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Men of the Harem Volume 1 K-Comic Review
Men of the Harem explores a female power fantasy that we don’t often see.
― You know what they say – what's good for the goose is good for the gander, although in the case of Men of the Harem (from the same writing-and-adaptation team as The Remarried Empress) we ought to reverse those genders. Latrasil, better known as Latil, never expected to ascend the throne of her nation, but after her father's ...
Viral Hit K-Comic Review
Viral Hit is very hard to read because of how relatable it is on two major fronts.
― Viral Hit is very hard to read because it is relatable on two major fronts. The first one is its depiction of modern-day bullying and humiliation. The second is that Viral Hit very much leans into seeing life through the perspective of an absolute self-aware loser. Our protagonist, Hobin, is someone who is physically...
I Raised a Black Dragon K-Comic Review
I Raised a Black Dragon isn't perfect, something that mostly comes down to an ending that simply screams for a sequel. But it's also a nice twist on some of its genre's staler elements and a good read overall.
― Have you ever wondered what happened to the person who used to be the owner of a body taken over by an isekai'd soul? Not many books seem to care, but Sottan's I Raised a Black Dragon isn't o...
Imitation Volumes 1-4 K-Comic Review
The mentions of dieting in this K-pop comic are all so casually done up until this point that I at first thought that I was overreacting by zeroing in on them.
― The idol industry is no joke. It would be easy to forget how vicious it can be, given that a lot of manga, manhwa, and anime try to give us a romanticized portrait, and at first, it looks like Imitation may be doing the same thing. It follow...
Who Made Me a Princess Volumes 4-6 K-Comics Review
Who Made Me a Princess was good in its first three books, but it's very good in its second. The final three volumes should be excellent if things continue on this trajectory.
― It's practically narrative law that if the villainess character turns out to be good, the heroine must be bad. We've seen that play out over a plethora of series, and while there are exceptions, it happens often enough to feel...
Punch Drunk Love Volumes 1-2 K-Comic Review
Seon-woo and Tae-moon’s relationship is almost entirely based on sex for most of these two volumes, so if you’re looking for something that puts the “without” in PWP, this is the series for you.
― Readers of BL manhwa and novels may recognize the name of the author of Punch Drunk Love: Moscareto is also the author of The New Recruit, another office romance. But the setting is the only thing these two...
See You in My 19th Life Volumes 1-3 K-Comic Review
The K-Comic series See You in My 19th Life is a love story that is as much about the tragic past as the hopeful present.
― Tragedy and romance have been linked almost since the dawn of literature. Why else would stories of doomed lovers like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or historical tales of Cleopatra and her lovers be so lionized? For many readers, the fine line between the potential for a happy ...
The Tyrant's Etiquette Tutor Korean Novels 1-3 Review
Livia is hypercompetent without feeling overdone, and that's a major strength of this trilogy.
― Unlike its Japanese light novel counterparts, Korean web/light novels tend to favor what they call "transmigration" rather than full-out reincarnation. This does sometimes involve the death of the heroine/villainess (book dependent), but more often, my reading experience has shown that characters aren't a...
Your Letter K-Comic Review
Drenched in shades of blue and highlighted with earth tones, Your Letter's deceptively simple art and story make it a beautiful book. It's a hopeful story, replete with quiet magic and a terrible familiarity makes it stick with you.
― Magic realism is a more difficult genre to do well than you might realize. Authors need to balance the mundane with the magical, building a recognizable world but with ...
Father, I Don't Want This Marriage Volume 1 Manhwa Review
If you enjoy a villainess-good tale filled with lovely art of a royal fantasy world, try this.
― Like Not Sew Wicked Stepmother's release before it, Father, I Don't Want This Marriage's source novels were translated and previously published by WordExcerpt. For unexplained reasons, this Korean novel translation outfit has ceased to make its books available outside of the serialized format available on...
A Magical Girl Retires Novel Review
Why is it that magical girls are magical girls? The answer to that question is the theme of award-winning South Korean author Seolyeon Park's English debut, A Magical Girl Retires.
― Why is it that magical girls are magical girls? The answer to that question is the theme of award-winning South Korean author Seolyeon Park's English debut, A Magical Girl Retires. It's not an attempt to stake out a gend...
The New Recruit Volumes 1-2 Novel Review
The New Recruit is a treat for office romance fans and a good BL novel series featuring some very explicit content.
― The New Recruit, a Korean BL novel, is a sign of a changing publishing landscape. By this I mean that by the fall of 2024, it will be available in English in three different formats: this original novel, published digitally by Mullebooks, the all-ages version of the manhwa, available ...
Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom Volumes 1-3 Manhwa Review
Even when a rival rears her head, author Iru knows how to handle it without making it feel like too much of a retread of manhwa's greatest hits, and it's just a very well-put-together story overall.
― Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom has an odd history in English. Some years ago, Korean novel translators WordExcerpt released the source novel as I'm Only a Stepmother, but my Daughter is Just Too Cute! as both a...
Unholy Blood Volumes 1-2 Manhwa Review
With attractive art, a couple of good moments of humor, and a decent take on vampire lore, this is a series that's worth checking out – especially if it keeps getting stronger as it goes on.
― There are vampires, and there are vampires, something most lore agrees on. That means there are two distinct types of bloodsucker in plenty of vampire mythos: the original ones, who may well have been born that...
Who Made Me a Princess Volumes 1-3 Manhwa Review
Gorgeous art and an interesting mix of subgenres make this manhwa a must-read.
― In The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, heroine Ailette's greatest desire is to be reborn into what she calls a “child-raising romantasy,” a subgenre of isekai where the heroine, an ordinary woman in her previous life, ends up starting from babyhood as the pampered princess of a powerful ruler. She doesn't mention that...
The Horizon Volumes 1-3 Manhwa Review
There's a sincerity about the story that goes a long way toward making this readable and engaging, even if dark dystopias aren't your preferred genre.
― It's not hard to see why JH's three-volume manhwa The Horizon has been nominated for an Eisner Award. Something about the series screams “critical darling” in that most literary ways – everything about its bleakness, its metaphors, and its late-break...
A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Season 1 Anime Review
On the surface, there's nothing remarkable about A Returner's Magic Should Be Special, but somehow, the execution manages to rise above all its basic tropes and clichés.
― Writing off A Returner's Magic Should Be Special would be very easy. On the surface, there's nothing remarkable about it: a standard magic academy, a basic time loop story, and characters whose names are way too on the mark. But so...
Bloody Sweet Volumes 1-2 Manhwa Review
This is a good series to check out if you like more bite with your vampire romances.
― Going into Bloody Sweet, I expected to find a fluffy rom-com about a girl and the vampire she accidentally gets attached to. Instead, I found a story about a bullied high school girl whose bullies are smart enough to evade all of the checks and balances the school has put in place. When Naerim accidentally awakens ...
The Dangerous Convenience Store Manhwa Volume 1 Review
The plot is excellent in the romance camp. Everything that happens is to get Eui-joon and Gunwoo together, and it works pretty well.
― You can read The Dangerous Convenience Store in English two ways. The first is to read it on the manhwa site/app Manta, which has all seventy-five chapters and four bonus stories available. The second is to read Seven Seas' print (or ebook) edition, which, as of this ...
Dark Moon: The Blood Altar Volumes 1-2 Manhwa Review
Some books are good. Some books read like self-insert fanfiction from the early days of AO3, but you can't stop reading and enjoying them. Dark Moon: The Blood Altar is one of those.
― Some books are good. Some books are not and read sort of like self-insert fanfiction from the early days of AO3, but even though you recognize that they aren't objectively filled with literary merit, you can't stop rea...
Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint Volume 1 Manhwa Review
This is for the ones who knew the Red Wedding was coming, gleefully chuckled when the film Bridge to Terabithia grossly misled parents, and always read the book before seeing the movie.
― This one's for the smug readers, the ones who knew the Red Wedding was coming, who gleefully chuckled when the film for Bridge to Terabithia grossly misled parents as to what it was about, and who always read the bo...
A Returner's Magic Should Be Special Volumes 1-3 Manhwa Review
Despite hitting a lot of very familiar beats, there's something about A Returner's Magic Should Be Special that's incredibly readable.
― Despite hitting a lot of very familiar beats, there's something about A Returner's Magic Should Be Special that's incredibly readable. Yes, our hero Desir Herrman is the typical overpowered protagonist seen in so many isekai and time loop stories, and yes, he's faci...
What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? Volumes 1-3 Manhwa Review
A kidnapping incident, a possible romantic triangle, and family business politics make What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? a page-turner.
― Although there are plenty of differences between manga and manhwa, a modern trend seems true for both: originating as a novel. What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? began its life that way in 2013. GyeongYun Jeong's book has been adapted into a live-action television ser...
Ennead Manhwa Volume 1 Review
Ennead is undoubtedly a must-read if you're interested in Ancient Egypt and its mythology, but it's also just an interesting story in its own right.
― Although it isn't fair to say that Egyptian mythology gets no exposure in pop culture, it certainly doesn't have the same recognizability as Greco-Roman or Norse mythologies regarding ancient cultures. Authors like Pauline Gedge and Danielle S. LeBlanc...
Villains are Destined to Die Manhwa Review
Well-written, making use of actual game mechanics in ways that benefit the story, Villains are Destined to Die is simply a good series.
― How many times has this happened to you? You're reading an isekai story that takes place in an otome game, but as you go on, you begin to realize that the story's creator has never played an otome game. Maybe it's the weird way they talk about game mechanics, or ma...
True Beauty Manhwa Volume 1-3 Review
True Beauty is the newest addition to the category of media I think of as "I know it's popular, but I really don't see why."
― I've gotten the feeling that part of my reaction to True Beauty may be due to unfair expectations from the English title. The original Korean title, which translates literally to The Rise of a Goddess, may give a more accurate impression. The phrase "true beauty" evokes the ...
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