(In Korean: 악의 꽃)

(SPOILERS)

Reading this volume made me wonder if the scanlators were too thorough in their cleanups of Vol. 1 & 2 scans because the scanlation of Volume 3 is filled in more & looks much nicer.

(I like how this scene here. It's how Corea feels like at night)

(I like how Seh-wa's drawn on the right - a cute curious face)

I love all the patterns & details that were in the drawing. People at soompi said The Flower of Evil was beautifully drawn, but I didn't really get what they meant until I read this volume.

(Probably this page was colored in by the scanlators. Very nicely : ) )

Meat Street
Originally uploaded by sharilynanderson

So, the story goes like this. Seh-wa asks Seh-joon to demonstrate his love for her by killing himself, so Seh-joon gets in front of a car speeding down the road and is hospitalized. (Interesting plot, but still -1 for realness) Seh-wa feels so terrible for what she's done that she promises to never bother Seh-joon again. When Seh-joon recovers, his girlfriend Shi-yeun (who I think is older than Seh-joon b/c he addresses her as "sunbae," the Korean equivalent of "sempai" in Japanese; Seh-wa, who should be of same age as Seh-joon, refers to her as "unni," literally meaning "older sister.") comes home with Seh-joon & enjoys spending time with him. She visits few times more (like 1 more, I don't quite remember), and this makes Seh-wa mad. She breaks everything in her room and leaves home, planning to tire herself out by wandering in the streets. She's followed by Sung-chan, who walked home with Seh-wa from school and was waiting outside hoping that she'd get come out again because of Shi-yeun. Seh-wa wants to get rid of him, but she can't and eventually tires herself out. Eventually he baits her into a fast food place (like Lotte or McDonald's), & when she falls asleep he calls Seh-joon to pick her up. The next day, Seh-wa draws a lot of attention by walking out of a window on third floor & when Sung-chan comes to the scene she jumps on him, injuring his arm... (Again, very interesting, but still -1 for realness)

Anyhow, Yi Hyunsoo did a much better job overall with volume 3. She made Seh-wa more likable; her personality is very cute in a teasing way.

P.S. I found out Seh-joon & Seh-wa's last name - "Eun," (은) like "en" in "gotten."

• Visual quality: 10/11
• General plot: 8/10
• Comedy elements: 2.5/3
• Action elements: 2.5/3
• Romance elements: 3/4
• Mystery elements: 2/2
• Sophistication: 5/6
• Realness: 4/6

Overall: (8.2/10)

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(In Korean: 악의 꽃)

(SPOILERS)

The second volume of The Flower of Evil continues the interesting story (i.e. differently new, because of its incestuous theme) with much stronger drama. Having established certain unusual points with the readers in the first volume (or else we would have been confused), the manhwaga is free to develop the personalities and the plot more aggressively here.

A rumor about Seh-wa and Seh-joon kissing each other spreads in school, but Seh-wa is nonchalant and persistent in loving her brother. In fact I think the crisis only heightens the drama as Seh-wa speaks more eloquently to defend her right to love him:

As you can see, it's not the same kind of wine brewing from the last book. The drawing style hasn't changed, but it's strange how just the words can make so much difference in a comic.

About the drawing quality... I gave it 9/10 like last time. For comparison, I usually gave Goong 12/12, LOVE SOS 7.5/10, and Metal Heart 8.5/10. I admire how the characters are drawn realistically as the ones in Goong, but I don't like how the pages aren't filled with enough details and shading as in Goong and Metal Heart.

Seh-joon gets "filthy" with his girlfriend (I forgot her name), but the scenes were covered and brief, barely enough for us to get the point.

I thought this scene here was pretty accurate with how Korean high schools look & "feel" (heh, wrong grammar) like in a usual, late afternoon:



Yi Hyunsook (the manhwaga, a female I assume) introduced several new people but didn't build on them (I remember making a similar observation regarding one of the LOVE SOS volumes). Sung-chan is shown living with his uncle in the 1st chapter, but the uncle doesn't appear afterward (except maybe once more in the last chapter - was that the uncle?). The girl dressed like "whore" (from Vol. 1) who's interested in Sung-chan (who used to be called Gi-hoon) appears like just once here. So far, they were just space fillers that left me expecting something but not getting anything and feeling disconnected.

Although romance should be a major part of the story, it's not. There's just a lot of negative energy (i.e. jealousy) but not much constructive stuff to build on the relationships.

I didn't get what was funny with the author's note at the end of the manhwa here:

• Visual quality: 9/10
• General plot: 7.5/10
• Comedy elements: 2/3
• Action elements: 2/4
• Romance elements: 3/5
• Mystery elements: 2/3
• Sophistication: 3.5/5
• Realness: 4/6

Overall: (7.2/10)

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Malaysia's the star online reports about the cancellation of an anime adaptation of a Japanese manga, Hetalia.

"As soon as the adaptation of the manga into an animation was announced, a number of South Korean Internet users strongly called for the cancellation of the broadcast, as they felt the South Korean character insults their country. South Korea is depicted as a man who 'is weak before the United States, calls China his elder brother, and hates Japan'."

I actually wouldn't mind S. Korea being portrayed negatively as long as it's accurate. When did S. Korea ever call China an elder brother? Shouldn't that be North Korea? Also, I think "hates Japan" is other way around. Koreans may dislike Japan as a country for trying to conceal its holocaust past, but they don't have to waste their time "hating Japan." If the argument goes, "hey Japan, you used to be criminal," and the reply is "no" or "yes, but let's forget about it," still those war crimes and oppressive acts committed by the Japanese government during colonial rule are Japanese' problem, not Koreans'.

---------------
PS

I found a good discussion at a blog called Anime Might:

"Please excuse me a little bit for leaving you a comment like this.
(Also, my English is not perfect, but I will try my best.)

Actually…I was keeping on watching its progress so far.
How the anime was cancled, and how the Hetalia fans are reacting…kind of thing.

In order to understand the actions taken by (around ten thousands of) Koreans,
people should understand what their real complains are.
They simply have two major points.
1. No more WWII glorification
2. No more distorted Korean character
and there are a lot of ‘detailed’ complains related to it.

For example, many Koreans were offended when Korea in Hetalia was obsessed with Japanese flags.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohn_Kee-chung
Maybe this article can help you understand how Koreans would feel if Korean in Hetalia acts like that.

Koreans were already offended by several “anti-Korean” mangas like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_Kenkanryu
No Koreans signed up to protest about it at this point.
(I saw several Koreans saying “the art style looks too much like Yu yu Hakushou!”, though.)

In addition,
the glorification of WWII in Anime, game, and manga is never, not the first time Koreans are experiencing.
I can think of many examples…
I saw a Korean character in SRWOG (a Japanese GBA game) saying “Tora tora tora”
before the final battle operation. That quote was from Japanese soldiers in WWII.
Most Koreans were used to ignore these kind of things and just enjoy.

Plus, several people were worrying about its “shounen-ai” expression
broadcasted by “kids” station in Japan.

Actually, Korean people did not (could not) stop Hetalia Anime broadcast.
Koreans have no such rights. They can only persuade and protest about the anime.
The Japanese TV station decides it. They said that they had “various circumstances”.
The real reason might be more complicated than people are thinking.

The Japanese TV station did not broadcast the show and Koreans got cooled down a lot for now.
So far, Koreans are OK with Hetalia’s DVD and mobile phone premise, I think.

-
“The show is still available online for those who still want to watch it but the Koreans are also trying to stop that”
->I think you are talking about Youtube broadcast or something.
Online broadcast is illegal. Completely illegal.
In order to watch this anime, you should buy the DVD.
(Japanese people can afford it through mobile phone service, too.)
I think the Japanese anime company is stopping the online broadcast.
They would not be able to make money if everyone watches the anime online.

“How the hell this show insults Korea if they don’t even appear on it. ”
->On the official Hetalia anime website, there definitely was Korea on the list.
You could see the official character design and profile of Korea.
Maybe the animation did not have Korea “yet” at the beginning of the season.
They were going to have Korea at some point.
(Koreans stopped it, so it is hardly going to happen in the furture.)

“…several young Korean’s sliced their finger in protest…”
-> Please, believe me, not much Koreans go THAT far.
That issue (led by some Korean nationalists) and this Hetalia issue (led by Koreans
who are interested in anime a lot….I would say….Korean Otaku?) are completely different.
They have different reasons, different point of view, different reaction, etc.

-

Still, in my opinion, I also think that the way Koreans approached the anti-Hetalia movement was not the best.
They could take time and think of more…smarter and cooler ways.

I just hope that there will be a peaceful resolution…."

(In Korean: 악의 꽃)

(SPOILERS)

Since reading Goong, Metal Heart, and Love SOS, I've come to think that manhwa is pretty decent. So I started reading The Flower of Evil with a very high expectation, especially since the general response about this manhwa at soompi was positive, and the title sounded cool in Korean ("Aak-eauee Cgot"... by 'cg' I mean the Japanese "k," like "sodeska"). It's been a few weeks since I began, and it took that long to finish because the story wasn't interesting enough to motivate me. -_-


One of the several soompi members who shared my view was happy kudasai, who wrote here:

"ehhhh.
i admit, i was also sucked in by the art.
it IS really gorgeous[at least the cover art is...]
but the storyline is a bit...annoying.


so, the girl is obsessed, and what else?
the action was so slow, i just gave up.
not very captivating, even if it is dark or whatevs."

Actually I don't even think the art is "really gorgeous" really. It is better drawn than Love SOS, but somewhat worse than Goong; it's about the same level as Metal Heart, although they're completely different in style. Like Goong, the characters in The Flower of Evil are drawn more realistically. For example, the nose is bnot drawn as a <> or / or \, and hair is not the VVV as in a typical Japanese manga.








Seh-wa is the main heroine, and she has a jealous love for her brother, Seh-joon. The first chapter begins by asking the readers, "Would you rather receive love from everyone or only receive love from the person you like. Between the two, which one would you want?" Seh-wa has obviously made the choice to be loved only by her brother and to only love him. Seh-wa is a complete recluse at school (and supposedly she is the hottest girl too... some boys like her even more because she doesn't let them approach her), she always interrupts girls meeting with Seh-joon, and she leaves early for home whenever she pleases. The thing is... the manhwaga (or mangaka) seems to imply that that the two options are related and are mutually exclusive, but they're not! Seh-wa's just making a big deal for no reason.

At least in volume 1, Seh-wa's interaction with her brother is not very entertaining. Seh-wa simply complains and makes a ruckus every time Seh-joon does anything with his girlfriend, etc. Although Seh-wa's face is drawn very expressively, I can't sympathize with her because she's getting annoyed by things that don't matter.


Overall, Volume 1 of The Flower of Evil seems to lack focus. I'm going to read few more volumes to see if if there is anything better.

• Visual quality: 9/10
• General plot: 6/10
• Comedy elements: 4.5/6
• Action elements: 2/2
• Romance elements: 1.5/3
• Mystery elements: 2/3
• Sophistication: 2.5/5
• Realness: 4.5/6

Overall: (7.1/10)

Download @ mangatraders

Although I've been reviewing Goong all this time, I finally hit something completely different: Kenkanryu, the "Hating Korea Wave" (or as the article linked below argues, "the 'Hate Korea' Wave").

"Kenkanryu in the Realm of the Revisionists"

I appreciate Matt for his sincere investigation of this very controversial topic. This Matt is much more reliable and genuine than the Matt of Occidentalism, who sounds pretty much like a typical western Japanophile having set out to defend pretty much anything negative about Japan.

These are his posts regarding Kenkanryu. Compare them with the Occidentalism posts: "Kenkanryu in the New York Times" and "A final word on Kenkanryu."

I liked them at first. They are rather more about the New York Times' article, "Ugly Images of Asian Rivals Become Best Sellers in Japan", by Norimitsu Onishi, than the comic itself. Ok. This was the first thing that made Occi Matt sound a little fishy:

"So who is the writer of the article? Judging from his name, ‘Norimitsu Onishi’,
it would seem that he is Japanese, but I have my doubts about that. I would be
willing to bet that he is actually an ethnic Korean.

Norimitsu Onishi just doesnt hate Japan, he seems to hate the US too. In an article for the New York Times, he described terrorists killed by US soldiers as ‘victims‘, putting them in the same category as innocent restaurant workers killed by terrorists."

Strangely enough, one of the characters in the novel is Norimitsu Onishi (the scanlation could be wrong). Anyhow, occi Matt writes in his 2nd post:

"including the author of the NYT article, hack writer Norimitsu Onishi"

Why can't a Japanese be not be anti-Korean? Or rather, why does someone got to be a Korean if he's an anti-Japanese? Then I guess Hideki Kajimura, who made a very neutral presentation of the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute in his article "The Question of Takeshima/Tokdo," isn't a Japanese? And then he tries to get away with all this mischaracterization by saying it doesn't matter if he's a Korean or not. How pathetic.

• "'It’s not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of
  today!' In another passage the book states that 'there is nothing at all in
  Korean culture to be proud of.'"

"In fact, it is clear from reading the comic that the character means that
Japan had laid the foundation of modern development in Korea, by bringing
modernization, economic growth, and social reform."

Simply it's this. These quotes all sound just really dumb, prejudiced, and uninformed, but as you can see Occi Matt tries to defend them as some sort rational historical arguments.

"Actually, not every character Japanese character is drawn with western features,
so this is a huge exaggeration on the part of the author of the article. He can
only get away with it because he knows that the majority will never actually see
the comic."

Actually, Occi Matt can get away with making this claim (not) because the majority will never actually see the comic (not).

"In the picture below, it may be possible to discern which characters are meant
to be perceived as Japanese and which are meant to be perceived as Korean:"
-Matt (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

"Interesting. Let's make a comparison here. Let's say that it was said that in the comic, apples were all drawn to look fresh, but the oranges were drawn to look rotten. The rebuttal to this? "Not all of the apples look fresh. See? I leave it to your judgement." How can anyone judge when no one is shown any oranges?" -Matt (Gusts of Popular Feeling)

Well, I also want to add that I just really love how all the links (or most of them) that Matt put out for us are "Not Found"; this article's a goner and the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies at the University of Oxford got rid of Cleansing History, Cleansing Japan: Kobayashi Yoshinori’s Analects of War and Japan’s Revisionist Revival. I'm okay with a blog post or an MSN space disappearing, but definitely not a scholarly journal article from public view. So, here's the exact article that I accessed as HTML by Google in doc format.

(In Korean: 궁)

(SPOILERS)

In the previous post about Volume 3, I showed 3 pages where Yul lost the bet about whether Goong Eunich has feeling for him or not. Well, the punishment that Yul agreed to take for losing the bet is pretty scary: at the school festival, Yul dresses up as a bride and meets Goong Eunich as husband!!!

About the Shin Ramen + egg pun... I said before that I don't like Shin because he's cruel to Chae-gyeong; Yul arranged for Shin to be egged in public, so I don't like him any better. Shin's previous girlfriend, Min Hyo-rin, knows that Yul is responsible for the incident, but she doesn't want the marriage to work out, so she keeps quiet.

The court politics is pretty interesting. Yul was originally supposed to inherit the throne, but because the king died Shin got to be the prince. Yul's mother wants to change that, and, since Shin's father feels guilty about the whole situation, he can be easily convinced to appoint Yul as the new prince. Yul's mother (i.e. formally addressed as Debi-mama) is determined to give Chae-gyeong a hard time so that her life in the palace and marriage will not go smoothly. She asks Chae-gyeong to "stay by her side" when Prince Shin leaves for England, and then she constantly ridicules her (like, just when Chae-gyeong leaves the room, Yul's mother says, "A [princess]... not knowing any English and having translator beside her is so embarassing. How can she hang around with Prince Wililam (who's visiting from England).." - Prince William visits from England). This does have real effect on Chae-gyeong by Volume 5; she stops hanging around William and gets depressed a bit. Eventually she stops eating and loses a lot of weight. Volume 4 ends without having any of the issues being resolved, except that Chae-gyeong and Shin seem to have gotten a lot closer to each other than ever before.

• Visual quality: 12/12
• General plot: 9/10
• Comedy elements: 5/6
• Action elements: 2/2
• Romance elements: 2.5/3
• Mystery elements: 2.5/3
• Sophistication: 6/6
• Realness: 6/6

Overall: (9.4/10)

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Download @ soompi