Review copy kindly provided by Yen Press

About the Mangaka

Not a lot available on JiUn Yun sadly. She made her professional debut in 2000 in a manhwa competition, however she had already become famous in the non-pro circles.

About the Manga

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After reading the previous volume I wasn’t expecting much from this volume. Then when I opened it I found some of the most stunning art I’ve seen. It lasted for the three colour panels and then died.

Sadly the art is just as bad and dull in this volume as it is in the previous volume. And this annoys the hell out of me. Looking at the colour panels it’s clear that JiUn can do excellent art, so why doesn’t she carry this through out the volume?

As I said in my previous review there are other flaws in the art, and they become more obvious in this volume. At times it’s almost impossible to tell who is who. I was surprised to see that character designs could of changed so much in a few panels, only to go back to the original design a few more later. I found this infuriating because it causes you to lose the flow of the story.

Is it the pressure of deadlines? Or does she just not care to put in the effort full time?

Whatever the reason may be it spells a huge downside to the series. Which is further lowered this volume by the story. I had to read the volume three times just to get a semblance of what was actually happening in the volume. Yet I will admit that when the story was allowed to naturally flow it flowed well, however this wasn’t done enough.

The end result was a volume that I struggled hard to read, and didn’t enjoy. The story sadly was even flatter than the art, it was so flat if you stood it on it’s side it’d disappear :(

There were a few good points in the volume, I’ll admit it. I even found myself chuckling over some parts. However the way it lurches around is it’s pitfall. This shocked me considering that the story was actually the strong point in the previous volume. although I think the bad art contributed to some of the flow inconsistencies in this volume as well.

Can this be rescued? I doubt it, and here’s why. This series ran for nine volumes, and this was volume five. JiUn would have to do something truly amazing to turn it around, which isn’t impossible. There have been other titles that have revived and it’s possible for this one to as well, however I doubt it. If it was going to happen we’d have seen signs of it by now. The other hurdle is that Yen Press need to re-license the series to get the last two volumes since Ice-K only had up to volume seven licensed. This means there’s going to be a gap between volumes seven and eight. I can see a lot of people loosing interest during that gap.

Yen’s release is as good as expected, and for me at least, the colour panels made opening the book worth while. There were no guttering issues or squished words words this volume, which was good. However this series is now teetering on being thrown into the Junk Pile list. I’ll be getting the first three volumes later today from a colleague, so I’ll read those and make a decision, though I have a feeling it’ll drop.

Where to Buy

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