Pretty Goblin Top Humps the Memory Out of Beefy Bottom
About:
Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Two Moments in Time.
Content Warning: There may be references to power imbalance, memory loss, invasion of privacy, age gap, drowning, dubcon (possible noncon), death, violence, murder, being orphaned, memory manipulation, BDSM, and suicide, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
A goblin is in love with a human named Dohyung, and he has been for decades. Unfortunately, the goblin and Dohyung are in a neverending stream of meeting, falling in love, having sex, and starting over again. When the goblin and Dohyung have sex, the goblin’s power is enough to erase much of Dohyung’s memory about the goblin, leaving them to meet and fall in love all over again. It’s painful, but the only way to prevent it is to give Dohyung his name, but that would mean the goblin would lose the ability to read Dohyung’s mind, which he’s not willing to do. The love of humans is fleeting, and by giving his name, the goblin would lose his one way of ensuring Dohyung’s fleeting feelings do not hurt him.
But even without knowing his name or retaining his memories, Dohyung falls for the goblin time and time again, thanks in part to a curse. Dohyung is followed by a grim reaper, determined to kill him both to obtain the last death he needs to become ruler of the underworld and get revenge against the goblin. This results in seemingly neverending attempts on Dohyung’s life, narrowly prevented each time by the goblin. This makes it much easier to seduce Dohyung as his beloved savior, but the threat of losing Dohyung forever is becoming too much to bear.
Will the goblin ever reveal his name to the human he loves more than anything in the world? Or will the reaper get revenge and take Dohyung before the goblin ever gets his chance?
Review:
Usually, I would start by discussing the art. While I do have a lot to talk about on that, there is something we have to go over first: the quality of the translation here. To my surprise, as I started reading this, I saw the old Copin Comics logo at the bottom of the pages. Copin Comics has since shut down, but it had some titles I remember fondly (and I hope other platforms will pick up). However, I also remember how much I disliked the font choices and the poor translation. This is a perfect example of both of those things. Unfortunately, if you’re expecting Lezhin’s level of quality, you will be sorely mistaken. There are a ton of misspellings, awkward phrasing, added words, and the like. It makes for a rough reading experience, one that is reminiscent of poorly done scanlations. There’s also a point where Dohyung switches from calling the goblin Savior to saying Eunin, which means savior. I certainly prefer Eunin to Savior, but it just suddenly changes over halfway through the story, which makes no sense. Then our goblin’s real name is spelled two different ways, and it just goes to show how inconsistent this is.
But that’s not the end of my disappointment. I was very excited about this one, seeing a big, boobalicious bottom on the cover with a pretty top. I adore it when the bottom is bigger and more masculine than the top, and I thought I would enjoy that with this one. Unfortunately, though, the art is really rough. It certainly has its pretty moments, but it reminds me of early Brothers Without a Tomorrow, which I, admittedly, hated. It’s very inconsistent and funky looking most of the time, which can make it hard to enjoy, including during the sexy time. Do you all remember Yaoi hands? They pop up in modern BL occasionally, but this title goes one step further. We have full-on Yaoi arms. Is it funny? Yes. Is it meant to be? Not at all. It’s just disappointing.
And, unfortunately, the story isn’t much better. The first half to two-thirds is nonsensical. I believe it’s supposed to span multiple weeks to days at minimum, but we jump from instance to instance of our goblin meeting Dohyung, Dohyung falling in love, and them having sex, so it all has to begin again. I never get the feeling that these two have any chemistry, and the memory loss isn’t even an issue, as it seems like Dohyung is ready to hop into bed as soon as his savior reveals he’s a mystical goblin. I feel like the creator was also struggling with the memory loss thing, as it isn’t long before they have sex using condoms for the first time, and then they never have to deal with the memory loss issue ever again. There are multiple story points that just don’t make sense, are abandoned, randomly appear to explain away something, or are just never explored, like who the goblin’s friends are, the sudden appearance of the imprint, and the like. Towards the end, it starts to come together, but barely so, and it all ends in a very unsatisfying way.
I also have to mention that this is one of those age gap titles where the two meet when one is an adult and the other is a child. I hate these setups so much, and while some titles are hard to hate because everything else works so well in them, this one is very easy to despise on that front. Our goblin promises to protect child Dohyung forever because Dohyung rescued him. But then the goblin doesn’t see him again until he’s an adult? So why did they have to meet when Dohyung was a child? I feel like this setup would’ve been just as successful if Dohyung, as a young adult, found him, rescued him, and then went through all the hardship he did. It wouldn’t be as weird, and the gap between when the goblin promised to protect him and when they met again wouldn’t have been as nonsensical. This might not bother many people, but it does me, and it’s just one more icky thing on top of a lousy cake.
Results:
This is a huge miss. The story makes little to no sense, the smut is boring, and the art is far from consistent. I’m being pretty harsh here, but I was really looking forward to this title. I love goblin romances and beefy bottoms, and while these elements can help a lot, they did not help here. If anything, their presence just made this all the more disappointing. This is on the shorter side, which means it is cheaper, but it’s still not worth it.
Have you read Two Moments in Time? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!