Manga Match 70 Oh! Holy + Moon Yoo

One of the lesser acknowledged blessings in this world is Webtoons. Minimal ads, reliable weekly updates, and great quality stories. If y'all aren't already on Webtoons I'd recommend checking out.

Lowkey when I write these reviews I get super paranoid that these people will read my review and come murder me in my sleep for not taking the time to fall in love with their work. But then I remind myself that honestly my opinion doesn't really matter and then I just go on with my life.

{Spoilers, except I don't remember everything that happened so...}

Recently, Oh! Holy ended. I remember at the beginning I thought it was just going to be a sort of slap-stick rom-com situation, but it turned into something that was much more supernatural and borderline creepy at some points. I thought it was just going to be the development of romance between Holy and Jamie, but it got really complex with the addition of Jamie's family drama and TR (Toiler Reaper). Honestly speaking, I almost unsubscribed from the Webtoon because the pacing wasn't really doing it for me. It didn't seem like much was going on. But, because I'm such a completionist, I really try not to unsubscribe from things unless they're unbearably cringe.

Would I recommend this Webtoon? I think the art is pretty good, the characters are pretty charming at certain points, and the story is compelling at certain points if you can get over some of the reoccurring gag jokes like Holy being super strong and fawning over Jamie. For me it wasn't a super satisfying ending and I never got too invested in it so I'd say it's alright if you're looking for a bit of a unique storyline and want to get into the supernatural genre, but aren't yet sure if you can handle spoopy situations.

I would've done a separate review for Moon Yoo, but I just feel like I don't have a lot to say about both of them. So, I decided to combine them.

I think Moon Yoo was definitely a wild card. The deadpan humor, the egotistical and dark protagonist, the unconventional art. All of it was a bit outside the box and definitely not what I was expecting. And I wasn't expecting to like it so much. It was full of all of these quirky stories that followed Moon Yoo, the last man on the moon. The premise of the story was that Earth built a station on the Moon to destroy an asteroid that was headed to destroy Earth. And then I forgot what happened, but there was somehow a miscount of seats because of super spy stuff or something and Moon Yoo was left as the last man on the moon. He was almost entirely alone except for this super buff kangaroo. And it turns out their plan to destroy the asteroid only partially worked because the world still was reverted to sometime in the past and had to start rebuilding. So their only source of entertainment on Earth was to look at Moon Yoo through CCTV that were still rolling on the moon base. This in itself was pretty funny since Moon Yoo was doing various unsavory things, but because of the way the video got to Earth, everyone misunderstood him as this noble and admirable guy. They even got a guy on Earth to dub over this stuff, but he ended up dubbing over the kangaroo instead of Moon Yoo. It was just random things like this that really made the Webtoon as a whole really stand out. It was a lot of stupid humor.

But surprisingly, it had a really good plot if you continued following along with it. I'm kind of sad that it didn't get more views because it was such a unique concept with a very prideful protagonist that eventually sacrificed his chance to go back to Earth in order to save all of humanity. It was a pretty touching sequence of character development, especially when you think back to how much he's grown throughout this whole experience.

I'd definitely recommend you read this. I think it deserves a lot more acknowledgement and attention because of how unique the story is. But you'll have to acclimate yourself to the art style which is where I think he lost people. It was quirky, engaging, and unlike a lot of the other Webtoons on the platform.

As you can see, I've been doing a whole lot of reading rather than watching these days. I'm currently subscribed to over 50 manga and...I don't even know how many Webtoons. It's kind of crazy, but a really nice hobby to have I think.

Manga Match 63 Evergreen Tea Shop

Right now, I'm just mass-reviewing all the manga I've read recently because I drank a can of Yerba Mate and I've got some time in between my classes. Honestly I haven't had a whole lot of time to just sit down and not think, even when I get into bed I'm still thinking and it's hard to numb the mind sometimes to just not think. Yikes. But that's why fluffy manga exists right? To help numb the mind and bring some happiness.

{Spoilers, except it's pretty fluffy so you already know}

Honestly, there's not a whole lot of deep drama in this Webtoon. It's there, and it's borderline undeveloped/not deep enough for me, but because of the color palette and the general mood and tone of the Webtoon it really fits. It didn't take itself overly seriously and give us some sort of shockingly dark secret. The love triangle wasn't too over the top. The characters all melded together really nicely in a natural web of relationships and links to one another. Everyone's motivations were perfectly clear, coherent, and consistent. There are honestly no complaints.

The Webtoon itself revolves around a local business called Evergreen Tea Shop. It follows the lives of the daughter of the shop and her friends in a very enhanced version of slice of life I would say. It's got just enough drama to keep you entertained with like who's going to end up dating who and will the owner of the tea shop end up with the coffee shop owner across the street and little things like that. But it was never over the top. Even when the tea shop owner had an accident that was totally kdrama-esque, it didn't make me go "oh my god this is stupid and unnecessary." It was intentional to let him say goodbye to his wife and find a new love. It was really touching actually.

As you can see, this was a pretty soft Webtoon. There's not a whole lot more to say because it really was just stripped back in terms of drama for the most part. Maybe it'll be a bit too mild if you like really spicy manga, but I think it was good. Good for the soul, you know?

Manga Match 39 Chasing the Sun

After watching Crazy Rich Asians I want a $40 million wedding like that. Damn that was gorgeous.

{Spoilers}

Chasing the Sun was a dip into a different subcategory of webtoon. I've read quite a few Korean webtoons and a few Japanese ones, but this was my first step into Chinese webtoons. It was a little different with the sound effects and how they kind of sounded in my head. Haha I guess it's because I grew up surrounded more with Chinese culture it just seemed a little more familiar right off the bat. For instance, the main character's name is Ke Le and my first instinct was to laugh because it literally means they named her Coca Cola, and it turns out that that was one of the on-going jokes in the webtoon actually.

As far as the actual webtoon goes, it was super cute. You could probably already tell from the art style, but it was definitely very cutesy. It was a kind of push-and-pull romance between Ke Le and the "two" boys she falls in love with who turn out to be the same person. Honestly it was frustrating knowing that Ye Ling was only one person and that Ke Le, one of the smartest people in school, wasn't able to figure that out. I mean I guess it was all part of the plot, but it was so obvious it was painful. There was a little added ~spice~ because Ye Ling is such an enigma, working in a bar as a high school student, smoking (don't smoke kids it's very bad for you), and his tragic past and current situation due to his father's criminal record. But of course the two of them were able to resolve Ye Ling's problems, this is a romance webtoon after all, and live happily ever after. Of course there were some hiccups here and there, but it was overall a very cutesy webtoon that I'd recommend you read for some bad boy vibes, some cute art, and a very cute couple. 

BTW, they live happily ever after