Pigpen

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Who deserves a good ending? Who actually gets it?

Kim Carnby loves to experiment with the protagonist. From the mentally violent, and tortured "Shotgun Boy", the weak accomplice in "Bastard", the uncaring, and suicidal "Sweet Home" protagonist. He always likes to play with the audience's morality, and here it seems he looked for an extreme amount of questioning. Waking up without memories, while being surrounded by uncooperative people is terrifying, but there's always something darker, something that even after the ending I still think about.

"I don't know what's going on, and if I don't, I'll go f*cking nuts". I like stories about a mystery, but ... amnesia is one trope I hate. They don't use it other than to keep an audience confused throughout the whole run until the very, VERY end. Luckily, we don't get that here, and the amnesia has a fresh spin that, even if it isn't that new, or interesting like in the past, it makes sense why they used it. The world has a purpose, every character has a specific need to exist, every scene builds, and builds, and doesn't stop stacking jenga pieces on top of each other, and you know everything will viscerally crumble. I was stressed out of my mind just waiting for the simplest answer, or a tragic twist, as the author always makes.

From every character, it's as if taking exactly what's cliché'd about a "house in the middle of nowhere" trope, and using that against the audience. The domineering father, the cunning daughter, the mentally ill son, the creepy kid, so on, and so forth. We know this, we've known this ever since horror was popularized, but trying not to spoil, this isn't a victim's story, or a power fantasy. Having said that, not every character matters, and I would've liked more depth in other parts. There's a point when you could've cut some "tense" scenes with some of them that don't really matter. It's just more of the same "oh, we're being real tense right here" without developing anything.

The art is great, the horror faces are drawn well, and honestly, I wish I could get in depth about this one. Since it's based around a twisted narrative, I can't speak about how great the latter half is, without ruining the experience. I wish anybody reading this will give it a shot, everything is great, even if a little predictable, but it wasn't trying to hide its cards, just distract you from the truth for as long as it could. I enjoyed the questions posed, and I hated the ending, because it did exactly what it should.

8/10. Works really well, but I can only speak like a robot about the basic aspects. The story is everything here.

Extremely light spoilers

A young man awakes on a mysterious island and finds a lone bed and breakfast run by a family of five. He has amnesia and doesn't remember who he his but can't shake the uncomfortable feeling from the family.

The setup to the plot is a typical horror scenario but Carnby Kim undercuts your expectations with plot developments at every turn. The typical tropes exist but are never used stereotypically. The end of every act brings a new revelation but the beginning of the next act is always predictable for some time. Puzzle pieces are left for the reader to figure out what exactly ... is happening. Even though the plot leads to what should have been a disappointing conclusion, Kim is able to justify it. Avoiding spoilers, the main character is both a victim and not so navigating the plot from his perspective alone isn't possible.

Guilt, forgiveness, and desires are the motivations for the main characters of the story. Only two characters truly drive the plot, but I won't go into detail as to why or how. Amnesia is not a trope I have read many stories of, but the unraveling of the main character's mind constantly had me questioning whether or not I was correct in what I thought about him and other characters. The amnesia is present until the climax of the story but never takes away from the character's progression. Just because he knows more now doesn't mean he has fully acknowledged who he is and has become. The bed and breakfast family at first seem like your typical horror scenario whether it's the Baker family from Resident Evil 7, the Sawyer family from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or whoever else you want to imagine. However, not everything is as it seems and what they symbolize is yet another mystery to be unraveled. Taehui, the family's employee, is a drug addicted ex-idol and adds to the intrigue of the plot. When you think you know what his role in the plot is, it's completely different by the second half of the story but still improves the overall quality of the character and who he truly is. When reading Pigpen you have to be open to a constantly evolving plot and how the characters change because of it.

The art is where Pigpen really shines. Carnby Kim is paired with Beom Sick Cheon who brings the work to life. The horror faces are reminiscent of Junji Ito and terrifyingly unexpected at times. The style itself lends to the symbolism of the work. In a scene where the main character gets drugged the surreal nature of it made you also feel like you were on the drug. Terror is also drawn incredibly well where you can feel it coming from the depths of the character knowing they're doomed. Absolutely incredible.

I enjoyed Pigpen though not as much as Bastard. The reason for the main character being on the island was a twist I didn't enjoy, but it still felt justified by the end. Each character brings their own layer to the plot and are three dimensional. The art was absolutely phenomenal. Carnby Kim manages to write another hit and I strongly recommend it to any fan of horror/thrillers.

Plot: 9.5/10
Characters: 9/10
Art: 10/10
Enjoyment: 8/10
Overall: 9.1/10

Carnby Kim is easily one of the most famous psychological Korean manhwa authors, if not the most famous (granted, it’s not exactly a sizable community). About ten chapters into this work, I already wanted to drop it. The writing was so incredibly cliche it felt like something a child would conjure up. However, I plugged on and actually found myself quite enjoying the story following the introduction of more information about the characters. As the plot became more convoluted, I was honestly invested in what was going to happen. It was a fun read. However, near the end of the story, it felt like the ... author was attempting to hit every spot on a bingo board of basic “psychological” reveals. Twist after twist kept happening, each with just barely enough basis and hints throughout the story for me to not completely give up on reading it.

Additionally, what must be discussed is the representation of mental health. Without offering spoilers, the way the author portrayed mental health and the way it can affect others surrounding afflicted individuals I was actually surprised about. It did not victimize characters and excuse all their behavior because of a condition, but also did not turn them into villains simply because they are different, which is often the case in other media. This, however, is what I consider to be the most redeeming quality about the work. And in just about the last chapter, there was a piece of symbolism so on the nose I was narrating to myself about the stupidity of it. Again, at this point the writing felt a bit like a middle schoolers.

What truly needs to be discussed here is the ending, which is what drove such a dive in my scoring of this manhwa. If anyone has seen the Japanese live action Alice in Borderland, you know the scene near the end of the second season where Mira is “explaining” the world and you think “shut up, that can’t actually be it, right? No author who put a minute amount of work into this would actually make that the ending, right?” That’s the ending of Pigpen. So incredibly disappointing, but apparently Kim thought it was what would really get him that bingo on the board of surprising reveals. So much so that there are numerous chapters and hints throughout the manhwa explaining a needlessly convoluted ending that is just plain stupid.

Though I have mixed feelings about this work, which do lean towards the negative side, I will continue on with reading Kim’s other manhwa. Hopefully the other pieces can offer a more concise story, I definitely hope so considering their relatively astounding popularity. I certainly cannot say I have high hopes.

If you want a simple, fun read, I would recommend trying Pigpen. However, if you would like depth comparable to what I usually see from Korean psychological media, and would not like to sigh every other chapter out of disappointment that a plot reveal was seriously what just happened, I say maybe look elsewhere.