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Manhwa Review | A Man of Virtue by GGANG-E

Title: A Man of Virtue

Author(s): GGANG-E

Artist(s): Wook

Jinwoo works with his greatest enemy, Sangtae. Their rivalry began back in high school, where Jinwoo used to dominate academically. However, when Sangtae transfers to Jinwoo’s school, it isn’t long before Jinwoo roots himself firmly in Jinwoo’s spot, leaving Jinwoo permanently in second place. While this is frustrating, Jinwoo isn’t too worried about it. Of course, this won’t last forever. Sangtae is going to go to college, and they probably won’t ever see each other again, right? Wrong. As luck would have, Sangtae ends up working in the same company and even in the same department, and just as he did in high school, Sangtae rules the roost, leaving Jinwoo in the dust.

One evening, when Jinwoo is particularly frustrated by Sangtae, Jinwoo drinks excessively. Then, in his drunken stupor, he pukes on a haechi statue, drawing the beast’s ire. The following day, at random, Jinwoo is inundated by dirty fantasies to the point that he can barely function. Unfortunately, amid one of these fantasies, Sangtae catches Jinwoo trying to relieve himself, resulting in further embarrassment and rivalry between the two. Amid their fighting, though, Jinwoo realizes that he only gets the fantasies when he is near Sangtae, leading him to conclude that these are actually Sangtae’s fantasies.

With Sangtae mysteriously at the crux of Jinwoo’s curse, will he be able to team up with his greatest enemy to solve this issue? Or is this just one more reason to avoid Sangtae for the rest of his life?

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Manga Review | Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku by Fujita

Title: Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

Author(s): Fujita

Artist(s): Fujita

Narumi and Hirotaka have been friends since childhood when they bonded over their love of nerdy hobbies. For Narumi, she loved manga and anime. For Hirotaka, his love of video games dominated everything else in his life. However, as their carefree childhood days flew by, Hirotaka soon realized that he cared for Narumi almost as much as his video games. Unfortunately, though, those idyllic days of childhood bliss faded away, and so did Narumi and Hirotaka’s friendship.

As adults, Hirotaka and Narumi end up working at the same office. While they don’t immediately kick off as friends again in adulthood, they find solace in each other’s company once they reveal that their previous obsessions have only intensified. Able to be 100% herself with Hirotaka, Narumi spends a lot of her time complaining and confiding in him, whether it be about her fujoshi-related hobbies, work concerns, or even her failing love life. Hirotaka, still infatuated with Narumi, faithfully stands by as her shoulder to cry on. One day, though, listening to another tale of woe from Narumi due to her various love interests leaving her because of her otaku hobby, Hirotaka takes the plunge. He asks Narumi:

Why doesn’t she just date him instead?

And so begins the struggle of love between a closeted fujoshi and a game-obsessed, antisocial otaku. What could go wrong?

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Manhwa Review | ANTI P.T. by Lee Gpiee

Title: ANTI P.T.

Author(s): Lee Gpiee

Artist(s): Lee Gpiee

Param is a perfect employee. He was a special hire at one of the top companies in Korea, one of the youngest employees to be promoted into his position, and he’s an overall likable guy at work. Life doesn’t get much better than this! Unfortunately, though, Param isn’t as perfect as it would seem. He has a secret he’s kept under wraps for quite a long time. He has a crush on his coworker Taehyun. To top it all off, Param has a terribly sensitive body. It doesn’t take much before he is in a highly awkward situation.

On a day like any other, Param does his best to get through the day without any issues. However, he ends up pinned against his work crush in a crowded elevator. This, of course, results in Param’s typical awkward situation. As soon as he gets the chance, he escapes the elevator and heads to the nearest bathroom to help relieve himself. Along the way, he ends up running into a beefy delinquent. Param is less than polite about the run-in and ends up rubbing the delinquent the wrong way. Unfortunately for Param, he drops his work ID, and when the delinquent follows Param to the restroom to return it, he ends up catching Param in the act.

Thankfully, the chances of ever running into this guy are pretty much nill… right? Wrong. That same day, Param heads down to the company gym to start his new workout routine, only to find that “delinquent” is not actually a delinquent but a personal trainer for the company. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the personal trainer, Hwi, blackmails Param. Either he signs up for classes with Hwi for double the standard rate, or Hwi tells the entire company how much of a perv Param is. With no other choice, Param agrees, but it isn’t long before these workouts go beyond that standard gym routine.

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Manhwa Review | Undercover Partners by JayJay

Title: Undercover Partners

Author(s): JayJay

Artist(s): Luvloo, Otae

Kyuho Je is over being a conglomerate family heir. He is looking for any way possible to get out from under his family while maintaining his lifestyle for himself. He finds the answer to all his problems through a money-laundering expert by the codename “Smurf,” who, in the real world, is known as Kangha Nam. Once Kyuho catches Kangha, he extorts him into entering a contract. Kangha will help Kyuho launder money from Jeho corporation, his family’s corporation, while acting as Kyuho’s lover. Kangha isn’t all that willing to go along with it at first, but when Kyuho offers to compensate him at any price Kangha sees fit, the offer is just too good to be true.

Kyuho gets to work on his plan immediately. He gets Kangha on at work as his secretary and begins setting the stage for their very fake but very public romance. Kangha charges for every touch, every event, and every favor, which grows his nest egg exponentially. However, as time goes on and they spend more and more time in these compromising scenarios, it becomes much harder to distinguish what emotions are real and which are just part of the act. While Kyuho and Kangha try to identify the legitimacy of their feelings and relationship, the looming threat of their illegal schemes being discovered is ready to ruin everything.

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Manhwa Review | Alien in My Wardrobe by BINGO

Title: Alien in My Wardrobe

Author(s): BINGO

Artist(s): BINGO

Haesung Park is your average corporate professional. He goes to work, works hard, goes home, and goes to sleep, a regular routine for an average guy… at least, it would be if Haesung didn’t also spend his days fantasizing about his sunbae at work, Shiwon. Shiwon is kind and reliable and one of the reasons Haesung can do his best at work. However, in Haesung’s fantasies, Shiwon is dominant and cruel, which is exactly what Haesung wants. Haesung is secretly into BDSM, so he tries not to get close to anyone. Who could ever accept someone with such weird tastes?

Never fear. The heavens answer him with a man who conveniently crashes onto Haesung’s balcony. He’s tall, dark, and handsome, not to mention a jerk, which aligns perfectly with Haesung’s BDSM fantasies. However, he isn’t just any man. He is an alien from a species whose ultimate goal is to overtake humanity and eventually the Earth because their planet is dying. While Lotus, the alien, doesn’t intend to make Haesung his main research subject, Haesung mistakenly links up to Lotus’s research.

Beggars can’t be choosers, though, so Lotus is just fine with using Haesung as his research subject. Haesung, however, is not as gungho with the situation. So, Haesung strikes a deal: Lotus can stay with him and research to his heart’s content… if Lotus will help him fulfill his BDSM fantasies. Much to Haesung’s surprise, Lotus accepts. So begins the odd partnership between an alien and a human. What could go wrong?

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Novel Review | Lip and Sword by Jin Shisi Chai

Title: Lip and Sword

Author(s): Jin Shisi Chai

Xing Ming is the host of Pearl Line, a news analysis show for the station Pearl TV Station News Center. He’s attractive, talented, and truly cares about the news he puts out. As a result, during the end-of-the-year banquet for the station, Xing Ming is awarded the Top Ten News Centers of the Year award. However, not everyone feels he is deserving of it. Director Chen Linan, who actually recruited Xing Ming initially and put him in the position of hosting Pearl Line, now no longer feels he is worthy of his accolades or role on the show. This is all because Zhuang Lei, rumored to be Chen Linan’s niece or lover, was the host of Pearl Line before she went on maternity leave, which allowed Xing Ming to be her replacement. Even though she has recovered and is ready to return, Xing Ming refuses to give up his spot.

Due to his frustration and drunkness, Chen Linan confronts Xing Ming at the party. At first, Xing Ming isn’t worried over the drunken Chen Linan’s pestering… until Chen Linan brings up Xing Ming’s dead father, a convicted rapist. In a blind rage, Xing Ming beats Chen Linan over the head with a wine bottle in front of everyone at the party. In a panic, knowing his job is on the line, Xing Ming reaches out to the station chairman, Yu Zhongye, and offers himself up in exchange for leniency regarding his punishment. While Yu Zhongye does take him up on his offer, and they spend a night together, the director and chairman are set to fire him the following day. Once more, in a fit of rage, Xing Ming fights off the security guards and poses an offer to the chairman: let me create my own show with my own team from scratch. If he doesn’t get decent ratings during a six-month period, he will leave on his own.

Yu Zhongye agrees, but as Xing Ming faces setback after setback, he constantly has to return to Yu Zhongye for favors. As he gives himself over to the chairman repeatedly, Xing Ming begins to question if this is all worth it and what his sexuality is. However, more than anything, Xing Ming wonders if what he feels for Yu Zhongye is truly admiration or if it is something deeper? And is Yu Zhongye capable of loving anyone for more than their body?

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Manga Review | Sweat and Soap by Kintetsu Yamada

Title: Sweat and Soap

Author(s): Kintetsu Yamada

Artist(s): Kintetsu Yamada

Asako works at a toiletry manufacturing company in the finance department, which is convenient since she struggles with something that makes life pretty tricky: sweat. Asako sweats much more than average, so she has to be extra hygienic to avoid smelling out in public. Even with her above-average hygiene habits, though, Asako still finds herself stressing over her smell. As a child, she was relentlessly bullied for sweating, and that trauma has carried over into her adulthood. So, her days are spent in constant anxiety and fear over getting too close to those around her and becoming the laughingstock of her peers due to her hygiene.

Her fears come to a head when the lead product developer Kotaro Natori at work approaches her in the lobby because of her smell. He has an unnaturally strong sense of smell because he develops the soaps their company produces, and Asako’s scent is particularly strong to him. However, he doesn’t dislike her smell at all. Instead, he is inspired by it, and he desperately needs Asako’s odor to inspire him for the upcoming Winter line of soaps he is preparing to present. Though Asako wants to do anything but let Kotaro smell her all day, for the company’s sake, she agrees to let Kotaro smell her at the office daily. It’s not long, though, before Kotaro is drawn to Asako for more than just her smell, and even Asako is beginning to enjoy these sniff sessions a bit more than she expected.

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Manhwa Review | The Devil’s Temptation by Youn

Title: The Devil's Temptation

Author(s): Youn

Artist(s): Youn

All Hyun of the owl tribe wants out of life is yummy food, comfy furniture, and never having to leave the house. But unfortunately, he has to work to survive. To keep up with his corporate job, he has to attend the holiday party at the end of the year. What makes it worse is his archnemesis from the snake tribe, Ivan, is there and makes it a point to tease Hyun as much as he can. To survive the night, Hyun drinks himself into a tizzy, only to embarrass himself in front of the director of the company and his crush from the snake tribe, Alek. Thankfully, Hyun doesn’t have to suffer the party for too long as he passes out.

When he wakes up, not only is he in bed with Ivan, but he has a weird mark on his neck. This is an imprint specific to the snake tribe that binds the marker to the marked so that the marked craves physical intimacy with their marker. It’s okay, though, because there is a cure, but it could take months to develop, and in the meantime, Hyun could experience flu-like symptoms… or possibly go blind if he doesn’t get enough pheromones from Ivan. The worst part, though, is that the mark also attracts other members of the snake tribe and him to them, so he has to juggle intimacy with his enemy Ivan and try to keep from pouncing on his crush and boss Alek, too.

Can an owl like Hyun survive in the snake pit? And even if Hyun does survive, what does this new level of intimacy mean for his relationship with Ivan and Alek? Do they only like him for the mark, or is there something more?

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