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
What can I say, I loved this volume and found nothing to gripe about at all. Which given my past with JiUn is a blooming miracle.
When I read this in the anthology I was in two minds, but reading it in it’s collected form I can’t help but love it.
First we have the cover, I’ve only seen a few manga, and no manhwa, where the cover art fits the volume as well as this one does. It’s one of the best covers I’ve ever seen. It’s soft, subtle, yet a bit creepy, and neither title, volume number or mangaka’s name are out of place or over-domineering.
Unfortunately the inside double page colour spread is less appealing. While the setting and feel is great, I really hate the girls face, she reminds me of some sort of freaky spook, and oddly enough the face feels like a reprint from an earlier issue of Cynical Orange, Yun’s other work.
Thankfully that’s where my dislike ends, though I don’t really think it’s fair to say dislike, more a difference of tastes; as a friend of mine really likes the girls face. She felt the bigger issue was that it wasn’t a pull out spread, since the spine splitting the image causes a lot of collateral damage to the panel (which I agree with).
The chapter art is pretty decent, and is certainly a lot better than what we get in Cynical Orange. However for me what really caught my attention was the break from traditional manhwa designs. The men are clearly men, and the girls clearly girls, I loved this, since if I’m honest I’m fed up wondering if every character I look at is trap*
Baeok-On is a simply awesome character, who frankly has creepy eyes which give the stories a sort of eerie feel to them. Where he really comes into his own though is with the humour, the stories we get could easily get bogged down in their own darkness, but his personality is such that the humour comes out in the most interesting, and unexpected ways relieving the pressure. Yet at the same time his serious side comes into play at just the right time to give you the feeling of subdued darkness and horror. I really liked this aspect and found it to be handled really well.
Out of all of the chapters in this volume however I have to admit that my favourite is a chapter with none of the main characters in it. In fact it’s a very subdued chapter dealing with a woman locked away and forgotten by all except her bodyguard.
Over course of the chapter the relationship is built up in very subtle ways, and for the longest time we never get to see lady, all we get are hints; a hand here, and eye there. This chapter is very much about character development and blending, and the two characters work amazingly well together. Even at the very end we never get to see her face, and I have to admit the sad ending hit me harder than any of the other chapters.
Now, while I say I have no complaints on the volume itself, I do have one about Yen Press’ handling of the volume. firstly, as always we have a great volume, with well handled translation and notes. The colour panel would have done better as a pull out, but all considered it was okay.
The beef I have with Yen Press is the way they handled the final chapter. Chapter five ran for all of five pages and then stops part way through the chapter with a note saying continued in the next volume. I despise this, and think it’s very bad handling to just cut a chapter short like that. You either print the chapter fully or not at all, this half and half business just doesn’t work for me.
However, as I said I have no problems with Yun’s work in this volume, and frankly I have no issues adding it to my Essential Read list, the first series to get on there with it’s first volume in a looong time.
*TRAP’s in the way it’s used here are men who look and act like women, and are usually dressed like them as well.
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