Manga Review: Void's Enigmatic Mansion, Volume 2, by HeeEun Kim and JiEun Ha

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: 2015

Volumes: 5.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

What if your greatest wish could be granted?

In Mr. Void's enigmatic mansion, wishes can be mere whispers away from reality. When Dante, the poet on the second floor, finds a patron for his arts, it seems he may finally get everything he could ever wish for...But the best things in life--fortune, love, wishes--are never given freely. And when Dante finds his last verse, the tale of the beautiful lovers on the third floor begins to unfold. And as desires echo within the halls of Void's mansion, the lovers too will learn that fortune, love, and even whispered wishes come with a price...

Review: 

We conclude the writer and the working woman’s story in the first half. I don’t feel bad for the writer even a little. He’s a bit of an ass, even if he does learn some things from it.

Then we meet a couple, the woman a bit crazy, and the man is going crazy from having to take care of her. It’s a very depressing tale, especially because there’s quite a bit of realism in it, and I can surely see the idea of it happening. These kinds of situations do happen to people. It’s sad what happens to them, what the man has turned into after such a long time, when they were so happy years ago.

I love the artwork in this series, and seeing it all in color is a treat. The format and paper it’s printed on just makes it that much prettier. The stories are sad and depressing, but sometimes deserving and sometimes surprising. I would like to read more, definitely, but I also want more of an overall plot to come at some point.

Manga Review: Priceless, Volume 3, by Young-You Lee

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Tokyopop

Release Date: 2006.

Volumes: 3.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Rightstuf.

Volume: 1. 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

When Jimmy begins attending Lang-bee's school, he decides to take Dan under his wing--but more for his own selfish reasons. Jimmy tells Dan that he's training him to become the type of man that Lang-bee would want, but he's really using Dan as his own personal servant! From Young-You Lee, the creator of Kill Me Kiss Me, comes the final volume of the romantic love triangle that's filled with delicious gossip, a false alarm, and one important basketball shot...in a word: Priceless! 

Review:

Meh. That’s mostly how I feel about this series.

Lang-bee is living on her own after her mother runs off, leaving her with debt and finding odd jobs to pay it off and her living expenses. When a guy her age shows up claiming to be her mothers new guy, he proves only to be more of a hassle. Then there’s Dan, who has somehow fallen for Lang-bee and is very protective of her.

I do think the ending was nice, I suppose. I liked that a romance didn’t form between Lang-bee and Jimmy, and that she does kind of get with Dan, in an odd way. But mostly I didn’t grow attached to the characters, I didn’t love them, and the ending felt a little meh, like there should have been more.

It was okay in the end.

Manga Review: Narration of Love at 17 by Kyungok Kang

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Publisher: Netcomics

Release Date: 2006

Volumes: 4.

Spoilers?: No.

Volume 1: Amazon (Kindle). Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Seyoung is an ordinary 17-year-old schoolgirl who plays mediocre roles in her school's drama productions. Her real-life drama develops as she finds herself falling for her childhood playmate Hyunwoo, who he is drifting away from her and toward a TV star schoolmate named Hyemi. When Seyoung works up the nerve to profess her feelings to Hyunwoo, he thinks she is merely working on her acting Seyoung lives out her youth as if the entire world is a stage, but as she basks in the bright lights of innocence she seeks someone in the audience to recognize the light within her. Written by Korea's eminent writer Kyungok Kang, Narration of Love at 17 is a classic that will take you for a ride back to reliving your first love.

Review:

This series starts off very slow, and it was so hard to keep reading. Story and time skips forward and it was hard to follow, there wasn’t enough development to make me care, it was boring, nor particularly nice to look at (the covers are prettier than the inside).

By the second half of the third volume, and then into this one, it was easier. Easier to follow the characters and who they were and what they wanted. It was feeling more fluid and not so jerky. By the end of the series, I was okay with it. It was easier to read, but I still didn’t particularly care about the characters. I did like the Captain, and I liked that Seyoung and Hyunjung were real friends and that they truly cared about each other. But otherwise I didn’t care about Seyoung much, nor did I feel her lasting cruch on Yunho or her envy toward the other girls.

Then the ending, which is so open and just kind of ends at a point. I’m mostly just disappointed with this series, and glad to be done with it.