Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, School life, Tragedy
★★★★☆
Plot: The best description I could find is taken from tvtrope.org: “Jin Seon is far from an Ordinary High-School Student. For one, he’s raised by his single father Dongsoo Seon, the popular and charismatic CEO of an influential company. For another, due to a severe childhood “accident” that stripped him of his memories and the use of his left eye, he has artificial valves in his heart and pins and plates in his joints. Also, his father is a serial killer, and Jin is his unwilling accomplice.“
This description encompasses the basic storyline. This manhwa was, by far, one of the more suspenseful stories I’ve read in while. Ive been keeping up with it for two years now (it recently ended), and I can honestly say that it kept me at the edge of my seat. Each update would leave me thirsty for more. So many questions would arrive with each new chapter, I could never get bored of it.
Characters: The character development in this was amazing. Every single character went through some sort of development. It was amazing to be able to tell how much a character had changed, especially since all of these changes occurred through contact with other characters. Almost every single character is shown as negative in the beginning, however through their relations with each other, they are able to change. This especially applies to Jin, the main character. He starts off as such a depressing character, but as time goes on he becomes happier, and it really shows.
Art: Taking off from characters, the artist does a wonderful job of showing the personality changes of the characters through their art. It’s amazing how a few aspects can change the entire way a character is viewed. The dark colors used add to the theme. I loved the way the artist used light pinks at certain parts to show the slight changes in mood. It is also good to note that the characters backgrounds changed from light to dark, depending on how good or bad they were. It was amazing reading scenes with the lightly backgrounder Jin, then quickly moving on to his father, always with a dark background. The artist did a wonderful job of showing the two sides of the father with their drawing as well. Although he was always smiling, he used two different smiles- one he wore to look like a Good Samaritan in order to fool all those around him; and the other he wore when he showed his true colors. That smile gave me chills.
Manhwa: Since the artist has been complimented, it is time to move on to the author. I talked about the plot previously, which the author is obviously amazing for coming up with, however there is more to be praised within the actual writing. I’m sure that some things were lost in translation, however it really was amazingly written. There were many things that were pretty deep, and there was an appropriate amount of comic relief. It is very difficult to write suspenseful scenes, especially when there is so little to work with, where you can’t even add extra details to support the tone; yet somehow, Kim Kanbi was able to amazingly write every single scene in a way that it was kept interesting, short, and matched the art. The way the characters spoke, the words they said, the sound effects- all of it was on point. Nothing seemed out of place or awkward. There was not a single moment- except for maybe the ending- where I thought that something was “out of character” or unusual.
Ending: Personally, I could not appreciate the ending. I won’t be including any spoilers, however it was slightly disappointing. There were certain aspects I could appreciate, however some of it did not make much sense to me. If I were giving a review based on the usual standards, it would have definitely been a 5, but the ending was slightly anticlimactic, though it was not completely bad. I’m sure many people will disagree with me and claim that they loved the ending, however in my personal opinion, I feel it could have been better. Although, I will say, it definitely was an amazing plot twist.
Warning: There are many trigger warnings that you can find on mangaupdates.com. If you are a person who is triggered by violence or abusive parent child relationships, I would definitely check the trigger warnings.
Over all: It was such an amazing and original storyline! The ending could have been better but it wasn’t so bad that it ruined the entire manhwa for me. I would DEFINITELY recommend this!
Author: Kim Kanbi
Artist: Hwang Youngchan (can you tell?)
Manhwa Chapters: 93
