Manga Review | Spend Wisely by Niyama

Title: Spend Wisely



Manami Godai is a loan shark, no better than a financial gangster. Unfortunately, as much as he would like to be, he’s not really cut out for this job. His main problem? His attraction for those he’s supposed to extort for money. Too many times, he’s fallen for someone, and they’ve run away without paying him a dime. Not to mention his soft heart, often letting those he feels sorry for forgo making payments if they’re sorry enough. This has resulted in Manami being in debt to those above him. Determined to pay off his own debt, he fully intends to get payment from his biggest debtor: the Kanekura family.

The father, who was the principal debtor, had disappeared, leaving behind his two sons, whom Manami intends to extort for the remainder of his debt. When Manami and his right-hand man find the Kanekura household, they find a humble shack in disrepair and an unkempt yard. Manami’s heart is already stirring, feeling for the people here, but he holds firm and tries to get in contact with those who live there. There are supposedly two brothers and their grandmother living there, and upon first contact, Manami meets the younger brother.

The young man is cute but far too young for Manami’s liking. It’s not long after, however, that he meets the older brother, who couldn’t be any closer to Manami’s type. While he needs money, he wants Makoto Kanekura, and after some gangster-level coercion on his part, he gets just that. And he makes Makoto an offer he can’t refuse: every time they have sex, Manami will take off $300 from the debt. Makoto, an upstanding and honest guy, still intends to pay back the debts with cash, but he can’t help coming to Manami time and time again for more.

The pleasure he gets from Manami is priceless.

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Manhwa Review | One-way Romance by TESIK

Title: One-way Romance



Jae-hwan is a reporter. A broke reporter, more specifically, having lost all of his money in the stocks. Looking for a huge scoop to score a huge payday, he turns his attention to the upper crust. More specifically, he focuses on Hong Kong mogul and CEO Heo Chung. He’s gotten a tip from a colleague that Heo Chung is going to be at a rooftop party, and Jae-hwan is determined to go and schmooze with Heo Chung, hoping to unearth some juicy gossip at least but to also expose his company’s ties to the mafia.

Unfortunately, Jae-hwan isn’t the only one looking to hang out with the hot-shot CEO. Every time Jae-hwan tries to get close, a whole gaggle of people surrounds Heo Chung, making it impossible for Jae-hwan to get in to talk to him. Add to the problem that he’s been ensnared by a beautiful woman, buying round after round of drinks, and this mission has become impossible if it wasn’t already. Sloshed, Jae-hwan’s sense of decorum has gone out the window, and he decides to just go for it. He grabs two glasses of wine and makes his way over to Heo Chung, but he, unfortunately, bumps into someone else the media has kept their eye on: Liu Yuan, leader of the Hong Kong mafia group 13.

Jae-hwan spills all of the wine on Liu Yuan just before passing out. When he wakes up, he finds himself chained and in bed, with Liu Yuan explaining that he owes him around $90,000 for the ruined clothes. It goes without saying that Jae-hwan has gotten much more than he ever bargained for. Not only will he probably not get the scoop and subsequent payday he was hoping for, but there’s a chance he doesn’t make it out of this with his life, either.

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Manga Review | My Dashing Delivery Driver by Sabamiso

Title: My Dashing Delivery Driver



Isshin just lost his job. Thankfully, the super hot and outgoing delivery man Haze is there to offer him a position at the delivery business he works at. Surely, this can’t be any harder than what he did at his company job, right? Wrong. As it turns out, the delivery business is pretty labor intensive, which explains how Haze ended up with his ripped body.

Regardless, thankful for the opportunity to get so close and personal with Haze, Isshin does his best to succeed. After his first major blunder, his decide to throw him a celebration, much to Isshin’s dismay. It only gets worse when Haze arrives to take part in celebrating his mistake. To dull the embarrassment, Isshin drinks excessively, resulting in him throwing up all over Haze and, in turn, his leather jacket.

With the jacket ruined and possibly even his chance with Haze ruined along with it, Isshin is determined to pay back Haze for the jacket. Haze is more than happy to take him up on the offer, taking advantage of the situation to work Isshin harder at work. Plus, this gives Haze the chance to tease his secret admirer, but what happens when Isshin takes the bait?

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Manhwa Review | A Thousand Cranes by Jeong Seokchan

Title: A Thousand Cranes



Craig’s life has always been challenging. He’s always played the role of a parent to his younger sibling and had to be a punching bag to their father. So when his father disappears, Craig momentarily believes this is the relief he and his sibling desperately need. Unfortunately, though, debt collectors come knocking once their father is gone. It turns out that Craig’s father has accumulated a massive amount of debt and listed Craig as the guarantor for all of it. Craig sticks around, unable to leave his sibling behind and unwilling to throw away all of the responsibility his father did. He quits school, takes on as many jobs as possible, and starts the neverending task of paying off his father’s debts.

Over time, though, the responsibility is only getting heavier and heavier, and as time goes on, the debt never seems to let up, no matter how much he pays off. Life is beginning to seem not worth the effort. Then, on an evening when those dark thoughts are incredibly taxing, Craig comes upon a scene one would only expect to see in gangster films. In the shadows of a dark alley, there is a dead body, and standing above the dead body is a killer. Craig runs off but is soon captured by the killer. At first, the killer, whose name turns out to be Dean, is fully intent on silencing Craig forever, but there is something about Craig that Dean can’t seem to let go of. So, instead of killing Craig, Dean decides to hire him and take on all of Craig’s debt, so Dean is the only creditor.

With some of his stress lifted, Craig finds himself lighter and freer, even when tied exclusively to Dean. As they continue to work and learn more about each other’s pains and struggles, the superficial line between debtor and creditor begins to blur. Can these two broken and struggling people find solace in each other? Even as Dean’s job in the dark underbelly threatens to tear everything they’ve built apart?

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