July's manga / #Horror(16)

The premise was interesting, but the subsequent chapters failed to deliver. I'm not sure what kind of story the author wanted to tell. I thought the ghost of the male lead who died was going to be the protagonist, but then it suddenly shifts to another female character that used to be his friend, then shifts to the female character that killed him. Very confusing. Also it seems that this manga was dropped, so we'll never know what will happen next.

Eh. It had a great premise, but didn't deliver on it. I'm a huge fan of episodic shopkeeper stories, but this isn't one that I like. I think it's important to have the medium of the story stand out, such as the setting and the characters (or in this case, shopkeepers). Think xxxHolic and Petshop of Horrors, the owner of the stores is enigmatic and full of secrets, luring unsuspecting customers to their potential dooms. Here, we learn nothing about the owner or the part-time worker, or even the items in the museum. The author chose to tell the stories in a weird "let's exchange random stories to each other" format, which isn't bad in itself, but it's done so poorly. The chapters are disjointed and sometimes you can't tell if you're in the middle of the story or if you're in the museum before they start another story. Some of the stories were creepy, but they all feel so flat. The art was great in the prologue, but severely declined in quality with each chapter.

It's a little better than the average BL webtoon, but not by much. I gave it an extra star since it does have a suspenseful atmosphere, and it's building slowly towards something, rather than jumping straight into pure smut. There's some semblance of an underlying plot, and the characters are not cringey, yet. The art is only average, but it does excel when it comes to the horror nightmare scenes. I don't like how this webtoon romanticizes smoking. Smoking is bad for you, don't make it appealing... I know it's a big part of Korean culture, but it doesn't help to keep promoting it like it's a good thing.

Zombies x BL, oh my! I thought this was an anthology collection, but it seems all three stories are related to each other, and it's being told in reverse flashback order. The art is gritty and edgy, although sometimes it's hard to tell what's happening in the panels. It's pretty decent, although not the best that I've read. There's more scenes of zombies than scenes of sex, the latter is heavily censored by cut-aways, which is fine with me since that's the angle the mangaka was going for here.

Read on Webtoons, which has the latest chapters. Although I liked this webtoon in the beginning, the female lead just kept annoying me with her stupidity and selfishness, whining about how the world is out to get her. She's weak and always dependent on others. It made me not care whether she lived or died midway through, because she has zero redeeming qualities. But it's worth a read for those heart-pounding chase sequences. The girl's intelligence is about the same as those in horror movies, ridiculously dumb and always tripping and heading straight towards danger instead of doing something logical. The art overall is below average, but it really is excellent at the intensity of how the panels are drawn when it gets tense. Update: This is rare for me, but I'm bumping it up a star. Although the second season's protagonist seems as shitty as the first protagonist, the premise of the second season is so much more interesting. It takes a supernatural and psychological turn, and it may even get better. At least I certainly hope so, since it opened with a bang in the first couple chapters.

I really liked "Bastard" which was a previous work by the same author, but when this webtoon is compared to it, it definitely falls short. I really enjoyed the first half of the webtoon, where it focuses on survival and climbing up or down the floors as two major expedition parties. It gets the adventurous blood in me pumping! But obviously, it can't end with them clearing the tower, because there would be no real resolution. It's not a video game stage, after all. It is technically supposed to emulate real life, albeit with very extreme apocalyptic circumstances. The people in the building need to eventually leave, because it's impossible to stay in one building for the rest of their lives. That's where the webtoon goes downhill, when it introduces a new gang of characters who swarm in to take over the building. This leads to complete chaos, and that's when the suspense and thriller elements are lost, because now it's not human vs. monster, it's human vs. human, and it's not as exciting to see. Not to mention, all the monsters get nerfed hard. They're basically not a real threat, because there's too much in-fighting going on, and none of the other monsters are difficult to beat, since they have another half-monster with them. I can still remember the terror of the monster with no eyes and the spider-like one when it evolved, because that's when the webtoon was at its best. It captured the futility of fighting these almost immortal beings that just come back again and again, no matter how many times you knocked them down. In the end, they had to rely on other people becoming monsters themselves to fend off the hordes of monsters that came to swarm the building. That was predictable and not as refreshing to see. It's when a fictional work explores how truly helpless and weak we are, that it hits close to home. Turning into a monster just negates all of that, because you're no longer human. I didn't like how it never finished exploring the concept of the monsterization it brought up either, leaving lots of questions about why this was happening, why some people turn and some don't, why the cocoons were so important that all the monsters came when just one was destroyed. If they did address it, I'm afraid it was too subtle, since the running out of desire to become emotionless vessels after cocoon formation explanation totally went over my head. Sometimes, the simplest concepts are the best. Also, the romance did not work well here. It was understandable in "Bastard", but completely unnecessary in this webtoon. I did not care for the main couple at all, and I don't get why they get to have a happy ending just because Hyun is the main character. Why is it that no one else is attacked after their escape, and how come the people in the military zone they wind up in don't turn into monsters too? It leaves too many gaping plot holes and inconsistencies for me to declare this one of the best webtoons I've read. However, it is indeed quite good, and it's definitely worth a read.

Boohoo, I wanted to know what was in the box! It's too bad this was dropped, I see the raws have almost 100 chapters. The art is simplistic but effective to communicate a sense of foreboding. The glasses wearing male character is a complete jerk, and I won't be surprised if he opened the box and died in the end. I wish this would get picked up by someone.

This totally reminds me of "The Deadly Countdown", but I prefer this one. It's fun to guess how the death could have happened, and try to prevent it. I'm not sure why this is tagged Shoujo Ai though, there's no real indication that it is for now, but maybe in the future it will be? I'm honestly hoping it will just focus on the rescue from the jaws of death more, because I don't think romance will make this manga better. The art is pretty good, like with most manga.

The male lead is a complete and utter idiot. All the red flags are raised and the alarm bells are ringing by the end of chapter one, and he thinks it's a good idea to wander in the wilderness when he knows there's cannibals and savage man-eating bears out there. His kid hands him a severed finger, and that doesn't give him the push to get the heck out of there. Seriously, how is he even still alive? Also his wife is verbally and emotionally abusive and not helping the situation. The background art and shading is fantastic, but the faces are hit and miss. Sometimes they're drawn well, and sometimes more sloppily. Everything is creepy as heck, so mission achieved.

This manga has me on the edge of my seat every chapter. The art is great and I love all the colored panels, which is rare to see in manga. My only issue is with how nonsensical literally everyone in here behaves, which detracts from the overall realism of the game, in my opinion. Everyone goes from normal-looking to batshit crazy at the flip of a switch. There are supposed to be other players in this game, but I don't understand why they would know the progress of the protagonist. It's not like he knows their progress, too. Those other players don't even change their bodies each time like he does, which makes me question why it's different for him, and only him? The protagonist is not all that likeable, he's a total narcissist and obsessed with his own good looks, and doesn't care about other people. But you do want to see him clear the stage, because he's the least abnormal person in this world. The pacing is somewhat too fast, if looking from a logical standpoint, but it's likely that way to maintain the suspense. Also, the author has a really weird eye fetish. In the first chapter, he makes the main character wear an eye patch for no reason at all, when he was supposed to remain inconspicuous (eye patches totally don't draw attention), and his eye wasn't even injured in the first place. Now both of his eyes have popped out all of a sudden, and they're just rolling on the floor. What the hell.