, like, escape?

It seems like there’s less of the unfunny comedy in this volume, but maybe that’s because the last few chapters actually weren’t that bad and I’ve managed to forget some of the stupid crap that happened early on. One thing that bugs me is that one of the newly-arrived rabbit reinforcements is really about eleven years old but is taking a growing potion in order to attend high school with Myung-Ee and the others. And yet he’s drawn in a “sexy” way in some of the splash pages. It’s disconcerting.

Some other random things bugged me, too. At one point, Myung-Ee resolves that she’s not being true to herself if she doesn’t tell Yu-Da’s one secret advantage (that the foxes’ spell on him wore off) to one of the foxes. Why the hell?! Thankfully, she doesn’t do it (yet). Also, there are some really annoying fan girls of Yu-Da and his fox buddy, with whom Myung-Ee has clashed several times. But yet she can send a text message to this fan club president, meaning she’s actually asked for this girl’s cell phone number? Perhaps I’m thinking too much about some stupid gag, but it irks me.

Some new characters are introduced and some new facts are revealed about existing characters, but I really just do not care. Probably you won’t either, so I’ll spare you the details.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manhwa Tagged With:

Moon Boy 4 by Lee YoungYou: C-

March 6, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Myung-Ee succeeds in enraging the student council—especially Sa-Eun—by confronting them about Yu-Da. But when the Black Rabbit is kidnapped during the school festival, she finds herself transported to a strange place… with none other than Sa-Eun! As an attack from an unexpected assailant forces the two enemies into a corner, will they be able to put their differences aside and fight for their lives together?!

Review:
Ugh. School festival. If I never read another school festival chapter ever again, it’ll be too soon. This one is especially stupid, since it’s a transparent attempt to get the two male leads in drag.

There are more problems than just that, however.
1. The character Mok-Hee is utterly useless. He’s ostensibly an accomplished spy but does nothing except ogle women. I gather this is supposed to be funny, but it’s just really, really stupid.

2. The story is beginning to show internal inconsistencies. In an earlier volume, it was mentioned that Yu-Da’s transformation from happy-go-lucky (the personality imprinted upon him by the fox tribe elders) and his true self takes a long time. Now he can seemingly switch back and forth with ease, and there’s some throwaway line about how the spell on him lifted when he turned seventeen. Also, all we had ever heard about Yu-Da’s precious liver was that it would be at its most effective (in its immortality-granting powers) when he reaches adulthood. Suddenly, a new reason for the wait is introduced: now his liver is supposedly “deathly poisonous” until fully developed.

3. Towards the end there’s a fight scene and I have absolutely no idea what is going on.

This is the first volume published by Yen Press and they’ve done a good job replicating Ice Kunion’s packaging. Too bad the cover image is so garish. I can’t even begin to describe it; we’d need James Lileks for the job.

The only slightly good scene is when Myung-Ee confronts the foxes about what they’re doing to Yu-Da, since he is supposedly their friend. Any merits are completely obliterated by the sudden, laughably bad crying jag her words elicit from one of the foxes, however.

I had hoped this series would get better as it went along, but now it seems it’s on the opposite path.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manhwa Tagged With:

Moon Boy 3 by Lee YoungYou: C+

March 3, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
For the first time, Myung-Ee falls into a real fight against the Fox Tribe. She is determined to do whatever she can to protect Yu-Da from all the hungry foxes, but instead she encounters the “Black” Yu-Da! How can this be? Is Yu-Da’s memory back, or was he just faking?!

Review:
The phrase “hungry foxes” conjures to mind the Festrunk brothers from SNL’s early days, who were always on the prowl to meet some “swinging American foxes.”

What a mixed bag this volume is. While I used to kind of like Ya-ho, the pet cat of Ho-Rang (the young-looking kendo captain/elite rabbit warrior) who can turn into a girl with poor language skills, she really got on my nerves in this volume. Absolutely none of the attempts at comedy succeeded in amusing me. This includes Mok-hee, a pervy fellow who up ’til now has been imprisoned in a mystical cigarette or something, but now gets set free to work his surveillance mojo and report on Myung-Ee, since she basically announced to the fox-filled Student Council that she’s one of their prey in the previous volume. All of his antics are excruciatingly boring.

Also seemingly worse is the art. There’s one action scene where I cannot tell at all what’s going on. There’s a streak of movement and a “SHUKK!” sound effect followed by spectator reactions, so obviously something happened, but I couldn’t tell what. Also, somewhere towards the end of the last volume, Myung-Ee seems to’ve grown one of those stupid moe plumes atop her head.

And yet, out of this jumble emerges a couple of chapters that are actually pretty good. Mok-hee summons a bunch of lower-level foxes to attack Myung-Ee just at the same moment that Yu-Da has gone to inquire about the Kendo Club’s festival plans. Myung-Ee witnesses Yu-Da go into “black” mode and essentially cause all of his opponents’ chests to explode. When Yu-Da later tries to erase her memory, he’s unsuccessful.

In the next chapter, after the aforementioned confusing combat scene, there’s a rather nifty bit where a wounded guy is thinking about how much he loves Myung-Ee but won’t tell her until he’s more of a man, and meanwhile the crying Myung-Ee is thinking how horrible she is for being more concerned about Yu-Da than the guy who got hurt on her behalf.

It’s these scattered moments of almost goodness that keep this series from being intolerably dull.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manhwa Tagged With:

Moon Boy 2 by Lee YoungYou: C+

March 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Myung-Ee decides to rescue Yu-Da from the fox tribe! She begins by journeying to Junghyun mountain to join the Soon-La army. But first she must pass a test of pain and endurance. Meanwhile, more secrets are revealed about the “kind and gentle” Yu-Dai…

Review:
This volume is pretty boring overall, but had just enough stuff going on that I have some interest in continuing. Partly, I have this wish that all the stupid “comedy” bits will be dispensed with at some point as the story grows more serious, but that’s probably futile.

Anyways, more is explained about the Soon-La army, then Myung-Ee heads to the training academy. As an “earth rabbit,” more like a human that other rabbits, her long ears do not sprout when she gets there, but she still manages to be super awesome and conjure a sword in a matter of minutes where other students have taken a year to do the same. That part is standard fantasy fare, so it’s okay, but the instructor is a crossdresser, so that had to be milked for all that it was worth and then some.

The other big plot revolves around the mystery fox girl (Seo-Wha) from the last volume, who has an obsessive love for one of the foxes guarding Yu-Da. She’s a pain in the ass to everyone the entire volume, yet the only worthwhile thing she actually does is cause Yu-Da to show that there’s some other, powerful, personality sharing his body that Yu-Da is probably not aware of.

Moon Boy is a quick read, but I’d like it better if the story itself were more streamlined. None of the characters are well-developed, yet more are still being added. Plus, the art is not my cup of tea. Still, it sometimes surprises me, as with one very nice panel of Myung-Ee and Seo-Wha as black silhouettes against the lights of a city at night. Overall, I don’t hate this series, but neither would I particularly recommend it.

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manhwa Tagged With:

Moon Boy 1 by Lee YoungYou: C+

March 1, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Apart from the fact that her eyes turn red when the moon rises, Myung-Ee is your average, albeit boy crazy, 5th grader. After picking a fight with her classmate Yu-Da Lee, she discovers a startling secret: the two of them are “earth rabbits” being hunted by the “fox tribe” of the moon!

Five years pass and Myung-Ee transfers to a new school in search of pretty boys. There, she unexpectedly reunited with Yu-Da. The problem is, he mysteriously doesn’t remember a thing about her or their shared past at all!

Review:
The back cover blurb actually says, “Apart from the fact the color of her eyes turn red when moon rises…” This does not bode well.

Actually, though, I thought I would dislike this, but I don’t. It has problems, but it’s better than I expected. Aside from its grammatical errors, the back cover blurb covers the initial story pretty well. Myung-Ee is an “earth rabbit,” as was her childhood classmate Yu-Da before he vanished and everybody but Myung-Ee forgot he ever existed. After she runs into him at her new school, various people impart the rest of the story to her: Yu-Da is actually a “black rabbit,” whose liver (oh yes, the foxes eat the rabbits’ livers) can grant immortality. His memory has been wiped and he’s guarded by a Student Council full of fox tribe folks who are just waiting for him to achieve adulthood.

Meanwhile, the Kendo Club is helmed by some guy who claims to be a warrior in an army that wants to protect Yu-Da. He’s in 12th grade, but he looks about nine, collects Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and is prone to weeping. Wacky, eh? Anyway, they need one more member or their club will be shut down by the Student Council. Guess who volunteers? Oh, and Myung-Ee gets bullied by some girls, too. And her new friend is really a cat.

And there’s where Moon Boy loses me some. The basic plot is out there, but it makes enough internal sense that it doesn’t annoy me. But the art is problematic—people who’re supposedly short not looking short, astoundingly improbable hairstyles, jarringly unattractive “comedic” moments—and the cast, while manageable at first, bloats rather rapidly in the last couple of chapters. All of a sudden there’s some fox queen on the moon and some random chick making cryptic remarks in the shadows. I kind of don’t want to have to think this much and remember this many plot threads for the likes of Moon Boy.

Lastly, I end with a quote. I have a certain fondness for noting combinations of words that’ve probably never been written or spoken before, and Moon Boy comes up with a doozy. Enjoy!

Never mind all that earth rabbit stuff right now. I have to get my panties!

Filed Under: Fantasy, Manhwa Tagged With:

Hissing 4-5 by Kang EunYoung: B

February 23, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Da-Eh Lee is an aspiring manhwa artist and takes her work seriously. Her feisty attitude attracts the attention of two highly sought-after boys in school—Sun-Nam, who is kind at heart but tries to act tough, and Ta-Jun, who is listless, taunting, and angsty simultaneously. After many antagonistic encounters, Da-Eh and Sun-Nam begin dating, but just as things seem to be going well, Sun-Nam realizes that the half-brother he’s been searching for (the product of his father’s affair with another woman) is Da-Eh’s little brother, Da-Hwa.

Hissing was a hard series for me to get into at first; I was turned off by the blond and sultry looks bequeathed to practically every male character (including ten-year-old Da-Hwa) and by the disjointed nature of the narrative. Somewhere along the way, though, it really grew on me. Certain things still annoy me—Da-Eh’s reaction to the big revelation of the family connection is pretty nonsensical, for instance—but overall, I enjoy it. Da-Eh and her admirers remind me a bit of Tsukushi Makino and the F4 from Boys Over Flowers, which may be part of the appeal. Hissing can also be amusing, but not so much in these two volumes, which are more serious in tone.

It’s also hard not to sympathize with Da-Hwa. Neglected by his family but solicitously eager to earn their attention, he doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere and always blames himself when things go wrong. Even though he appears less often than the other characters, he really is the heart of the series.

Hissing definitely has its flaws, but they grow less glaring with time. The fact that I disliked volume one but am now eager to read the sixth and final volume is proof of that.

Review copies provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Manhwa Tagged With:

Hissing 3 by Kang EunYoung: B-

February 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Despite the fact that Ha-Ra seemed to look a lot like Da-Eh, Sun-Nam is now getting sick and tired of her. And all he can think about is Da-Eh. Meanwhile, Ta-Jun cannot stop picking on Da-Eh, which seems to be the only way to forget his forbidden feelings for his own cousin. Confused? Wait until the family history slowly reveals itself!!

Review:
For the past two volumes, giraffes (perhaps toy ones) have appeared on the covers. I was thinking that perhaps somebody’s name means giraffe, but then Da-Eh and Sun-Nam (the main characters) coincidentally started talking about the meaning of their names, which shot that theory out of the window. Now I have no idea why they’re there.

I’m starting to like this series, even though it has some flaws. I don’t really know what the character of Ta-Jun brings to the story, for example. He likes to taunt and torment Da-Eh, and moons about over his cousin, whom he seems to have feelings for. He says angsty things and is kind of a jerk and… that’s it. I’m also not too keen on the girl that Sun-Nam had been dating, and the fact that she’s probably going to exact revenge on Da-Eh in some fashion because she and Sun-Nam start going out in this volume.

I do like Da-Eh and Sun-Nam, though. And I’m interested in the fallout from the revelation that Da-Hwa is half brother to Sun-Nam and Da-Eh. Poor Da-Hwa puts on a brave face when told of his parentage and agrees to meet his half-brothers, but secretly wishes the man he’s known as his father had told him not to go. He’s only in this volume for, like, eight pages, and still Da-Hwa’s plight is what resonates most strongly with me.

Filed Under: Manhwa Tagged With:

Hissing 2 by Kang EunYoung: B-

February 21, 2009 by 1 Comment

From the back cover:
Sun-Nam doesn’t really know what this feeling is, but he just simply cannot get Da-Eh out of his mind. But she doesn’t seem to be interested. So instead, he starts going out with a girl he thought looked a lot like Da-Eh; but who knew she was such a wench? Meanwhile, Da-Eh meets Ta-Jun, who seems like nothing but trouble. Will these two both manage to survive their complicated relationships?! Read this second volume of the series and find out!

Review:
I really should start a hall of shame for inaccurate back cover blurbs. This one ignores the fact that Da-Eh met Ta-Jun on multiple occasions in the first volume. Oopsies.

This volume is a lot better than the first one. After introducing Sun-Nam’s annoying brothers last time, they are barely present here, allowing the story to focus on the main characters instead. I’ve also reconciled myself to the fact that all the boys look similar. Similar, but not indistinguishable, and that’s what really counts. The translation is also much better, with only one glaring error. (“Reoccurring” is not a word, folks.)

Some of the flaws from the first volume are still present, though, like the propensity of characters to make random angsty comments (“If I’m laughing, it might be to mask the tears.”) and the hyperactive nature of the narrative, as it spends only a few pages on each scene before jumping to another one.

Thinks I did like include the continued focus on Da-Eh’s dream of becoming a manhwa artist. Not only do we see her working on storyboards and things, she’s also so fixated on it that when other girls in class are gossiping about the antics of a popular boy, Da-Eh is completely oblivious. Later, when said popular boy, Ta-Jun, drags her off to hang out with him, it kind of reminds me of Boys Over Flowers. Popular (presumably rich) boy picks the feisty girl who wants nothing to do with him rather than all the other sycophantic beauties he could be wooing.

There’s also development on the plot concerning Da-Eh’s younger brother, Da-Hwa. (Who, by the way, is completely adorable. He has fangirls at his elementary school and everything. I want to kick Da-Eh for treating him so crappily, though.) It seems that Da-Eh’s mother and Sun-Nam’s father had an affair and the result was Da-Hwa. Sun-Nam has encountered the kid a few times, but so far Da-Eh is in the dark. I find that I am actually looking forward to seeing how this story plays out, which surprises me considering I had such an adverse reaction to volume one.

Filed Under: Manhwa Tagged With:

Two Will Come 4 by Kyungok Kang: B+

February 16, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Jina Han was just a normal girl until she learned that she was destined to be the victim of a curse placed on her family generations ago by a magical serpent that was killed by her ancestors. Since the revelation, various people close to Jina have attempted to kill her, but she is staying strong. Determined not to let the curse defeat her, Jina tries to put together the clues and figure out whom among her friends and family could really be the one destined to murder her.

Two Will Come is an enjoyable supernatural tale, reminiscent in some ways of a horror movie, but one that emphasizes psychological suspense rather than gory visuals. I never anticipate any of the attempts on Jina’s life, and even here in the final volume they manage to surprise me. Unfortunately, I didn’t experience the same reaction to the climactic reveal, since I found it rather predictable. I do like that the origins of the curse are fully explained and all subplots neatly resolved. A chapter of side stories also fills in some backstory for a few of the characters.

While Kyungok Kang’s art certainly has a retro style—it’s supposed to be 1999 but the fashions remind me more of late ’80s shojo—it’s also quite appealing. Kang uses the contrast of black and white spaces effectively in the context of the story while maintaining a smooth sense of flow that contributes to the overall atmosphere. This, combined with skillful storytelling, results in a very satisfying reading experience.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Filed Under: Manhwa, Supernatural Tagged With:
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