Manhwa Review: Antique Romance

Name: Antique Romance
Author & Artist: KIM Mi Jung
Chapters: 27 - finished
Genres: Drama, Historical, Mature, Romance, Shoujo
Plot:

From Esthétique: "I am a human, but a doll... Feelings are not needed. Physically alive, but not mentally. I am a painting trapped inside a rusted frame. The cold skin of a statue. Like a stuffed bird-- Killed and set for display. I wonder... I wonder, on whose display I will be placed..." Includes extra story, The Dancing Marionette (Vol 3).

Review:
It seems like most of the manhwas that I end up and enjoy reading are the ones set in with darker mature themes which are inevitably coupled with tragic elements.
This has all the drama in a European ambient setting.

Some warnings before picking this up would include themes of prostitution and rape which are basically red flags that indicate that this ain't some fluffy shoujo.

There's also a certain scene that is horribly cryptic. It's not horror in a supernatural sense but the monstrosity of what humans can do to each other. It parallels closely with reality despite cliches and plot devices.

My Latest Fix: Ciel

Name: Ciel The Last Autumn Story

Author & Artist: RHIM Juyeon

Chapters: 22 Chapters approx. Ongoing

Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Supernatural

Plot:With the author's characteristic humour and creativity, the work describes one girl’s fantasy adventure. Yvien Magnolia's beauty widens the small villagers' eyes she is living but she never knew what her future would be, since it is destined too high to imagine for her at that time....

As the lord of the manor tries to kidnap her, Yvienne flees to Lowood Institution for wizardry and witchcraft she never thought to go leaving behind her family.

In the school, she meets interesting people, like, January Lightsphere who shines purple aura compared to his noble but peculiar family, and Lariatte, an orthodox fighter family's heir, who will be her closest mate.

Review:

I put this on hold 2 years ago since I was really busy and now I've come back to it and have really enjoyed re-reading it so far. It's really a breath of fresh air from the shoujo I typically read, I'm not sure whether to attribute this to the fact that it's a manhwa.

Although I usually prefer manga art, this author has pretty nice art, it really is based on personal preference.

The female lead, Yvienne, is a somewhat haughty about her looks though this is mostly for comic relief. I like how her mother and herself promote strong-independent-women-ness that most manga and manhwa lack.
It's not all about physical strength alone but also thinking smart which is exactly how Yvienne is portrayed.

Manhwa Review: He's Dedicated to Roses

Name: He's Dedicated to Roses

Author & Artist: Hwang Mi Ri
Status: Finished 
Chapters: 42
Genres: Action, Comedy, Gender Bender, Romance, School Life, Shoujo
Plot:
"If you were a girl, we would never have met."
"Well- to...to be honest with you- I AM a girl-"
Plain as a girl, but HOT as a guy.
Choi Ida wants no more then to relieve her stress and anger when she is off work as her alternate male identity Choi Yodah. Her job? A slave to the popular rich girl, Mimi, at both school and home.
One day in the park, free from Mimi, she meets Kang Naru, who kisses her as Ida, not as Yodah).
Then, one day, Kang Naru meets and falls in love with Ida's alter ego, even though he thought 'he' was a boy!
But can Ida keep up both of her lives without getting caught?

Review:
So I happened to stumble upon Hwang Mi Ri's name in some forum and I had to make a review on one of the manhwas I read from her. She is the sole reason why I've been put of manhwas for awhile. She has a huge repertoire of manhwas and she gets so much hype but it really is crap and this is not exception. It's full of classic shoujo cliches or korean drama plot elements and it really makes me cringe. I can see how it appeals to the masses but honestly if you read Asian graphic novels as avidly as I do, you'll find it repetitive and bland.

My Latest Fix: Nobody Knows

I'm renaming my recommended manga segment to my latest fix. I think it just sounds better. Basically it's just manga I'm enjoying recently but they haven't released enough for me to determine whether the overall story is good.


Name: Nobody Knows
Author & Artist: Lee Hyeon-sook
Status: Ongoing
Chapters: 14
Genres: Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Supernatural
Plot:
The “self bully” Ban has a normal enough life, and where divorced parents aren’t that uncommon, her life becomes shadowed in mystery when her mother, Eun-Joo, suddenly brings their “distant relative” Jin-Whan home to live with them. Ban’s mother would always avoid the topic of her family, so who is this strange boy? Are they really relatives? What torturous secrets does her mother’s past hold? And what do the sudden strange happens that follow in Jin-Whan’s wake mean? Would a better question not be who is he, but what?

Overview:
I think it's definitely worth a read and I really dislike manhwas (korean comics). They are generally overdone and melodramatic like k-dramas. I guess I just have a prejudice against them but I know I shouldn't generalize Although the good ones I've read tend to have a dark ambient to them, being a wuss in horror I find it weird how I like crime, thrillers and dark ambient things, I just find them intriguing.