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Feb 1, 2023
Fantastic premise, outstanding potential... and insanely frustrating.
If you start reading this webtoon, you'll probably be taken in just as I was. Captivated by the wonderful soft art style, the intriguing premise, and full of curiosity as you wonder what'll happen next. But with all the time I spent reading this, I wish someone had warned me that it wouldn't be worth my while.
I'm not saying it's boring. Far from it. The plot alone keeps you invested! But then, you may ask, "in that case, what makes it so terrible that you're trying to warn us not to touch it?"
I'll tell you.
Just like MAL's description says
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- this manga is about a man who is forcefully put into other people's bodies again and again, to be given a sort of 'second chance' to live, while simultaneously being taught that death shouldn't be taken lightly. And the main character Yijae Choi is a very selfish guy who clearly has some growing to do. On its own, this is perfectly fine. After all, what's a main character without a good character arc to be had, right? ESPECIALLY for a plotline like that, where the entire story revolves around HIM and HIS attitude towards life and death. If you didn't have any kind of character arc or character growth throughout the story, well - that wouldn't be much of a story, would it? Without character development, you'd just have to follow a selfish jerk who never learns, and that'd be no fun at all.
... Except, that's precisely why this webtoon isn't very good.
You go through chapter after chapter of this character learning hard lessons... except he never seems to actually learn. The opportunities for character growth are EVERYWHERE, yet he remains absolutely selfish and flippant no matter what happens to him. You can't possibly like him, because he stays a selfish jerk through practically the whole series. His "character arc" is only as good as the first chapter, and the last chapter. You might as well skip most chapters in-between, because they feel like they've done absolutely nothing except give readers the illusion that something might be happening in this guy's heart, when in fact, nothing really is. After a while, you start to realize that even though the 'setting' is changing to make the webtoon feel like it's going somewhere, HE is going nowhere. And thus, the story itself, is also going nowhere. It's like a colorful illusion, and you don't realize just how "nowhere" the story is going until over half his lives are gone and you realize he's the exact same guy as when you began.
It's just a story of watching this guy suffer, be selfish, suffer, be greedy, and suffer some more - and no matter how many times he sees how being a terrible person doesn't pay off, no matter how many times he *has the chance to make up for it,* he never does. And just when you think he MIGHT be learning, life metaphorically kicks him in the face and he just doesn't learn anyway. After a while, you start to feel like you're wasting your time, sighing in frustration and rolling your eyes thinking "Okay - he's going into his next life, but so what? Not like it'll end any differently than last time."
And for a manga where his character growth is what the manga is ABOUT, it's just unacceptable. You can't have a "story about character growth" that doesn't include character growth.
I've never experienced more frustration from reading something than this. The plot is interesting, but the execution is downright frustrating and just plain disappointing. I wish I could give it a 1, but the art and """entertainment value""" it provides 'generally' in spite of the huge writing flaws, means I can't go much lower than a 3.
If you wanna skim for morbid curiosity, fine. If you want some shallow entertainment with a "qUiRkY plotline" and some "wow factor" then fine. But if you're looking for an actually good story, steer clear. There isn't much here beyond colorful settings and an unintentional empty promise by the author.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 10, 2017
Keep in mind when you're reading reviews, how many chapters the reviewer has read. This is displayed in the top right corner of their review. You'll notice for THIS manga - that higher reviews are often made by people who have read fewer chapters. This is because they haven't gotten far enough to realize how disappointing this manga really is.
The outcome of a manga can almost be more important than the journey - but in this case, I couldn't even muster through the journey. Everything began quite clever - but ultimately turned into ridiculous plot twists, unanswered questions, and so much fan service that I
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had to double-check that this manga wasn't labeled "ecchi" (and frankly - I really should be sending an e-mail to "MangaPanda" and "MyAnimeList" to add "ecchi" as a genre). In fact, I'm surprised it's labeled "shounen" instead of "seinin" for this same reason.
If you want me to elaborate (spoiler-free) - see below.
Art - 8
The art style isn't bad. It's not super-realistic, but it's also not super-cartoony. The artist knows what they're doing, and the art style used for the manga seems fairly mainstream and likeable.
Story - 5
Enjoyment - 3
Character - 3
(all explained below)
I would've given the story a lower score - but I'm trying to keep in mind that the series did BEGIN very clever. Many people being dragged into a dangerous game of life or death because of a social media app - it sounds cliche, but the writer managed to pull it off and make it fairly interesting and entertaining. The sections of the game were very well-written and strategic. It seemed genius, like the game was nothing but a battle of wits and the author was not afraid to do what he had to do to make it work. Could it have taken a place in my top-5 favorites? Perhaps not - but nonetheless it was clever, entertaining, and interesting.
However - it does not take long for the reader to get the sense that the author doesn't seem to care anymore. As other reviewers have said, characters seem to randomly disappear without another mention of their existence, and the whole tone of the manga changes. This also is very abrupt, so you'll know it's happening when you get there. To me, it felt as though the author was getting bored of writing the same characters over and over again, and so he made up an excuse to get them out of the picture and somehow replace them. It was to the point where I'm going through the pages waiting with baited breath for some characters to reappear (because of an unresolved cliffhanger) - and even after 30 chapters (each chapter is about 40 - 60 pages long, mind you), I'm still wondering if the author entirely forgot about them.
On top of that major flaw (which in itself was almost enough to make me stop caring about the story), things go from being based on intelligence to seemingly being based on a lot of action - and as I mentioned above, the amount of fanservice shoots through the roof. In the beginning there may have been some things here and there that were a bit suggestive or inappropriate, but it was not too much more than the amount shown in other shounen manga. However, eventually it seems like they try to find more and more excuses to insert suggestive (and more than suggestive - outright visible) scenes with girls' bodies - and keep in mind, I'm talking about NAKED. I recently read a scene where two female characters "had to" get naked, in order to carry out a plan that was actually physically impossible in reality (yet it works anyway), just as an excuse to add naked girls. Recently it has felt common-place to see girls in skimpy bikini's, underwear, or just flat-out naked (and it seems they can only keep the 'shounen' tag because the important areas are simply not colored in, which makes it a bit less detailed.)
While once or twice might be forgivable, it feels constant now - and that isn't what I came for. That was about the point that I dropped the manga, because it went from a psychological/shounen to an action/ecchi/seinin (with characters that are randomly gone and plot-twists that are ridiculous and make me care even less about the characters) - which I did not sign up for.
Overall - I'm giving it a 3.
It could've been lower had it not been for the beginning chapters which were fairly well-written. In the beginning it was very intelligent, and there was one twist in particular that I found extremely clever and interesting - but it doesn't matter, because after a while, the manga practically acts like the beginning never happened.
This manga heavily disappointed me. But if you like action and ecchi - this might be your manga once you get past the part where the author drops characters out of existence and changes the tone of the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 26, 2016
I started reading this manga, and thought it was cute at first. It was very short so I finished it in one night, and so all of it is fresh in my mind.
It was cute - but it only gets a 6/10 from me. (If I could use decimals, it'd be closer to 6.5 or so, though)
Here's my opinion (spoiler-free!)
The story is decent, the art is fairly shoujo, and it is cute. However, the main thing about the manga is the main character. I don't dislike her - I actually find her cute! The only issue is that her problem with badmouthing people is to
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the extent that it seems like someone put a curse on her. She has the words in her head she wants to say, but what comes out is a twisted mean version of it. In fact, it's so bad that most of her words throughout the manga are thinking or narration - and aside from that she makes an effort not to speak unless spoken to if she can help it.
I feel like this fact alone takes over the whole manga in a way. While I want to focus on the love story between the main characters, or the cute antics of side characters - I can't do so without also noting that almost everything that happens is due to her bad mouth.
It's to the point that the summary would be almost more accurate if it was something more like, "This is a love story about a girl who had a spell cast on her, making her only able to say nasty things - and she must get through school life with this terrible curse!"
(Well - except magic doesn't exist in this manga. She's supposed to just have this problem from hanging out with a lot of brothers growing up or something.)
ON THE OTHER HAND...
Don't get me wrong. It IS a cute read. Positives are that if you view this as a purely fun/cute love story about something silly like "a girl who can only insult people", then you could have a good time. Her love interest is an adorable character and deals with her well, and there's something intriguingly happy about how he's able to stand her. Because her bad mouth feels entirely involuntary to the point that she seems like a victim of her own habits, his kindness is always appreciated and it helps you cheer them on.
I might actually buy this manga to have it on my shelf if I'm ever bored and want to read, but it isn't on my top-favorites at the moment.
Still, it's all up to you if you want to check it out. I do recommend it, just for the cute read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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