Celebrating Author Haribo-nim!
Welcome to my newest series, Celebrating Author Haribo-nim! Haribo-nim writes a very specific story genre with very distinct style and they’re one of my favourites. In light of their new series that’s coming out right now: ‘My Refuge’, I decided to do a Haribo-nim readathon - to read and review their past works. This is a 2-part series featuring: At the End of the Road and Mad Dog. Enjoy!
Tropes: mobster, mafia, psychological, trauma, action, yandere, tsundere
Just like in my earlier review, I just wanted to set the context of Haribo-nim's very distinct style. On top of a very unique art style, Haribo-nim's stories are distinguished by their hallmark character and plot topes. For their characters, there's the fiesty, tsundere power bottom MC and the unhinged, crazy, yandere ML. While this seems like quite a typical manhwa trope, there is an added layer to Haribo-nim's characters. The MC often has a very soft and kind, almost weak side to them, and the ML, while insinuated to be a black flag, is often actually more yellow in reality. It's a subtle layer to the characters that's pulled off very well. In terms of hallmark plot tropes, there are quite a few, including: the traumatic and abusive childhood backstories, the action-packed main story with lots of fighting and plot twists, and that psychological tag that is well-deserved but doesn't try to do too much and doesn't glorify problematic issues. Again, common tropes that are layered and balanced and just everything I love.
Mad Dog has all the classic hallmarks of a Haribo-nim story which goes to show just how consistent the author is. There’s Hamin, the son of a mafia mob boss who wants nothing to do with the criminal world. He is kind and righteous, seeking out an ordinary life, but also tough and feisty, not afraid to fight and stand up for himself. I do like Hamin's character more than Taemin from At the End of the Road because he feels more coherent overall, and his actions were more consistent. He is also painted out as this simple guy just trying to live his best ordinary life and that felt very relatable - you're really rooting for him to succeed. And then there’s Sehyuk, the psychopathic black flag yandere who is everything you would expect of the character. He is obsessive in his lifelong mission to obtain Hamin, and completely unhinged and violent in his role as the right hand man of Hamin’s father. Again, classic of Haribo-nim’s characters, as much as he flaunts his black flag behaviour through his words, he never actually does anything that drastic - maybe just some light manipulation at most that really comes across more as an orange flag than anything. The characters are well-written, charismatic and absolutely likeable. They have great chemistry, a sort of playful nature between them that is fun and makes for some good comedic scenes. (Kinda like a black cat x golden retriever type, except instead of a golden retriever, it’s a pit bull terrier who would kill everyone else around him). There’s no smut in the main story but the romantic and sexual tension between the two is just pure *chef's kiss*. And the side stories do not disappoint.
The plot also has all the hallmarks of a Haribo-nim story. This time, delving into the organised crime underworld, which means all the typical traumatic/TW stuff. It also means that Sehyuk gets to actually be way more of an unhinged violent psychopath and I kinda like that. Apart from that, it’s an exciting ride with nothing too overly complicated in the plot which allowed the characters and their chemistry to really shine through and carry the story. The mystery and action aspects of the story were well-developed. The childhood traumatic backstory is expected of a Haribo-nim piece of work but I liked that the relationship between the characters developed somewhat independently of their past history. The conclusion also wrapped up really well and the ending was satisfying enough.
Unlike At the End of the Road, I truly have no gripes with anything in this story at all. There’s nothing in this story that I didn’t enjoy and I really can’t find much fault with it. I have seen some comments criticising the ending after the side stories, saying that it was abrupt and that they expected to see more of the domestic aspects of the characters' lives but I didn’t really feel that was very essential. In fact, I thought that drawn out side stories would have felt out of place with the overall vibe of the story. Some people also commented that the author went for a more produced, basic story compared to At the End of the Road which was a little more edgy (the body swap plot line is definitely a lot more unique compared to this mafia gang-war plot in Mad Dog). I do agree with this at parts, but again I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing. I felt that it helped to make the story less overly-complicated, more character-driven and thus, able to have a satisfying ending which I really appreciated compared to its counterpart. It does lack that little extra flair to for me to consider it in my top ranking though, but it is definitely still an amazing read nonetheless and I would strongly recommend.
P.S. I cannot get over the gorgeous art style.
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