Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy.

About the Mangaka

Not a lot of info available on Lee Eun, and what is available seems to be conflicting. According to Wikipedia Lee is a film director, though there is no mention of this in the brief biography available at the front of this volume.

Her other manhwa include: Monica, The Eye of the Dragon and The Rebellion of the 36°Cs

About the Manga

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Damn this series is getting better and better as the volumes come out!!

This volume did confuse me a bit at first, I had to reread the beginning of it a few times to settle it down in my mind.

Art wise, after criticising Hissing, I can’t really say this series has great art. However I find the art less bad in this series, probably because it’s covered by other elements.

For example the way she draws chibi and comic characters, can’t be described as anything other than ugly. Though I feel that at times this is deliberate. However there are times when Lee’s art is really stunning, though that only happened a few times this volume.

Lee does have a unique way of drawing, which while at times seems ugly, at others is really stunning. The way she draws her characters are rather interesting, and do appeal to me. I think part of the appeal for me is that the characters are what you could call average, with the exception of Yang.

For me one of the main elements is that the characters are clearly different, and only a rare few are overly effeminate.  This makes it a lot easier to follow, and to be drawn into the story, which this does easily.

I especially loved the character of Sungjoo, her designs were probably the best in the volume IMO. Though Soong at the end has the potential to rival that, her design was just as unique. Though where as Sungjoo was cute in a childish way, Soong has an exotic sexiness around her.

Story wise I’m now confused as to what the story is really about. I initially thought it was a series of short stories with Yang being one of the central characters (given he seems to be some sort of god). Now it seems to be more about the shop itself, initially this irritated me since I wasn’t sure what was going on. Now I actually like the vagueness, since I can easily get into the flow of the story, and just go with it. Understanding it all isn’t needed.

The other thing I like about this series is that we’re given snippets of Korean culture. Rather than just dumping the information (as in Chiwoo), Lee weaves the culture into her story, such as this volumes Sungjoo. I really like this side of things as it feels more like you’re living the culture rather than just reading it.

I’m eagerly looking forward to volume seven now, more than I have been for the other volumes. There’s something about Lee’s story that just gets under the skin and draws you in, whether you want to or not.

Yen Press did their usual great job with this, the translation is smooth and feels great. Though I have begun to notice something with Yen’s releases. In manga they tend to keep honorific’s, but in the manhwa side they seem  to change them to western one (Mr, Miss, Mrs)

Overall I love this series, bad art and all, in fact it’s definitely one of the series I highly recommend, as such it retains it’s place on my Essential Read List

Where to Buy

Note: This volume isn’t due for release until March 26th 2009

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