Big, Bad Wolf Neighbor Moves in and Doggy Can’t Contain His Curiosity
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Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Hot-to-Go Bakery: How to Tame a Wolf.
Content Warning: There may be references to gossiping, prejudice (specifically based on species), lookism, experience gap, dubcon/noncon, and blood, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Chanwoo lives in a nice building. All of his neighbors are great to get along with, and everything is pretty much as peaceful as it can be. That is, until word gets around that a new guy is moving in. Everyone thinks he is a criminal, maybe even a gangster, with a huge scar on his face. Worst of all, he is a wolf. Chanwoo isn’t so sure that all of this hubbub is really necessary, but all of his neighbors make it clear: this wolf is bad news, and they need Chanwoo to keep an eye on him.
Chanwoo isn’t so willing to go along with their plans… until he meets the wolf: Eunjae.
Eunjae is far from the big bad wolf everyone made him out to be. On the contrary, he is beautiful. He is cold, but that is nothing Chanwoo can’t handle. So, Chanwoo dives into his own personal mission to get closer to the mysterious wolf man, and though he doesn’t get much in return initially… he’ll soon receive far more than he ever expected.
Review:
The art in this is very cute. This is very much your standard run-of-the-mill BL manhwa style, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This is also the level of beastman I prefer, where the amount of animal parts they have amounts to ears and a tail, rather than full-blown beasts, like in Mr. Wolf Is Violently Smothering Me with Love (though this is a favorite of mine, funnily enough). I will say, though, some of the panels feel very stiff to me. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t anything special on the art front, either.
This is from the same collection of stories as Whipped and Sprayed, and though this is technically longer, it is still only seven episodes long (and that includes the prologue and epilogue episodes). There is more time spent developing the relationship in this one, so if Whipped and Sprayed was too smut-forward for you, that isn’t an issue here. However, as short as this is, there still isn’t much in the way of depth here. Much of the backstory is actually left for the epilogue, oddly enough, so the mysterious wolf Eunjae remains a mystery until the very end. Even with the smut left toward the end of the story, though, this is very much a story intended to be more smut than story. Depth isn’t the name of the game here.
On the topic of the smut, let’s get a bit more into the nitty-gritty of it. This does have heats and pheromones, which I love. Whenever heats or pheromones are brought up, I am always hoping for some mpreg, but that is unfortunately not present here. So, while there is that raw and animalistic smut we get because of heats, there is no chance of pregnancy that we are told about (sad). However, it does seem like same-sex relationships are accepted in this universe, as there isn’t any attempt to hide their relationship or any shock from those who find out about it, which is a nice change of pace from some of the other BL where the couple is forced to hide their relationship. A stranger sees the two, refers to them as mates, and that is the end of it.
However, I wish we had some resolution on the building’s opinion toward Eunjae. We see a bunch of different characters expressing their fear and prejudice toward Eunjae to the point that some want to kick him out, but that is pretty much abandoned. It is replaced by Chanwoo, who follows Eunjae around, trying to win him over, and then they mate. That’s it. I would’ve loved some scenes of Chanwoo introducing Eunjae to the scared old women of the building and Eunjae reacting all awkward and weird. It would’ve really helped flesh out their personalities and relationship and tied up the story a bit better. It is so short that I can’t fault it too much, but I think some small changes could’ve made it more cohesive narratively.
Results:
This is fine. With super shorts like this, I can be pretty forgiving when it comes to narrative. It is clear that this was meant to be a smutty romp with some light romance leading up to it, and everything else was just a means to an end. However, I do think some short scenes could’ve been added to the existing episodes to help tie up everything narratively. Still, it is what it is, and it doesn’t try to be more than that, and I can appreciate that. It isn’t a favorite, certainly, but it isn’t bad, either.
Have you read Hot-to-Go Bakery: How to Tame a Wolf? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
