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It is always very pleasant when an artistic work opens new horizons and transcends its history to be able to make us discover new cultures or at least start an investigation. This is the case of For the Sake of Sita, a Korean webtoon written by Haga (하가) and mostly set in Nepal Kathmandu area.

I warn that this short review contains many necessary spoilers, therefore I invite you to read the work first.

The story centres around two characters, a South Korean doctor and a former Kumari.

What is a Kumari?

Avoid triggering myself because as a modernist I absolutely do not believe that certain ultra-dated rituals should ... find a place in the 21st century, the legend says that: One myth — and there are several — has Durga visiting the king of the Malla dynasty each night until the king makes sexual advances ... and the goddess vanishes in a fury. She then appears to the king in a dream telling him: "Find a child from the Shakya caste. I will enter her soul and you can worship her as you worshipped me." The king complies, and the belief in the world's only Living Goddess is born.” (1)

Invested with sacred charges, the Kumaris who begin their journey after exceeding 32 characteristics (largely described in the webtoon) live from age 5 until puberty idolized, their feet do not touch the ground as they are the incarnation (proxy) of the Goddess. Their life lives are between comforts and hardships with difficulty in reintegrating into society after having had the first menstrual cycle and therefore losing their impurity.

With this historical background, our doctor meets a fallen Kumari who is savagely living after her first period and is forced to live a life of prostitution and starvation. In a swift first chapter, we travel through the couple's married life and death at the young age of Sita the Kumari who dies of a venereal disease she had contracted in her career as a prostitute.

Grieved, the doctor decides to make a pact with a deity and go back in time to try to save his beloved.

The webtoon exposes the life of a fallen Kumari with great sadness in detail (our Sita is banned and defined as impure due to the menstrual cycle).

According to the article I quoted written by Julie McCarthy, Kumaris are sent away upon reaching puberty, but not treated badly, they also receive a salary of around 6000 rupees monthly for life.

Now, how much this is true or how much it is not is all closed in an aura of mystery, given that for a decade the child goddesses speak little, and are deprived of any emotion since even a smile can mean "curses".

Sita somehow kicked out is saved by the badly aged doctor (remember he went back in time) who manages to keep her from starting a life of prostitution and consequently catching an illness. The rest of the girl's historical journey then continues as planned with the meeting with the young doctor (in this timeline), the wedding and the escape to South Korea.

To all intents and purposes, a happy ending however leaves an aura of mysticism around it.

Many of the young Kumaris tell of celestial visions and a strong mystical presence within them. The author wisely decides not to undertake this side of culture, especially in the face of the various comments under his comics from various users from that area who asked to "be careful" with what was being told.

Personally, it was a courageous author to launch himself (or herself) into a subject that may seem exotic, but if we analyze it carefully in the age of science, people still believe that a goddess descends into the body of a little girl.



(1) The Very Strange Life Of Nepal's Child Goddess - May 28, 20155:01 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition - By Julie McCarthy

Delusion (현혹) by Hongjacga (홍작가) is one of those works that remain in your heart, not so much for the plot that has in itself nothing unmissable or new, but for its absolutely spectacular art style. As I read this work, I grew in the desire to own a physical copy of the Manhwa that would lend itself very well to a paperback graphic novel to be put on display on our bookshelf.

The story is set in the 1900s when Korea was still united and the young and economically broken painter I-Ho Yun (윤이호) is called to the hotel of the octogenarian Jeong-Hwa Song (송정화), ... to realize a painting of her that is apparently on the verge of death.

Without a real surprise (and not even spoilers since everything happens in the first chapter), our eighty-year-old lady has the features of a twenty-year-old and a cathartic beauty worthy of a Greek Venus.
In short, a vampire.

A total of sixty chapters, thirty of which tell a fairly predictable story, going to explore the past of the lady, and the characters who did populate her life. Our I-Ho Yun in this part is only a spectator, nothing adds and takes nothing away from the story (he will later be redeemed in the finale). His is the role of readers listening to dramatic stories of vampires, conspiracies etc.

What is striking is the stellar artwork. Ms. Song I think represents one of the most beautiful 2D characters I've seen in comics literature in general. I must say that the author must have put so much into the creation of Ms Song. As mentioned, hers is an ethereal beauty that makes damned anyone who is in contact with her, even leading him to real hallucinations (Delusions, and hence the title). I myself was enchanted by the beauty of her features.

The Manhwa also offers us various paintings of her, absolute jewels that deserve to be exhibited in an art gallery, as mentioned the art that holds up the story.

But is it a failure?

Absolutely not. I've read vampire stories and many don't work well. But the author here manages an ultra-abused canvas making it credible and elegant although a certain section in the plot made me a bit cringe if I can say and turn up my nose.

With this saying I give Delusion an excellent 70 thanks to a simple story with some interesting peaks and magnificent artwork.

Coming out of the pencil of the twins You.Ling, 快把我哥带走 or Take my brother away is the animated adaptation (with different entities involved) of a famous ongoing and hilarious web manhua that greatly reproduces the structure of what in Japan is the 4-koma, 4 funny panels that end with a joke.

Our twins, do not use four panels but a few more to tell the story of Shi Fen (時分) and Shi Miao (時秒), brother and sister extremely different.

Generally, the adaptations from the 4-koma are complex to be managed especially if they go to base themselves on fast jokes. Luckily for this short anime (just under ... four minutes per episode, including the intro and outro), we have Rarecho (ラレコ) charismatic director behind the iconic Aggretsuko.
His direction is brilliant and fast, does not let breath and makes every moment lovable.

Shi Miao with her endless energy - a gorilla according to - his brother Shi Fen skilled opportunist and useless human (and to what seems not even an intelligent one!) live their daily lives and shenanigans surrounded by friends.

I've seen both dub versions, both Chinese and Japanese.

To be honest, I found the whole Chinese version superior to the Japanese one, even for cultural references. I noted for example that the Japanese version in some passages changed the dialogues by eliminating things that were not maybe suitable for their audience.

An interesting example is the episode of the "Grand Buffet".
In that episode couples (we are on Valentine's Day) have a huge discount for a restaurant's buffet, Shi Fen then tries to convince her sister to pretend to be a couple in order to spare.

Shi Fen: "What is more important moral integrity or buffet?"
Shi Miao: "Moral integrity."

The Japanese, for example, have changed "Moral integrity" to "Pride", but the bulk of the change is when Shi Miao refuses by telling to her brother:
"Go with your right hand to the buffet", an obviously sexual joke that in the Japanese version becomes "Go with someone else".

There are also references to Chinese socialism sometimes that were cut in the Japanese version.

Chinese dub also works as tone and rhythm and personally, I found it better (it must also be said that I study Chinese Mandarin thus I am accustomed to the language).

Speaking of language, finally, I want to mention that the donghua is also available with subtitles in simplified Chinese and given the paucity of dialogues it can be a great way for those who are studying the language to practice reading ideograms.

Ultimately an excellent product currently in its fifth season, and the You.Ling sisters prove to be absolute masters (I strongly recommend reading their suspense Manhuas - they are incredible).

Nice, fresh and fast.

While reading this 初•末 ONCE AGAIN (The beginning, The end, ONCE AGAIN) I wondered why there was so much Japanese cultural influence, then after further research, it turned out that the work scripted by Fengxi Shenlei (风息神泪), was serialized in Tianman which is a Chinese magazine related to Kadokawa. The work participated in the 6th "International Manga Award" held by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and can be read in half an hour.

The writer Fengxi Shenlei has also written the script for a moderately successful film (also disclosed in the Japanese market) entitled The Legend of Hei, therefore perhaps not with a very famous ... pedigree but an author who has his own curriculum. Yigan Lin's (凌一凡) character design is totally forgettable, there is nothing that excels.

I was talking about Japanese influences because the work itself uses Japanese terms (kohai, senpai) and musical cultural references to Japan and I think this was done as part of the competition in order to be relatable to the judges.

The plot sees Yuan Ge receive the news of his wife's death during an important meeting, which he welcomes with an absolute lack of emotion. The character is described to us very well in his total lack of empathy. In fact, the supporting characters have no faces but only "labels" related to their role in the company or to the eyes of Yuan Ge. We pass from the General Manager without a face but only with the writing "GM", to the petulant colleague "Petulant colleague and talkative" is his label and so on with the various "diligent subordinate", "ass kisser", etc. etc.

In this suffocation of labels and names, he sees a high school girl every day, distinguishing her face and from that moment on, a love for this unknown girl is born in him.

The ethical sense of the character who questions his sanity and carries out a confidential psychological test to understand if he has paedophilic inclinations is very well constructed. I found that section of the Manhua very well thought out (typically the age gap in anime is always handled in a very creepy way). Our Yuan Ge, on the other hand, understands that having an attraction for someone half his age is both an ethical problem and also a dangerous emotional alarm and for this, well, he gets checked.

The work is not an inseparable cornerstone of the comic narrative but gives brief indications of what must be the priorities of life and the sense of accomplishment of what has been let go and lost.

This a theme that is certainly dear to the Chinese who let's not forget, live in a communist republic that embraces capitalism, a significant oxymoron. "Once again" is a simple tale of memory and love, that's all.

Alice in Murderland has all the features that made Kaori Yuki the great artist she is.

I think it is necessary to introduce briefly the mangaka herself. She is one of the "old guard" having started her career back in 1987 before breaking popularity at the beginning of the 90s with the Cain series and later on with the highly acclaimed (and pretty controversial at that time) Angel Sanctuary which took religions and twisted them heavily (you know in a classical Japanese way).

While belonging to the shoujo demographics could be a necessary label I have always found her work pretty tangent and transversal as she definitely ... has her style and the demographics categorization may be pretty limited.

Alice in Murderland is a good entrance to the artist as it is short and has all the peculiarities of Kaori Yuki's style.

The manga was serialized in a defunct magazine which lasted less than a decade and was shut down at the beginning of 2018 leaving Alice in Murderland without a host.

And while "Aria" (that was the name of the magazine) was pretty much shoujo, the following host "Shōnen Magazine Edge" had definitely the grip for a younger male audience who probably wasn't interested in a gothic battle between beautiful ladies and boys.

I have the feeling that this was one of the reasons why the last chapters felt so rushed. I guess the magazine pushed her to close it quickly.

But is it good?

I am biased as she is one of my favourite authors, but trying to be objective I would say for a beginner reader that: "It is good but the journey is better than the destination".

Surely our lady Kaori Yuki has always a way to create plot twists every couple of pages and this is her advantage, but what I felt in this particular entry is that she wanted to put so many things on the table - and believe me it is full of topics and plots all over - without really giving that feel of empathy towards one or the others.

The plot is pretty straightforward, nothing new under the sun.

The Kuonji family is a powerhouse worldwide, even stronger than heads of government. This juggernaut of a family is ruled by Olga who needs to decide the new head of the family and opens a battle royal among all 8 siblings (almost no one blood-related).

From here on we follow Stella through the rankings but despite the battle royal premises many plot lines open and we have a huge number of events condensed in 11 volumes.

Due to the fast pace, we never get attached to the characters. Typical of these battles manga (and one of the reasons why I tend to avoid them) is the continuous elevation of every character to a dramatic river of tears - where the "bad" does not really exist and each one has a dramatic trauma that made them "bad".

Here more or less is the same. We follow everyone involved with background stories that are already outdated and over-abused, additionally, due to the above-mentioned high rhythm we really do not get engaged in them.

This is to say that despite the "classical" features they are still memorable characters because the author is a veteran and knows how to treat even tropes in a way that is fascinating.

Olga herself is worth the price, she has been a great villain (sadly in the end Kaori Yuki tried to humanize her too much).

What keeps the manga going is definitely the insane mystery and twists crafted well with an open ending that I personally liked, ending in a climax and leaving there mysterious.

So, I give this a 60 out of 100 but consider that as a fan I am pretty critical too of her, and you need to give this a chance because it is still an above-average product and even in her minor works Kaori Yuki remains an incredible artist.

Contains spoilers.

Doctor Du Ming by Jing Zhang based on a short story by Xiao Han - the first work of this Chinese author - is not a perfect work (especially on the drawings side), but sinks its narrative into a chilling realism to say the least, following between past and present the mental (internal) and occasionally visible deterioration of a boy destined to enter the path of the serial killer/rapist/sociopath: Du Ming.

In his parable of unrealized love with the beautiful, ephemeral victim Qian Zhang, Du Ming grows in his obsession by carrying out a series of murders (remained unsolved) involving some characters around the young ... woman and which are perpetuated in her name even after her death by suicide. We don't know if the suicide had in some way been induced by Du Ming himself - a manipulator who becomes a serial killer, one of those unreachable.

The history of humanity has taught us that there have been many cold cases, therefore unsolved cases of monstrous multiple murders where the culprit has never been found. Common practice is to attribute a flashy personality to the murderer. Still, sometimes he is a very normal person who lives everyday life and has a family - in fact, in the finale our Du Ming asks the nurse to become his partner - going to solidify the idea that the mad serial killer does not want to attract attention living in a bon ton and virtuous common morality.

A fascinating thing about Du Ming's character and which has made me meditate for days now since reading the manhua is the absolute calmness and apathy of his face and his manners and the brutal things he does without ever grinning or launching into monologues like a furious madman typical of some caricatures of bad boys in Japanese manga. Du Ming is scary because it is absolutely possible.

This Manhua leaves a state of confusion and angst as the society represented in 15 chapters is a society very much in line with the one experienced by the author (a woman) who has seen her work demolished by the international audience with irrelevant epithets and clearly out of context in accusation of misogyny. Unfortunately, it is a modern tendency to embrace any product that sees violence against women as a work written by misogynists when in reality the concept of the impossibility of the female individual being able to defend herself in a male society is expressed clearly, and therefore a woman who has sex just for pleasure is a "slut" (words used by Du Ming), a woman who is physically assaulted cannot defend herself and incurs into "victim blaming", these are some of the exhibits proposed in this Manhua.

The drawings leave much to be desired. I'm no expert, but the style feels very disjointed, sometimes the characters can't even tell one from the other. We go from drafts to what look like photographs edited with some software to make them cartoonish. However, the faces are very similar to those of the East Asians making them fortunately less childish than those of an average manga, making them very realistic.

Masterpiece?

Absolutely not. But a work that has impressed me and that you can read in French by buying it in various shops. First work by an author who I will follow and a bad character who is not forgotten.