BL Library - Manhwa Reviews

Manhwa Review | Home Alone Together by Shin Yuri

Title: Home Alone Together

Author(s): Shin Yuri

Artist(s): Shin Yuri

Junwoo is a hikikomori – a young adult who has become a recluse. For the past five years, since graduating high school and after the death of his parents, he has holed himself up in his childhood home, where he spends his days in idle existence. The only thing he has to look forward to is the occasional visit from his neighbor Hanbit, a guy he’s had a crush on since he was a kid. Otherwise, his days are filled with severe loneliness and the self-loathing he hasn’t been able to shake.

One day, Hanbit comes by, implying that he might be moving in with Junwoo. This lights a fire under Junwoo, and he immediately assumes this is his chance to win over Hanbit. However, when Hanbit comes over, he brings along a stranger: Wooyeon. It turns out that Hanbit isn’t planning to move in. On the contrary, he is moving away to be with his longtime girlfriend. However, in fear of Junwoo being left alone unsupervised, Hanbit has the great idea that Wooyeon should move in with Junwoo.

Neither Junwoo nor Wooyeon seem jazzed about the idea, but both seem compelled to go along with it because of their affection for Hanbit. So begins the awkward orbiting the two have as they live together. Despite their disdain for each other’s company, slowly but surely, they grow to tolerate one another. And soon, that tolerance evolves into something more, something neither of them expected it would be. But these two have a lot of old wounds that threaten the peace they have created with each other. Will they be able to move forward, or are they destined to drown amid their surging trauma?

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Manhwa Review | A Thousand Cranes by Jeong Seokchan

Title: A Thousand Cranes

Author(s): Jeong Seokchan

Artist(s): Jeong Seokchan

Craig’s life has always been challenging. He’s always played the role of a parent to his younger sibling and had to be a punching bag to their father. So when his father disappears, Craig momentarily believes this is the relief he and his sibling desperately need. Unfortunately, though, debt collectors come knocking once their father is gone. It turns out that Craig’s father has accumulated a massive amount of debt and listed Craig as the guarantor for all of it. Craig sticks around, unable to leave his sibling behind and unwilling to throw away all of the responsibility his father did. He quits school, takes on as many jobs as possible, and starts the neverending task of paying off his father’s debts.

Over time, though, the responsibility is only getting heavier and heavier, and as time goes on, the debt never seems to let up, no matter how much he pays off. Life is beginning to seem not worth the effort. Then, on an evening when those dark thoughts are incredibly taxing, Craig comes upon a scene one would only expect to see in gangster films. In the shadows of a dark alley, there is a dead body, and standing above the dead body is a killer. Craig runs off but is soon captured by the killer. At first, the killer, whose name turns out to be Dean, is fully intent on silencing Craig forever, but there is something about Craig that Dean can’t seem to let go of. So, instead of killing Craig, Dean decides to hire him and take on all of Craig’s debt, so Dean is the only creditor.

With some of his stress lifted, Craig finds himself lighter and freer, even when tied exclusively to Dean. As they continue to work and learn more about each other’s pains and struggles, the superficial line between debtor and creditor begins to blur. Can these two broken and struggling people find solace in each other? Even as Dean’s job in the dark underbelly threatens to tear everything they’ve built apart?

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Manhwa Review | Rain Again by Jeong Seokchan

Title: Rain Again

Author(s): Jeong Seokchan

Artist(s): Jeong Seokchan

Wujin is living life listlessly. He goes through the motions, just enough to stay alive and keep a roof over his head. He’s a recent graduate with no thoughts or feelings about his future. To escape the past that has placed him in this frozen state, he moves as far away as his funds will allow him. One day, while running an errand for his new landlord around the apartment building, he runs into his neighbor, Jin. Jin is a mysterious man. He comes home more often with wounds than not, with looks that could kill.

Most people would be dissuaded from getting close to him. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Wujin is drawn to him. As Wujin tears down the walls of this mystery man, he discovers that Jin is much more gentle and caring than he lets on. He also has a darker past that he is doing his best to escape. What Wujin doesn’t expect is for Jin to turn around and tear down his walls, as well. With two people suffering from mistakes they can’t escape, will they continue to run together, or will they run apart?

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Manhwa Review | A Kind Goblin’s Bird by 8cat

Title: A Kind Goblin's Bird

Author(s): 8cat

Artist(s): 8cat

There is a tale about a woman who can help grant wishes in people’s sleep. All she has to do is sing as the person falls asleep, and in their dreams, they will see their wishes granted. She is an oracle and one that Sah Heonyoung seeks out to test her powers. When he sees her, they are inexplicably drawn to each other; Sah Heonyoung, in particular, is drawn to the oracle. However, his identity as the twin of the crown prince, a goblin, makes it impossible to want anything without fear of losing it.

The oracle in question has never had a name. She is forced to live out in the woods of the mountain, surviving on weeds and grass in between the few times she is called to perform her wish-granting ceremony. Over time, her body has accumulated many scars, her legs have weakened to the point that she can’t stand for long, and her eyesight is poor at night. Her life is an endless struggle until she meets the goblin in the red mask. He whisks her away, gives her a name, and asks her to be his bride. In an instant, her life has changed, but the imperial family, his family, threatens to steal away her happiness forever.

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Manhwa Review | Lack of Love by Okdongi

Title: Lack of Love

Author(s): Okdongi

Artist(s): Seoil

Hajin Park is trying his best to start his online fashion store, but it’s a lot more complicated than he realized. His sister, a dentist with her own business, offers to help him out and set up his store online, but only if he does her a huge favor. She is a huge stan for the idol group 89, and while she has a ticket to one of their meet and greets, she’s unable to attend due to work. So, she asks Hajin to go instead to get all of the members’ autographs. While Hajin isn’t looking forward to it, he agrees.

As Hajin is the only man there, he draws a lot of unwanted attention, including from the members of 89. To escape some of the crowds, he goes to the bathroom. While trying to find an open stall, he runs into Hangyum, the hottest member of 89, in quite a compromising position. After escaping the awkward encounter and the meet and greet, Hajin is all set to put all this idol business behind him when he is pulled aside by the manager of 89. The manager noticed how put together Hajin is and wants Hajin to become the personal stylist for the 89 members because their style is seriously bad.

Hajin is hesitant at first, but after discussing it with his roommate and sister and finding that it would eventually help his online business, Hajin calls back the manager’s number. The manager is not the one who answers, though. Instead, Hangyum picks up and ends up personally striking a deal with Hajin. As a result, Hajin becomes Hangyum’s stylist while also assisting the other members from time to time. But Hangyum doesn’t intend for Hajin to just help him with styling. Hangyum and Hajin have a past, and Hangyum intends to heal the wounds they share.

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Manhwa Review | Dirty ♥ Vibration by Fujoking

Title: Dirty ♥ Vibration (Tapas) | Sexventure♥App (Lezhin)

Author(s): Fujoking

Artist(s): Fujoking

Nohae and Yeong have been friends since high school. Their friendship isn’t the friendliest, but it doesn’t have to be. They’re best buds and share everything. They’ve only been forced to grow even closer as Nohae joins the entertainment industry and forces Yeong to become his manager. Not only do they work together, though. Yeong also lives with Nohae. This results in them spending almost every second of every day together.

Yeong is ready to cut the cord. He wants to become more independent and starts seeking another job, but Nohae isn’t a fan of this. Unfortunately, there isn’t much Nohae can do about it… until he downloads an app on Yeong’s phone. Supposedly, it is a cursed app that rewards the user with a great fortune but also punishes the user with even greater misfortune if they cannot complete the app’s commands. It doesn’t sound too bad, though, right? All Yeong has to do is follow the app’s orders. It can’t request anything too wild… right?

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Manhwa Review | The Thorn That Pierces Me by MaCherie

Title: The Thorn That Pierces Me

Author(s): MaCherie

Artist(s): Piggyback

Heesoo was just trying to find an escape. Having just toured America and decided to go back home and better her life, Heesoo is finally seeing the brighter side of life. However, on the way back to Korea, the plane she’s on ends up getting sucked into a strange portal that transports the plane and everyone on it to a fantasy world. Heesoo is one of the few to survive the crash, but just surviving the crash isn’t enough. She ends up running into creatures called maenok, which are zombie-like creatures that attack the living and that can’t be killed. When she isn’t running from zombies, though, she faces enslavement, starvation, assault, and misunderstandings due to her inability to communicate with the locals since she can’t speak their language.

Things aren’t going so well in the new world. Resigned to the fact that she probably won’t survive, Heesoo plans to stop fighting and accept her fate. That is until a super sexy paladin appears to save the day. Finally faced with a glimmer of hope, Heesoo is determined to latch onto Calix in the hopes that he will keep her safe, and she does that the best way she knows how: by seducing the chaste paladin. Unfortunately, Calix isn’t all that receptive to her feminine wiles, but Heesoo’s persistence slowly but surely wears down the wall her savior has put up. However, as that wall begins to fall, it reveals that Calix may not be as pure as he appears to be.

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Manhwa Review | ANTI P.T. by Lee Gpiee

Title: ANTI P.T.

Author(s): Lee Gpiee

Artist(s): Lee Gpiee

Param is a perfect employee. He was a special hire at one of the top companies in Korea, one of the youngest employees to be promoted into his position, and he’s an overall likable guy at work. Life doesn’t get much better than this! Unfortunately, though, Param isn’t as perfect as it would seem. He has a secret he’s kept under wraps for quite a long time. He has a crush on his coworker Taehyun. To top it all off, Param has a terribly sensitive body. It doesn’t take much before he is in a highly awkward situation.

On a day like any other, Param does his best to get through the day without any issues. However, he ends up pinned against his work crush in a crowded elevator. This, of course, results in Param’s typical awkward situation. As soon as he gets the chance, he escapes the elevator and heads to the nearest bathroom to help relieve himself. Along the way, he ends up running into a beefy delinquent. Param is less than polite about the run-in and ends up rubbing the delinquent the wrong way. Unfortunately for Param, he drops his work ID, and when the delinquent follows Param to the restroom to return it, he ends up catching Param in the act.

Thankfully, the chances of ever running into this guy are pretty much nill… right? Wrong. That same day, Param heads down to the company gym to start his new workout routine, only to find that “delinquent” is not actually a delinquent but a personal trainer for the company. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the personal trainer, Hwi, blackmails Param. Either he signs up for classes with Hwi for double the standard rate, or Hwi tells the entire company how much of a perv Param is. With no other choice, Param agrees, but it isn’t long before these workouts go beyond that standard gym routine.

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Manhwa Review | Undercover Partners by JayJay

Title: Undercover Partners

Author(s): JayJay

Artist(s): Luvloo, Otae

Kyuho Je is over being a conglomerate family heir. He is looking for any way possible to get out from under his family while maintaining his lifestyle for himself. He finds the answer to all his problems through a money-laundering expert by the codename “Smurf,” who, in the real world, is known as Kangha Nam. Once Kyuho catches Kangha, he extorts him into entering a contract. Kangha will help Kyuho launder money from Jeho corporation, his family’s corporation, while acting as Kyuho’s lover. Kangha isn’t all that willing to go along with it at first, but when Kyuho offers to compensate him at any price Kangha sees fit, the offer is just too good to be true.

Kyuho gets to work on his plan immediately. He gets Kangha on at work as his secretary and begins setting the stage for their very fake but very public romance. Kangha charges for every touch, every event, and every favor, which grows his nest egg exponentially. However, as time goes on and they spend more and more time in these compromising scenarios, it becomes much harder to distinguish what emotions are real and which are just part of the act. While Kyuho and Kangha try to identify the legitimacy of their feelings and relationship, the looming threat of their illegal schemes being discovered is ready to ruin everything.

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Manhwa Review | Bride of Elysion by Bora Wang

Title: Bride of Elysion

Author(s): Bora Wang

Artist(s): Hansol

Ina Yoo is just going about her day on Earth when she faints and wakes up to find herself in a cage with other women, who all seem to be from different places. None of them seem to know what’s happening or where they are. They are carted off to a stage where many masked men overlook them. Ina Yoon is terrified, as expected. While standing in the middle of the stage, she catches the eye of a gentleman in a cat mask. Before she can ascertain his identity, she is chosen and suddenly flies up to a higher balcony. Once there, she is introduced to a gentleman named Aivan. He has decided to be her supporter.

However, the gentleman in the cat mask, Asbell, comes to take her for himself. The two men get into an argument; all the while, Ina is stuck in the middle, only growing more lost and confused by the second. Finally, the two men ask her to choose between them. When pressed, Ina selects Aivan. Aivan then takes her back to his mansion, where he explains that she has been summoned to the world of Elysion, a world where only men are born. As a result, they have to summon women from other worlds. Once the women make it over, they are praised and worshipped by the men, taught how to live in Elysion, and allowed to marry and take on as many men as they see fit.

In exchange, the women help produce mana, magical energy, which can only be done through a “mana exchange” with their boyfriends. It’s a lot to take in, but Ina doesn’t take long to catch on with all the beautiful men around. It’s not all sexy time and butterflies, though, as the drama between her suitors and even other women crops up, but Ina’s not going to let that get in her way. She will follow her heart and do everything she wants in this new world.

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Manhwa Reviews

Manhwa Review | Home Alone Together by Shin Yuri

Manhwa Review | Rain Again by Jeong Seokchan

Manhwa Review | Dirty ♥ Vibration by Fujoking

Manhwa Review | ANTI P.T. by Lee Gpiee

Manhwa Review | Bride of Elysion by Bora Wang

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