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If you like reading tragic, sadistic, apathetic stories, this one is for you.

STORY: 7
This story is not for everyone... but the story is very compelling and interesting. When I started reading this, I could not put it down. You will feel scared, sad, angry, and frustrated, but that is everything the author wants us to feel. If you like stories that explore people, how they interact, feel inside, and make choices, you might like this one. On top of that, the historical setting and introduction of folklore makes the core of the story captivating. There is a lot of violence and smutty scenes in ... this series that is geared towards a female audience which is something to look out for.

ART: 9
The art is absolutely breathtaking. The entire manhwa is painted red, an absolutely amazing choice by the author. It encompasses the themes of blood, gore, love, sex, evil, danger, sacrifice, all the heavy themes within the story. Using red made for an incredibly immersive story and the color itself is an important part of the plot. The art style is super consistent and very beautiful to look at especially from the minimalism in the designs of the clothing and background that helped with focusing on the actual story. The only part I see as a flaw are the designs of the characters. Hama does so well making the characters look incredibly handsome and pretty, but aside from the clothing or hair, some characters look very similar to each other. So, if you like eye-candy, this art is for you.

CHARACTERS: 7
I LOVE the way the author built up and explored the characters. A lot of stories create main characters that are likeable but the author is not afraid to make heavily flawed ones. Humanity is explored a lot throughout the story which was encompassed from the characters. The uniqueness of the characters is how realistic they were. "Good" characters are not good all the time, not all villains are bad, some have no choice. The characters have a human-level of selfishness and many reflect the pessimistic and sadist thoughts that float through our heads on a daily. The reason why the characters are not an 8/10 is due to the repetition of some choices the characters make. I understand the repetition is purposeful since the characters suffering from the same thing over and over again is part of the story, but it made the characters a little more superficial than needed.

ENJOYMENT: 5
Again, this story has a lot of tragic, apathetic, sadistic plot points that is not made for you to feel good. I love stories that explore human emotions and actions however I can't say I enjoyed the actions or choices made from the characters.

If you are interested in reading about apathetic characters like Johan from Monster or liked The Pale Horse give it a read.

<<No spoilers in this review>>

I never knew I would find something so introspective and in line to my own thoughts. This manhwa brings out the evil and hope in humanity all into one crazed story about a lady who just wants to be human. The Pale Horse is a mixed thriller, romance, horror, psychological manhwa which will leave you haunted not from the supernatural beings in the story, but in your own thoughts and emotions.

Sin is what makes us human.

While the main plot of the story tries to establish certain sympathy between the reader and every character in the story, no matter how evil or ... deceitful they are, the main premise always has to do with what is right or wrong. What is true or false? What makes us human or inhuman?
The story is comprised of multiple twists and turns. The author purposefully leaves out plot points just to weave them back into the thriller later on. Hae-Yun Choo plays a lot with perspective and untrustworthy or trustworthy narrators. Even when we think one thing is explained, another explanation for the same event comes into play. If you think there is a plot hole, the next episode covers it up. The story seems to satisfy your need for a perfect ending but dangles it on a rope and plays with that need. If this doesn't interest you, then I don't know what does.

The art reflects how we are drawn to beautiful things, even if they are evil. Everything is illustrated in the most perfect ways. Every character looks how the author wants us to see and unique scenes are purposefully colored or drawn differently. The composition is well thought of, so is use of light and shadow in every panel. The author always takes into consideration what mood she wants to display while also creating good pace for the story. I can tell Hae-Yun Choo has taken a considerable amount of time planning, illustrating, and coloring The Pale horse.

Everything in this manhwa makes me want to adore it, cherish it, and hold it in my arms while I cry at night. I started out loving every character yet hating everyone. The author knows this and toys with this emotion later on. Rose, Pierre (Peter according to MAL), Theo, Guiness and more that you will meet later on... I love them all. The thoughts, actions they take, development they undergo, and their introspection all feel so human-like. So alike to what I think everyday and how I evaluate, justify, and analyze my own actions. Their sinister thoughts yet hopeful thoughts all reflect my own beliefs and selfish thoughts and it hurts at times. This manhwa made me feel sad when the characters were sad, happy when they were happy, angry when they were angry. I mean this with every character. No character is left behind in this manhwa. I assure you that.

When I started reading this last year, I found that I was unable to stop. When the updates had stopped for a bit I felt so empty. This is the first manhwa I have ever felt the need to buy right away. The art is so incredibly precious and beautiful, even if I can't read Korean I know that the emotions still show through every panel. Even though I have had many nights feeling absolutely terrible for being human, it gives me purpose to live. I thoroughly am appreciative of the parallelism there is in this manhwa about reality and supernatural beings and the thoughts of actual mankind. I enjoyed every moment there was in The Pale Horse, even the ones that made me sad.

Overall, I highly recommend anyone who loves to think or are just into thrillers and guessing plot point. Trust me, it's at least worth a try. The art captivated me but the story made me stay.

I will be writing a review here since I see there is none!

Let me just say, I started and finished this manga only two days ago and I honestly don't remember much from it already. People say remembering the plot to a story is not important as long as one remembers the feeling of reading it. I...uh..don't remember any feeling reading this.

Story: 3 (Spoilers ahead till the Art section! Though I recommend not reading the manga at all)

The story's basic summary is that there is this girl named Minami who is super unintelligent despite getting tutored by her grandpa and yet she gets into a ... prestigious school solely on luck. The first day of school, she annoys this dude named Kaji oh wowwwwww total romance plot building on! ahah uh he turns out to be a tsundere. Anyways, they find out that they are both going to be tutored by the gramps. They study together yet they don't learn anything and start liking eachother. Another girl comes in challenging to be a love rival yet she gets scrapped off easily just from this stalker dude following her. Anyways, they go back to trying to study and trying to sneak out of studying. Minami's parents come back from America and beg her to go with them and accept this new opportunity but Minami declines because of her crush on Kaji. Kaji ends up confessing to try and not make her go then everything works out in the end since the parent's company idea failed. Again, back to studying but this time Minami and Kaji are a couple yet still failing.

Sounds like a ride, but most of it was pointless. In the end, the author points out the moral of the story: "we can't just study every day, as they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This is a pretty good message to spread to the audience, especially if the audience is a bunch of teenage girls. The thing is though, most of the story doesn't really support this moral. Sure, you can't study everyday, but not unless your grades are the worst of your school and you just want to hang out with your boyfriend. The literal plot is just the main character Minami being distracted by this boy while trying to study. Also, the plot with her parents asking her to go to America for a new opportunity and declining because she has a crush on a guy is not the greatest for the audience of teenage girls. The plot area of the rival girl coming then immediately getting put off made no real dent in the story or really helped there be any development in the story.

Anyways, all in all, the story is just a story about a romance. The story itself does not justify the moral of the story, and there is no character development at all.

Art: 8

One thing good about this manga is how pretty the art is. It showed emotions excellently when needed and it was enjoyable to look at. It made whatever was on the pages flow smoothly enough. Anyways, that's it.

Character: 4

The characters are nothing special. We have the average clumsy idiot girl, the tsundere boy, the confident and perfect love rival, and funky parents which were tropes popular during that time period. There is not much character development, Minami does not get better at studying and none of the characters really change due to the story (besides the romance plot)

Enjoyment: 4

Did I feel anything while reading this? No.
Was it worthy enough to remember the plot? No.
Was it okay enough to read through the whole thing? I guess I didn't cringe enough to quit it.

Overall: 6

The actual average of my scores is a 4.75 but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. I was able to finish the whole thing. Though the characters were mediocre, there are so many character tropes that all stories have to use nowadays, but I think the main flaw is the plot. The author tried to create a whole deep and meaningful story which just could not reach her moral and could not even touch the skin of my body. It went down the romance only route and yet it did not make my heart scream out of my chest. It did not make my heart cry from it's non-existent relatability.

You can read and see for yourself if you want to, but I highly don't recommend wasting your time with this manga.

WOAHWOAHWOAH!

Want a fun, compelling story to binge on? Want to enjoy eye pleasing art you can stare at all day? Want to see a good mix of character development and relatability? Want to enjoy every frame and panel in this manga? Well, if so, I recommend taking a peek at this manga because personally, all of this criteria has fulfilled me.

STORY: 10
To me, this story is original in my opinion. Although the idea of having a supernatural partner is an old concept, the way the author molds that cliche into her own special thing in a school setting with little adventures involving supernatural school ... rumors, is astounding. She takes the story of what many might know as Bloody Mary and turns it into a whole school-wide adventure that I know I've had imaginations of as a child but I have never seen anybody build it into a compelling story. I don't know about you, but I felt loads of different emotions while reading this and I hope you do too.


ART: 10
The art is a cutesy loli kind of style that I usually do not like in my manga. But, this is an exception. It absolutely captures the innocence of the characters yet it also turns the cute to creepy when needed. The landscape and all of the scenery are crisp and vivid even though it is just black and white. You guys should experience the art yourselves, since everybody's tastes are different, but make sure to try it out!


CHARACTERS: 10
The characters are honestly SO ADORABLEEEEEEEEE. I feel like I can hug each lil character in my arms although not all are portrayed as the protagonists. Thinking back now, some may see the character types as cliche with their personalities in the sense of maybe this dude is like the cool popular type or that girl is too clumsy, but the author really did not make me sense that while reading at all. Character tropes are being reused and recycled all the time now, and so far, to me, this manga utilizes the tropes to fit when needed, and there is great character development that I feel like I'm receiving an achievement while reading ^^

ENJOYMENT: 10
Overall enjoyment? AMAZING! I literally did not do anything but read it the whole day (it was winter break D:: no judge plzz ;-;) because the story was so entertaining to read. A lot of the time I was like AHHHHH and WOAHH and PRECIOUSSSSSS and ANFJA VHLF;MCKD,SZAN XSBC. Yeah, maybe I'm just too emotional. I guess this part is up to you guys to decide if you enjoy it or not as well, we all have different preferences.

It might be a bit unrealistic to score all aspects a 10/10.. ahehe, but perhaps it was because I haven't read something so compelling to me in so long, but honestly, give it a try!

Hopefully you can enjoy it like me. Thanks for reading!