10kg of Manhwa ♥

Guess what I got? I ordered...manhwa!

Figured I'd try to improve my Korean by reading some, and they're quite affordable too!

Sadly when it came the box was half-crushed/falling apart, but thankfully the inner packages were well-wrapped so my stuff was safe. Package was a hefty 10kg!...well, 9.51kg but I had to pay for 10kg.

First, the smaller box! Securely wrapped in bubble wrap...It's 하백의 신부 ♥ (Habaek-e Shinbu - The Water God's Bride/The Bride of the Water God) volume 14, which came out quite recently I believe. This series is still ongoing in Korea, so lots of the sellers on Gmarket who are selling "package sets" don't really update their listings; most were only selling sets of vols 1~13.

Got it here from the seller 북새통문고.

It was 4,050won and there was a domestic delivery of 2,200won.

The bigger baby ♥ At first I wondered why the box was so long and huge, and why there was soooo much tape! Thought the seller was being very cautious (:

Well, it's actually 3 boxes taped together!

I ordered 3 series from the seller 책보러가자. These are used/second-hand comics so they're A LOT cheaper than getting brand new ones. And their conditions aren't terrible, it just looks like something you've owned for a while. No falling apart/stapled or taped pages or stained/water drenched pages either! (:

After emptying out the boxes.

The 3 series I got were:

♥ 하백의 신부 (The Water God's Bride)

♥ 백설 지옥 강림 (Snow White's Descent to Hell/the Underworld)

♥ 5천원만 주면 키스해 주는 놈 (The Guy Who'll Give Kisses for only 5,000won).

Like I mentioned, these are used/second-hand comics, mostly from rental stores, which is why they have the barcode stickers pasted on them. But that doesn't really bother me, and the quality/condition of the books isn't bad, especially given the price.

The main reason I ordered a bunch of comics this time round was because I really wanted 하백의 신부! ♥ Totally fell in love the first time I saw a cover of one of the volumes in Kinokuniya (the Chinese version...which is 3 volumes behind in publishing!).

Got volumes 1~13 for 22,000won. When I first put this in my cart, it was 19,000won (for all 13 volumes!). However the seller increased the price few days later. So when I checked out my cart it was 22,000won. But I ended up paying just 18,000won as I used coupons. Right now it's currently listed as 25,000won, but for volumes 1~14. They updated and added volume 14 in right after I bought!

All 14 volumes of

하백의 신부

published so far ♥

I fell in love with this series because of the art, it's gorgeous! Really really intricate and detailed, and I have a bias for stories set in the past/or those with mythical elements/have historical settings or alternate worlds that resemble historical settings. No alternate worlds of robots or aliens please, I'm only for historical backdrops!

Close up of the cover of volume 10. Habaek, the water god, and Soa, the bride.

Sample of a drawing. The author/artist is 윤미경 (Yoon Mi-kyung).

I really love how she draws the details of the hair and the eyes ♥

Usually the first 2 pages of each volume are colored pages.

I really like the clothes and the setting ♥

I like historical settings for the more intricate buildings and backdrops.

The only "defect" I could find with these books were the worn spines.

But it's not that obvious so I'm not really bothered.

The next series I got was 백설 지옥 강림 (Baekseol Jiok Kangrim - Snow White's Descent to Hell/the Underworld). This was just 5,000won for the complete series of 10 volumes, which equates to 500won (USD 47cents/ SGD 58cents) per volume! And actually it ended up 4,000won as I used a Books/CDs/DVDs coupon, but after I bought it they increased the price to 8,000won ^^

This series is by 황미리 (Hwang Mi-ri). She's written a whole lot of manhwas, you can Google her and you'll find almost 100 titles! Anyway, I got this as the title seemed interesting ("Snow White" and "Underworld"!) so I figured why not? And it's set in an alternate world, sort of! The underworld haha.

Cover of volume 3.

I don't know why, but for some reason, in a lot of Hwang Mi-ri's works the people who have dark hair in b&w drawings end up having super light hair colors when she does them in color, and people with light hair color in b&w have dark hair colors when colored ^^ The silver-haired guy above is the dark-haired guy below!

Scene when Tae-san discovers Snow White.

And this...was a bargain!

5천원만 주면 키스해 주는 놈 (The Guy Who'll Give Kisses for only 5,000won)

It was only 2,100won for all 7 volumes. (300won per volume!) It's also by Hwang Mi-ri. The title seemed interesting so I figured I might as well get it, after seeing that it was so wallet-friendly and'll last me for a while!

All the covers. Nope, no alternate world though! Seems like a regular school-life manhwa so far.

Oooh and the first thing that surprised me when I first opened my packages were the size of a manhwa! I'm used to reading Japanese manga and Chinese manhua, and those 2 are of the same size, but Korean manhwa are quite a fair bit larger in size! See the comparison above, it's around an inch longer and wider!

Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden (prequel to Fushigi Yuugi) is one of my favorites! Sadly it's currently on hiatus :( Fushigi Yuugi was kinda what got me into wanting to learn Japanese...in 2002? :D And it's set in an alternate world! The land of the 4 gods, resembling ancient China. (Though all credit goes to DBSK/JYJ for making me continue Japanese for 6 years all the way till A-levels! Times got tough but they pulled me through ♥)

Watase Yuu was/is my favorite mangaka ♥ I have Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden, Imadoki, Ayashi no Ceres, Zettai Kareshi, Alice 19th, Eptrans Mai, Shishunki Miman Okotowari. I don't have the Fushigi Yuugi manga but I have the DVD and the 2 artbooks (:

I actually stopped buying comics when I was 14. (Though other than these 2, I have 2 more shelves-ful in other cabinets.) It was a costly hobby, and I got sick/tired of waiting 3 months for a new volume to come out! And after reading they just sit there on the shelves. Switched to Japanese entertainment magazines after!

Then shortly after, I switched to Japanese fashion magazines. At least there's useful/applicable information! I regularly bought the Japanese Seventeen till I was...seventeen ^^ Then I switched to ViVi and Popteen. Now it's random ones, whichever have nice covers or interesting cover stories or pretty furoku (freebies). I'm really liking Edge Style though!

Anyway, this time around, I only got 3 series as I wanted to first see/test the quality of second-hand comics. The thing that shocked me was the weight and size of each manhwa! But other than that the quality is decent, and I've got a couple more series I'd like to get!

Top of my list are:

- 크레이지걸 신비아 異界로 가다! (Crazy Girl Shin Bia Goes to Another World!)

- 나만의 공주님 (A Princess For Only Me)

- 섹시한 못난이 (Sexy Simpleton)

Heehee if you can see they all feature historical settings/different world!

ParaKiss Movie ♥

I was already very excited when I first heard the news over half a year ago, but I just saw the new 2-minute trailer and now look forward to it even more! ♥ ParaKiss is one of my favorite mangas, I love the detail of the clothes, the story, and I just love/hate George's character, eccentric but full of charisma. Sometimes you feel like he's the worst kind of guy, other times he's really really sweet. But I wouldn't want to have a long-term relationship with a guy like him, he wouldn't make you emotionally happy. The story and art of the manga are incredibly fantastic.

Paradise Kiss is a manga by Yazawa Ai (creator of Nana), and it's being made into a live-action film that hits screens in Japan on 4th June 2011. Kitagawa Keiko plays Hayasaka Yukari, a highschooler unsure about what she wants for her future; while Mukai Osamu plays Koizumi Jouji/George, a eccentric but very talented fashion design student. Kitagawa Keiko was one of my favorite Seventeen models when I read Seventeen (around 2005~2007, after that I stopped being 17/she "graduated" from the magazine haha) From the trailer, Mukai Osamu looks to be a fitting George.

Basically, Yukari is a highschool student whose life consisted of just existing to go to school, waiting to graduate but not knowing what she wants in life. Geroge and his gang have to create a dress for their school fashion show, and one of the members spots Yukari on the streets and decides she's be perfect to be their model. At first she refuses, thinking they're a weird bunch, but later on decides to accept. Her interactions with them cause different facets of her personality to surface as she learns more about herself, the people around her and how to pursue and stand up for what she wants.

There's an 12-episode anime adaptation of the manga as well. The opening theme, Lonely in Gorgeous, is really good; captivating ♥ The manga series is only 5 volumes long, but even then the anime cut a lot of parts from the manga :( I watched the anime first before reading the manga, and cried at the ending (it was sad! Though upon reflection it was probably for the best). There is more character development in the manga, and it evokes more emotions than the anime.

One thing to note is that ParaKiss is a josei manga - aimed at ladies in their 20s or older, which don't always have a happy/expected ending. (Which suits me just fine as I'm getting kind of sick of typical school-life/shoujo manga) The plot is fairly realistic. Really, the first thing that struck me after I finished it was how possible the scenarios were. And the characters are flawed, which make them more realistic and relatable to.

Here's the trailer! (It's in Japanese though!)