Manga Match 35 We Broke Up

So yesterday I watched Thor: Ragnarok on Netflix with my dad and he fell asleep in the middle of the movie. LOL I love movie nights with my family. This was super random but ya know sometimes I just have really random thoughts.

{Spoilers except it's so heart-wrenching but at the same time like La La Land heart-wrenching so you lowkey already know what's gonna happen but it still hurts ya know?}

So it starts off with this couple named Woori and Wonyoung and how they were forced to live together due to financial difficulty after they broke up. However, the reason they broke up is the reason why many couples find it difficult to stay together: they got too used to each other. It's the sad truth that after you spend too much time together it can be hard to see what you first liked about the person and keep finding new things to love about them. So in a way you can't really fault either party for the breakup; it was mutual. And so this is the story of how they navigate this weird limbo in which they live with one another but aren't together. Woori eventually finds a new romantic interest in Hyunwoo, and while it seems to go well at first, when they begin to form a more intimate relationship, something's holding Woori back from fully committing to this perfectly nice guy. And at the same time Wonyoung is getting a jumpstart on his music career after so long. And though there are girls interested in him, when he sees Woori so happy with another guy it stirs up those nostalgic feelings of long ago when Woori and he were happily in love. And it's sad really to see your past play out and seeing someone who you were once so close with being happy with someone else. So you can't really help but feel for Wonyoung, or at least that was me. And at the same time Woori was also having a hard time letting go of Wonyoung because he kept giving all the signs of wanting her back. This led to a difficult and very adult situation where the two of them really had to evaluate their relationship where it stood. And that meant that even though the relationship between the two of them could be rekindling, it didn't mean they had to stoke the fire. So instead of getting back together, Woori had to be the adult and tell Wonyoung that whatever bond they had shared in the past was a wonderful thing, but it was still in the past. Even if they got back together, the past would repeat itself and they would run into the same problems. And so the two of them parted ways and were able to grow in their careers and just grow in general into two very successful adults. But it was sad. It was like in La La Land where they could've had a life together if they had just stayed, but they sacrificed that for a successful career. And it leaves a lot of "what if" questions too, which are some of the worst questions. Like what if they had moved out of that shared apartment from the start? What if she had said yes to getting back together? What if Wonyoung didn't have a girlfriend when they met years later at that wedding? What if Woori had stayed with Hyunwoo? What if Woori never dated Hyunwoo in the first place? There's just so many what if's that could've happened that would've resulted in a different outcome. Sure it's a realistic interpretation of what probably would've happened in that situation, but it still makes me sad knowing that their love wasn't meant to last.

Yeah, so if you're looking for a heart-wrenching, La La Land-esque manhwa I think this would be a good one. It's got a pretty engaging storyline and it's just really sad in a way that I don't think I'll ever get sick of. It's a glamorized reality for sure, but I think the aspect of reality it does cover is one that always hits too close to home. It was a good read.

Hngggh Hyunwoo was such a nice guy

LOOK IT'S AN ORANGE MARMALADE REF

Yeah, it just really hit me in the feels this song. This kind of feeling just hits me right in the heart without fail.

Manga Match 31 Cherry Boy, That Girl

It's another Friday, the Friday before dead week that is, so I decided that it's alright to take a kind of lazy day for once. Tomorrow the grind will begin and won't end for approximately a week and a half. Also, if you have time you should watch Candy Jar. It's a movie on Netflix. LOL maybe I liked it because it triggered me back to the year in high school where I did debate and was absolute trash at it. It's kind of a cliche movie with a pretty typical sort of premise and I can't say the acting is the best or anything, I watch a lot more anime than traditional movies if you couldn't tell, and I can't say that it's the best movie, but it was pretty relatable, especially if the whole college decisions thing is still fresh in your mind. Eto~ but you came here for manga, so manga I will give to you.

You know, there's a few manga I haven't gotten around to reviewing, mostly because they're Webtoons that I read along with as they updated weekly or sporadically, so I didn't really feel compelled to take screenshots, nor am I wise enough to take bullet point notes while I read because...bottom line I'm just lazy. Haha, so you might end up seeing kind of vague reviews, or none at all on those. I haven't really decided yet.

{Spoilers, but it's a cliche kdrama in manhwa form so}

Think about any kdrama you've ever watch, or anything about the general kdrama that you've ever heard about from anyone around you, specifically the kind with the rich heir and the poor girl...and then kind of turn it into a comedy with some psychologically messed up characters that are both good in some respects, but also trash human beings in terms of others. And then you've got this manhwa. Basically it's about this girl named Strawberry, don't ask me why all of them are like fruits and such I literally have no idea, but I think it's kind of funny and quirky, and her romantic life at Sausage Fest High School. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. Basically, Sausage Fest High was an all-boys school, but some rich lady took over the school and made it into a co-ed school. However, not a lot of girls want to go to an industrial high school probably, so not a lot of girls go there and so most of the girls that end up attending Sausage Fest High are treated like goddesses. Strawberry is one of these girls, so she's treated really special by all the guys at school, except ironically, not by her boyfriend Mandarin. So she cheats on him with Pear, an upperclassman who seems exceptionally rich. Mandarin gets jealous like a petulant child, which he kind of is due to his sick upbringing by his mom who left their family for a wealthy man and tried to abandon Mandarin in an orphanage several times. Not to mention the fact that he was adopted by some random rich girl, Cherry, to be her pet of sorts. And that's why he turned into this lowkey creepy dude that uses emotional manipulation and his pretty face to get his way. I enjoy characters that have justification as to why they're so messed up in the head, but at the same time he still disturbs me. I dunno, I just have a lot of personal anger towards emotionally manipulative people in general.

Anyways, back to the plot. So Mandarin gets jealous and cross-dresses as Cherry in order to make Pear fall in love with him so that Mandarin can steal back Strawberry. However, in the process, Strawberry grows closer to the boy-phobic Walnut Kang, the true heir to a huge corporation and overall rich golden boy. And you can probably see where this is going, with Strawberry and Walnut falling in love. And then Walnut's sent to America because apparently that's where rich kids go to become more cultured, which in America's current state I think is pretty questionable, but that's a whole other topic in and of itself. And then Mandarin tries to win back Strawberry because he thinks that he needs Strawberry in his life to, not exactly maintain balance and maintain the status quo, but more like he needs that stability and kind of mindless idolatry. He was in love with this idea of the old Strawberry who liked him and went along with him, but that wasn't really Strawberry's true nature now or even in the past.

It was pretty much the same story of there being a lot of misunderstandings. Probably the most interesting character was Mandarin, just due to how he reacted to things built on his life of suffering, neglect, and honestly mental abuse. And all of this culminates in a sort of bitter feeling towards Cherry who saved him from a life in an orphanage, but also compounded on his mental instability. So I don't really know how to feel about Cherry because while it seems as though she shows remorse for what she did to Mandarin, at least a little bit when she tells Walnut she can't help him because she can't choose sides between Mandarin who seems to unhealthily need Strawberry in order to be happy and Walnut and Strawberry's romance, it also seems as though she hasn't really fully accepted responsibility for how Mandarin turned out. Like throughout the story she didn't really become a better person, although she did support Strawberry and help the relationship between her and Walnut in some ways.

Overall, this manhwa had a lot left to be desired. At first I thought it was a novel concept with the guy cross-dressing to get his girlfriend back, but it quickly spiraled into something I wasn't really into and didn't really expect or desire in a story. A few times I wanted to quit reading, just because it became too predictable and too ridiculous, however I finished it...because I'm not a quitter. LOL it just really bothers me to start something and never finish it. That's why I have a lot of things that are finished, but are so poorly executed. I should probably work on that. Anyways, I wouldn't really recommend this unless you want a kdrama plot inside a manhwa. I don't really think it's worth your time. It didn't really give me the doki-dokis and I lowkey hate all the characters. Sorry.

LOL she's broken. I was also lowkey shook at his confession.

Me when someone tells me about all my flaws as if I don't already know lel

Their relationship wasn't that great because of their lack of trust and communication, but it sure does make for a great drama

LOL Strawberry describing tests is actually me

When Cherry's like this it makes me respect her character a bit more, but honestly I just get triggered thinking about her and Mandarin.

This was the one time I actually thought Strawberry was a mature and decent human being. Otherwise she was just so naive and blockheaded that it wasn't possible to be anything other than frustrated and annoyed by her.