Manhwa Review | Limited Run by Eeej

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Warning:

There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Limited Run.

Content Warning: There may be references to power imbalance, sex work (specifically sex in exchange for favors), violence, gang activity, extortion, financial abuse, blood, gossiping, invasion of privacy, sexual assault, self-deprecation, possible gambling addiction, excessive drinking, immense debt, slut-shaming, dubcon, arranged marriage (not between the main couple), bullying, homomisia, rape, death, strained familial relationships, blackmail, corruption, mentions of suicide, murder, age gap, drug use, drugging, body-shaming, BDSM, victim-blaming, hit-and-run resulting in death, disordered eating, mentions of dieting, overwork, mentions of cheating (not between the main couple), car accidents, starvation, and kidnapping, as it appears in the manhwa.

Synopsis:

Yeon-oh is not just a struggling actor. As the eldest son in his family, he is compelled to try and pay off his father’s neverending gambling debt, constantly compounded and recurring thanks to loan sharks who willingly lend him money. They know his father can’t pay it off, but they also know Yeon-oh will do what he can to pay it off, including providing them sexual favors. His life is a neverending rat race, and he sees no end to it until he gets invited to speak to the CEO of the conglomerate Haekang. There’s no doubt what a CEO wants with a struggling actor. It’s a sponsorship, which equates to a celebrity being showered with gifts and opportunities in exchange for, often, sexual and physical favors. Yeon-oh initially wants to refuse, but after being pressured by his father, he decides to go.

The CEO, Jaehyuk, decides to make the offer. But Jaehyuk tells Yeon-oh what he expects. He doesn’t want just simple physical pleasure, though that would be part of it. He wants Yeon-oh to use his acting skills to pretend to be his boyfriend in public. As it turns out, Jaehyuk is determined to rebel against his grandfather and tear down the upper echelon of Haekang’s public image. The ultimate goal is to ruin his grandfather, though for what reason Yeon-oh doesn’t know. The two start off rocky, with Yeon-oh struggling to put on a front in public, but over time, it grows easier, and as lucrative work starts coming in, Yeon-oh’s life takes a positive turn. Neither Jaehyuk nor Yeon-oh realizes that there is a growing target on Yeon-oh’s back, not just from Jaehyuk’s family but all of the people watching Yeon-oh.

Meanwhile, Yeon-oh is beginning to struggle not with acting or being Jaehyuk’s bedmate. He’s struggling with his own feelings. What started as an act is slowly beginning to feel like reality. While he knows Jaehyuk has no intention of being with him for real, Yeon-oh can’t help feeling hopeful that Jaehyuk cares about him as a real lover somewhere deep inside.

Review:

It’s been a long time since I’ve read an Eeej title (my first was The Good Teacher), and wow, has their style grown. The Good Teacher was entirely black and white until the side stories, which were full color but looked really, really rough in comparison to the rest of the work. This, however, is full color all the way through, and while you can definitely see the resemblance from The Good Teacher, it could easily be mistaken for an entirely different artist. It’s amazing how efficiently artists can develop their skills, and this is no exception. However, I wouldn’t say this is my favorite style ever. The shape of the faces is a bit weird to me, especially from the side or partial side profiles, but it’s a pretty style overall (I’m just nitpicky, haha). Thankfully, from season two onward, it gets even better and more consistent, and it’s definitely worth seeing even more amazing growth from this artist.

Unfortunately, the story does meander a bit. I get the sense this had multiple iterations before we got the story of Limited Run that we have now. There are moments when Jaehyuk and Yeon-oh are said to have known each other in the past, and we get a brief look at Jaehyuk in his younger years, but that goes pretty much nowhere. I imagine this was intended to initially be a setup for some past pining or friendship when they were younger, but we never see it again. The only time their connection in the past is brought up again is when Jaehyuk reveals that he picked Yeon-oh because Yeon-oh’s father worked under his family and was given some information about his family’s corruption and criminal activities. While it makes sense that they needed to lay the foundation for the reveal, the implications of those moments feel more important than they ended up being, which was disappointing and makes me wonder if there was some intention to make them more important than they were.

Furthermore, the ending was a bit lackluster, and I wish we could’ve seen more development from Jaehyuk’s side of things. There is a very emotional moment where Jaehyuk finally comes to terms with his feelings for Yeon-oh, and Yeon-oh breaks down, expressing how much he wanted to hear that but also how much it pained him to want and want only to inevitably be cast aside. It’s very sweet and emotional and ends with them embracing. But right after, we’re sent to some time in the future on a beach film set. During a break, Jaehyuk and Yeon-oh enjoy some time together, walking down the beach and being cute, and then it ends. That’s it. After all of the pain and struggle Yeon-oh experienced and some of the cruelest but softest moments with Jaehyuk, I was hoping for something more powerful. We see hints of Jaehyuk’s devotion in the ending, but nowhere near the amount I think was warranted after all of the buildup throughout the series. It was rather disappointing, and it left me painfully wanting.

This did end up with me being super pumped about the special episodes. Unfortunately, it’s not a continuation of the main story, but I was even more pumped when I realized the story’s premise. It’s historical, builds a legend where a maiden marries a dragon God, and it’s even uncensored. Yet, much like the main story, it ends in such a rush. It’s only four episodes long, so I wasn’t expecting much, but I was hoping for a more emotional and intense ending to make up for the main story. That, unfortunately, wasn’t the case here. After historical-Yeon-oh gives his body over to the dragon god Jaehyuk for a night in exchange for rain, he heads down to his village to share the good news, only to be captured by those who assume he ran away from the dragon god. They decide to take him to the cliff over the ocean to sacrifice him that way, but, of course, Jaehyuk appears in his dragon form, punishes those villagers, and then takes Yeon-oh away to be his bride, and that’s it. We don’t get a wedding or anything like that, and it all ends within a couple of panels. I wouldn’t say it’s as disappointing as the main story since it’s so short already, but I was still sad nonetheless.

Results:

This has a lot of good things going for it. We get the dark side of the entertainment industry, a wealthy, red-flag benefactor, a desperate, beautiful bottom, and then shitty families surrounding them to add even more tension, pain, and cruelty. It’s the foundation of a dark BL with a tale as old as time that builds and builds but ends up fizzling. I do still think this is worth reading if you don’t mind darker storylines, especially if you like lots and lots of painful sex, a red flag that flips and gets revenge for himself and his lover, and entertainment storylines, but don’t expect it to stick the landing.

Have you read Limited Run? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!

Click here to read it for yourself!