Guide is Stuck in a Noncon Harem
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Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Profundis.
Content Warning: There may be references to rape, gang rape, blood, being orphaned, self-harm, death, gore, human experimentation, violence, gun violence, prejudice, drugs, drug use, mentions of sex work, suicidal ideation, PTSD, religion, confinement, extortion, corruption, mentions of incest (not between any of the main partners), mind control, sex work (guiding in exchange for his brother’s life), gossiping, commentary on body weight, cults, police, gossiping, arson, disordered eating, strangulation, voyeurism, child abuse, child abandonment, age gap, social gap, power imbalance, manipulation, chronic illness, excessive drinking, kidnapping, murder, BDSM (forced), slut-shaming, self deprecation, somnophilia, and chronic injury, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Yugeon lives to take care of his brother. Unfortunately, they are the only family each other has after a devastating accident years ago, when they were children, that not only killed their parents but changed their lives forever. That day, they awakened. Yugeon is now a guide, and his brother is a fire user. In this world, large gates appear across the globe, releasing horrific monsters known as anomalies that destroy and kill without any discernible purpose. Humans have begun to awaken with powers to fight them.
Unfortunately, as a guide, there isn’t much Yugeon can do against the anomalies. Guides are support for the actual awakened, whose powers can cause them to lose their sanity over long periods of use. Through physical touch, guides can help alleviate mental fatigue, and Yugeon does his best to support his brother while also protecting him in the field with a handgun. Unfortunately, a gun can’t do much when the anomaly that caused his awakening and his parents’ death suddenly appears before him.
This ends up summoning one of the most powerful awakened, Woo Shinje. Shinje is specifically after this particular anomaly, Almuten, as he is sure it is the key to ending anomalies altogether. And after he meets Yugeon, he finds that Yugeon is the only guide who pairs with him well enough for Shinje to get some relief without sucking them dry. So, Shinje makes Yugeon a deal he can’t refuse: Shinje will help keep Yugeon’s ailing brother alive as long as he becomes the team guide.
Yugeon accepts the deal, but he doesn’t anticipate being passed around and around by some of the most powerful awakened in the world. Just how much can one man handle for his family?
Review:
The characters do kinda suffer from some “same face syndrome,” and they have massive facial features. The eyes and mouths are enormous relative to the size of the faces (yet the foreheads are sometimes nonexistent), and this doesn’t get much better until the very last 4 or 5 episodes in the main story. And, honestly, I kind of hate that it changes so much at the very end. The characters look like strangers by the end, and it hurts my feelings in a weird way. Ultimately, the art just isn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t call it ugly by any means, but it just isn’t what I like to see in my preferred series.
The story, unfortunately, is not much better. Erewhon, where they sell $500 smoothies and apparently conduct human experimentation (this is a joke; I am aware that the expensive grocery store is different from the evil, fictional guideverse company). One would think that this would be a major part of the story, but, like many elements in this story, it is largely overlooked. The various members of Shinje’s team, where the anomalies came from, and even various chunks of time between certain parts are entirely glossed over. This is an adaptation of a novel, which isn’t surprising, as this is a common complaint I have regarding manhwa adaptations of novels.
Novels are usually much more thorough because they have much more time to dwell on and explore things. I have not read the novel myself, but I presume that probably is the case here, too. I can only hope one day the novel gets licensed and translated so I can give it a read and compare. But either way, this was far too short for the amount of worldbuilding and story this needed to cover. In the end, this felt far too superficial, leaving the chemistry between Yugeon and our main top, Shinje, severely lacking. What should’ve been an intense, heavy, and dark action thriller felt more like an outline to one with some smut sprinkled throughout. And don’t get me wrong, I love smut, but this was going for so much more than that and failed, so that made it disappointing.
And speaking of the smut, one of the draws of this series is that there are multiple tops. There are a couple of group scenes, and everyone gets an individual scene with Yugeon, but it just doesn’t feel satisfying. Now, it is worth mentioning that this is super heavy on the noncon. That isn’t a problem for me as a fan of noncon myself, but I know that is a problem for most people, so there is your warning. What was a problem for me was how these scenes played out. The first couple were delectable. They took their time and really established the power imbalance between Yugeon and all of the awakened on the team, but as the series goes on, and it has to pick up the pace to cover more ground on the narrative front, the smut inevitably suffers and becomes almost a rushed chore, which is unfortunate since the narrative was so lacking, it really needed the smut to carry it. Overall, this was just one more disappointment among many.
Results:
I wanted to like this. I wanted to like this so bad. I love group sex, I love noncon, and I love guideverse, so this was set to be something I had no choice but to love. Unfortunately, the art style wasn’t my favorite. Then, add a superficial story and lackluster sexy time, and this becomes the complete opposite of something I love. It has some very interesting elements, don’t get me wrong, and I still want to read the novel version someday, but overall, it isn’t something I’d recommend. I was very disappointed.
Have you read Profundis? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
