Have you ever stumbled across a really awesome manwha only to be disappointed with the direction it went?

Same.

True Beauty

I’m not really a romance fan, but True Beauty hooked me with a premise as old as time: what is true beauty?  Initially, the plot revolved Jugyeong ascending to the upper echelons of Korean society using make-up. We get a love interest in the form of Suho, and the two  bond over their love of horror. Overall, it was a cute, light-hearted story with a good message – ladies, find a man who likes the real you.

Then, a wild Seojun appears and he’s your typical bad boy-lite character: dark clothes, moody exterior and all. His friends are jerks too. Unlike Suho who falls in love with her bare face, Seojun falls in love with the dolled up version of Jugyeong. From there, True Beauty just becomes a messy love-triangle until Suho is sent on a boat Berserk style for two years, and the story dissolves into something far from it’s original premise. It’s clear this tale should’ve ended long ago, on a high-note, with Suho and Jugyeong getting together.

Basically, what I’m saying is I stopped reading True Beauty after Suho left.

However, kudos to the author for getting her coin. The art work is beautiful, the characters are silly.

True Beauty Rating: 5.5/10. 

Phantom Paradise

A reverse harem in hell?

Sign me up, fam.

The premise of Phantom Paradise is pretty dope. People die, they go to phantom paradise, but only women can use magic thus they have all the power. Predictably, the women treat men exactly how men treated them on Earth: terribly. They create an imperial harem in which everyone who doesn’t worship the ground women walk on get merked. Then comes along Little Hayate who wants to save his childhood friend, Lucius, from hell by taking  the HBIC of Phantom Paradise, Madonna’s, soul and feeding it to demon… Lucius…  Then there’s the very first chapter, where we see Big Hayate who’s now the HBIC of Phantom Paradise, fighting female… Lucius. How did it all happen?

Basically it’s awesome right up until Little Hayate becomes Big Hayate, then idk. The first part of the story was an interesting commentary on society, the treatment of women, and how those who gain power behave, mixed in with some lovely art work, fighting, and interesting characters. But instead of getting another Handmaids Tale, we got a reverse-gender, fantasy story with magic and fighting. Then, Hayate grows up but the plot doesn’t. It dissolves into a battle manwha crossed with boys love-lite which… just didn’t quite live up to it’s epic beginnings. The story-line was really hard to follow as well, and look I love battle manwhas but this too chaotic.

I stopped reading somewhere after Corona maybe died (not sure if she “died” or actually died) (actually, I eventually finished this and was disappointed lol).

It’s got beautiful art work though. All hail queen Madonna.

Phantom Paradise Rating: 5.2/10.

Lookism

Lookism is actually still great. It’s just really, really far from it’s original premise.

True to it’s name, Lookism starts out mainly about Daniel/Hyung Suk being treated poorly because he’s overweight/not conventionally attractive. One day, he wakes up with a new body – a very handsome one to boot, and he goes from, “who’s that loser?” to “who’s that daddy?” overnight.  Throughout Lookism, we encounter various good-looking and unattractive characters who sometimes conform to and sometimes subvert the notion that good-looking people are always terrible, or that unattractive folks have to be miserable (shout out to my boy, Duke).

Somewhere along the line though Lookism became less about lookism and more a commentary on Korean society (well… human society) in general. It’s still excellently written, but far too much time is spent fleshing out side characters (stories like Jake’s and Jiho’s really ought to have been like a spin-off, or separate story outside of the main story itself, or condensed into the space of one or two chapters.).

Lookism is actually still really well-written, but it’s a long ways off from it’s original premise. Also again, I stopped reading it.

Lookism Rating: 8/10.

Witch Creek Road

Witch Creek Road initially introduces us to a bunch of teenagers doing what teens do: drinking and partying in the woods. They meet a trio of witches, who over the course of a few chapters, kill off said teens (if only she’d stayed in the circle…). It’s a tragedy but nothing particularly new until we realize there’s a lot more going on with this world than your typical supernatural, slasher story. Sara becomes some sort of spider-creature. There’s a talking gun in season two. We get Pandora’s back-story. Needless to say, it’s a lot going on.

One of the dangers of having too much going on plot-wise is you risk ending up with a Kudzu Plot: a story that goes a lot of places, but nowhere in particular and is generally hard to follow. That’s my largest issue with Witch Creek Road. If the author has to explain what’s going on to the reader in some medium other than the story itself, then the story needed a few more drafts before publication. Readers should be able to understand and follow along even very complicated plots by simply reading the material itself.

Don’t get me wrong, this story is hard to put down precisely because of all the mystery and awesome artwork. But with each season, the plot just introduces more and more elements without really resolving anything previously introduced. It was still a fun read though.

Witch Creek Road Rating: 5.3/10.