Cherry Blossoms After Winter but Worse
About:
Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Break a Leg.
Content Warning: There may be references to prejudice, bullying, gossiping, blood, sexism, PTSD, peer pressure, violence, and excessive drinking, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Kim Hangyeol is just trying to be your average high school student. Unfortunately, due to his naturally light-colored hair, he’s stopped at the school entrance almost every morning to be chastised and punished. Thankfully, he isn’t alone, as Seo Jooyeon is also always right there with him, being chastised because of his unkempt long hair and tardiness. But after running into Jooyeon and getting in trouble with him day after day, Hangyeol starts to believe Jooyeon might just be the cause of all of his bad luck. This is only spurred on by all of the rumors going around that Jooyeon has a history of violence at school.
Hangyeol fully intends to avoid Jooyeon and hopefully get his luck back on track, but he ends up being put on after-school clean-up for a week with the very boy he’s trying to avoid. It’s impossible not to interact with Jooyeon now. But as they talk and get to know each other, Hangyeol learns that maybe Jooyeon isn’t quite who everyone thinks he is.
Review:
I complain a lot about the more classic 80s to 90s manga art styles. This has aspects that put it into that category, with some choices that are reminiscent of classic Cyborg 009, which I would usually complain about, but this actually feels elevated. Oddly enough, though, the only ones who seem to come from an older style are Jooyeon and his sister. I could easily see them appearing in a Syundei title and not questioning much, but I also find them to meld perfectly into a more modern style, which they do here. It’s not perfect, and does fall into the pitfalls of the more classic style, such as their eyes appearing super far apart in some panels, but if anything, the choice to make them so distinct highlights why they are perceived as so uniquely attractive by their peers. I can’t tell you how often in manhwa we have a cast of super hotties, but only one or two are considered actually hot. In this title, that makes a bit more sense, which I appreciate.
Story-wise, this reminds me a lot of Cherry Blossoms After Winter, except it isn’t done nearly as well. The main story is in high school and is exclusively shounen-ai. The side stories are in college and start immediately with a sex scene. It is a huge change, and it’s one that I didn’t think was done well in the least. With Cherry Blossoms After Winter, there was a long time for growth and change in their relationship, and it spanned multiple seasons. This, however, goes from a 16-episode main story, all in high school and all shounen-ai, only to jump immediately into a smutty side story with them in college, which is only 4 episodes long itself. We get no time to adjust and see their relationship change, which is disconcerting.
It doesn’t help that the main story’s ending is super vague. It is implied that the two kiss when they go to the theme park together, which is super cute, and wouldn’t be the worst ending in the world. But before we get any clarity on how either of them feels or what happened to their relationship after said kiss, the main story just ends. The very next episode then goes into a sex scene. The tonal shift in this is wild. But that maybe wouldn’t be the worst thing if it wasn’t revealed soon after the sexy time (which is a dream) that they are living together as platonic roommates. Over the course of the side stories, we learn that they just moved right along from their kiss in high school and have been living as friends ever since. In other words, what they call side stories should be just more episodes in the main story.
Having side stories that are integral to the main story for completeness already irritates me as it is. But to have no resolution to the initial romance in the main story annoys me even more. The two do, thankfully, end up together by the end of the side stories, but it feels far too late. Honestly, I would’ve preferred if this had just been shounen-ai entirely and had the two resolve their feelings in high school rather than get that little bit of smut after a huge timeskip and a nonsensical lack of communication during that time period. The side stories felt overtly complicated and needless for what could’ve been a short, sweet, and fluffy all-ages love story. Even a degenerate like me can see when smut would be better off dropped for a better narrative.
Results:
This is a huge miss. It had some potential to be a sweet shounen-ai, but it lost the plot completely by the end and did its best to try and pivot into a mature side story that was even more disappointing. It wouldn’t be anything revolutionary, even if it didn’t do the weird shift to the side stories, but it would’ve been better than what we ended up with. I’d say if you just desperately want something sweet and fluffy, read the main story and assume they end up together by the end of those episodes. I promise, even for my degenerates out there, the smut isn’t all that great for all the trouble.
Have you read Break a Leg? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!