Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy
About the Mangaka
Not a lot of information on So-Hee Park unfortunately, this seems to be her second work, the first being Real Purple. She’s being working on manhwa since 2000 when she won the Seoul Media’s silver medal for Best New Manhwa Creator.
About the Manga
*sigh* once again this series epically fails to impress me on so many levels. Though admittedly there were a few chuckle worthy moments in the volumes.
After all I still can not get past the art, especially the chibi characters that are seriously overused in these two volumes. Not to mention the introduction of a who new batch.
Again we do have some really stunning art at times, so much so I wonder why So-Hee feels the need to destroy it with these damn bad chibi’s.
Unfortunately there were hardly any well drawn scenes in these two volumes, most of the ones that would have been awesome were ruined by chibi’s or just bad drawing in general. It amazes me that So-Hee can spend so much time creating lush back drops and scenery, not to mention the amazing looking formal clothing, only to drop the ball on the characters. It’s almost as if she spent so much time on the back drop and then realised she was out of time on the characters so rushed them.
The covers of the volumes show just how well So-Hee can draw when she puts her mind to it, and I wish she’d do that inside as well as just on the covers. There were no colour panels this time, it went straight into the story. Which is a disappointment, as the colour panels are one of my favourite parts of the volume.
Unfortunately the story takes a nose dive over these two volumes, and in fact ends up so mixed it’s unbelievable.
I’m all for love triangles but the ones in this volume are just so mixed up it’s unbelievable, not to mention I get the feeling that Chae keeps changing her mind on who she likes. It’s rather annoying trying to keep up with who she likes and doesn’t like. Not to mention So-Hee keeps introducing another love interest who only seems to appear for a volume or two.
What’s more the story gets more convoluted when we have a mysterious pregnancy. How can someone whose husband has been dead for a year suddenly be pregnant? I’m guessing it’s one of two things, either it’ll turn out she’s having an affair, which will suck as there’s been no hints or anything about it. A huge plot twist like that without any build up will just be totally nuts. Or So-Hee will change the the time of the husbands death so she’s pregnant with his kid. Either way isn’t going to work to well because there’s been no build up for it.
I also found the political intrigue in these volumes to be, well, flat. While the focus was mainly on the three main chars (Yul, Shin, and Chae), the political wrangling was still there. But it lacked the depth and subtlety of previous volumes. Not to mention it felt out of place and was only added to fill up some space.
Yen Press perform excellently again, there’s no colour panel this time, and I have to admit the volume looks a bit sparse without them. I’m hoping this is So-Hee’s doing and not Yen Press deciding to remove colour panels (though I doubt that 
). The translation flows well and smoothly, with nothing jumping out as wrong. I also did find any guttering issues in these volumes, which makes me happy
Overall I was disappointed with these two volumes, and wonder about the series future. I don’t understand how this can be popular in Korea, given how bad it is. I definitely wont be adding this to my Essential Read list, and it’s barely hanging on being relegated to my Junk Pile.
Where to Buy
Volume 06
Volume 07
