The Fall 2024 K-Comics Guide

No Moral

What's It About? 

I'll see you in court... I hope! Yunshin Do is a young and compassionate lawyer who was recruited by a corporate law firm. His boss, Seheon Kang, is a domineering partner who prioritizes paychecks and only looks out for himself. Will Yunshin be able to prove his worth in court and find a way to melt his boss's ice-cold heart?

No Moral has a story by Tehanu and art by Shampoo. Published by Manta.

Is It Worth Reading?

If there's one thing keeping No Moral from being a more enjoyable story, it's one of the two leads. Seheon Kang is a jerk. He's a jerk who knows he's one, which is a minor saving grace. Still, he's so unbelievably unpleasant to his ostensible romantic interest, Yunshin Do, that it's hard to take. Yes, it's an enemies-to-lovers story and we get some very credible reasons for why Seheon is such an ass, but that doesn't make this feel any less mean. The only thing that saves it from being on the same cruelty level as Semantic Error is that Yunshin isn't as easily upset as Sangwoo.

The story takes place in the world of high-powered lawyers, and that's not a realm Yunshin aspires to be a part of. He's perfectly happy being good at what he does: pro bono cases for people in desperate need of social justice. But his older sister Yigyeon thinks otherwise, and she pulls some strings to get him hired at the prestigious Doguk legal firm. No one is happy about this, except possibly Yigyeon, and we don't meet her in these first fifteen chapters, so it's impossible to know. Yunshin knows he's being looked down on for using connections to get hired and Seheon resents that he's been stuck with this younger man who he views as ridiculously naïve and a poor fit for Doguk. He's wrong about the first part, but he may be right about the second, and for the entirety of these chapters I kept wanting Yunshin to tell everyone that he was leaving to do what he likes.

He doesn't, of course, although I still have some hope for later, tempered by bad feelings about his sister's health. But by the time he screws up his courage to even consider it, will Seheon let him go? Because there are a lot of slightly more than hints that he's physically attracted to Yunshin. Seheon may not like other people to touch him but he has no problems touching Yunshin – his face, taking his tie off, getting very close…it's hard to read this as anything but sexual interest, although if asked, Seheon would almost certainly say that he's attempting to show Yunshin that he's beneath him. It's all sending mixed messages to poor Yunshin, who is getting the raw end of the deal thus far.

Still, even with the horrendous behavior of one-half of the future couple, No Moral is very hard to put down. The plot is frustrating but fascinating, and figuring out exactly what Seheon's problem is (or problems are) feels imperative. Artist Shampoo does an excellent job of using the vertical format to make our eyes meander down the screen, especially with things like the slow unfurling of a tie or the serpent imagery used for Seheon, which gives snakes a bad name. It's not necessarily what I'd call good, but it is compulsively readable, and I'm certain to read more, against my better judgment.

I have a close friend who works as a lawyer, and I was looking forward to sending him screenshots of the two lawyer protagonists in this manhwa smooching each other with a caption like, “Is this your job?” But for the first 20 chapters, there were no smooches to be found. In fact, these guys don't even like each other: sometimes they don't speak to one another for weeks. No Moral is an extremely mean-spirited story. It includes BDSM undertones, but without any guardrails or verbal consent. Featuring a ruthless top-earner and his idealist subordinate, I'd call this sexual harassment if it weren't for the fact that the subordinate seems to be into it, since his boss is hot. It's literally the “hello, human resources?!” meme comic. You will probably be repulsed by the way the boss manhandles the subordinate without permission unless, of course, this is your fetish, and it's that last part which this 18+ comic is counting on.

When I saw the 18+ warning on this comic, I assumed it would be a salacious tale of sexual mischief among workaholics, in the vein of Perfect Buddy or The New Recruit. However, after reading 20 chapters and obtaining a much clearer understanding of Korean constitutional amendments, I think it's 18+ because it includes aspects of legal education. Nobody can deny that the author of this comic is intimately familiar with the legal world, lending a sense of realism to the characters' workday life. Our romantic leads hate each other at first sight. Seheon Kang has a huge win record and will do anything it takes to win a case, even if it's sleazy. Meanwhile, Yunshin Do is gentle, cares about his clients, and specializes in pro-bono cases. However, one cannot survive on pro bono cases alone, so Do's female relative gets him a job at Kang's firm, hoping that Kang's viciousness will rub off on him. In short, most of this comic's characters see Do's kindness as a personality flaw for a lawyer, and the goal is for him to become more merciless by learning from the biggest jerk lawyer of all. Kang essentially bullies Do right off the bat, singling him out with impossible projects and an endless pile of overtime work. But things take a sinister turn when Kang begins slamming Do against walls, grabbing him by his tie, and other physical displays of power. The reader is supposed to find this kinky.

As the chapters progressed, Do began to learn that Kang had a heart after all under his sadist exterior. And we're supposed to warm up to him after learning that he wasn't bribing his clients, but merely blackmailing them. I'll give this comic points for its high quality art and immersive understanding of the legal world. But it just felt too mean-spirited for me to enjoy.