Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy.
About the Mangaka
I tried, but again was unsuccessful about finding much about Judith Park. She’s the mind behind Dystopie, Y Square, Luxus. From what I’ve found out she’s Korean born, living in Germany, writing Korean based story, in Japanese manga style (wow, what a combination hehe). Y Square, and Y Square Plus are licensed by Yen Press. She does have a website, though be warned it’s in German.
About the Manga
What can I say, Judith Park is awesome. This volume totally blows away my dislike of OEL’s and proves that some OEL’s can be as good as their Japanese counterparts.
Once again, for me the deciding factor is the stunning high quality colour pages of the first chapter. We have right pages of beautifully drawn and coloured art to drool over, and it doesn’t end there.
I love Judith’s style, in both art and story telling, she’s still imperfect true; but she’s growing and improving.
What I was especially pleased about in this series was that, despite being only two volumes, it ended perfectly. Usually short series like this one suffer from rushed and horrid endings. This one doesn’t, in fact I love the ending. True it’s a very open ending which leaves room for Judith to return and do another volume at some point. However it does tie up the major loose ends rather tidily.
While the story she creates is nothing earth shattering, I do like the novel twist she uses. It makes the age old cliche’s fresh and new.
The other aspect I liked came at the end, in the afterword. Judith actually comments on her mistakes, and I think that takes guts. Not very often we see a mangaka admit they messed up. She get bonus points from me ’cause of that.
There’s also loads of sketches from the series, these clearly show of her skill as an artist, and lets face it, Judith is an exceptional artist!! Hell she’s better than some established Japanese and Korean ones. I can’t wait to see her next series!!
Yen Press excel in this release, keeping all the colour panels intact, which is awesome. IMO the colour pages make this series one of the best ever. The format is weird, setting is Korean, done in manga style, in German >.< so there are a few times that they messed up with the flow. What I mean is that for the most part the volume reads right to left as a normal manga. However a few times they trip up and it reads left to right, this sudden change does throw you when you come across them.
It also suffers from minor guttering issues at times, though no where near as bad as say Croquis Pop.
Where to Buy
- Brits: The Book Depository
- Yanks: Amazon.com
- Canadians: Amazon.ca
