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It's been so many years since I've started this manga, and since then, I've read it at least four times, and when a wave of nostalgia hit me 2 months ago, I decided to read it again - realizing that about a hundred chapters were released since I last picked it up.

This manga is everything. I've started it as a teen, and even as a 23 year old young adult, I can still appreciate it. Here are some of my thoughts based on my most recent read.

Story:

Honestly, if nothing else, story is the main pont of this one hell of a rollercoaster ride. Even when ... you think they cannot possibly think of something new, the mangaka introduces a new storyline, a new movie to shoot, a new struggle for the characters to overcome, a new setting... anything to make it interesting, and even after 276 chapters, it works! (surprisingly enough)

Characters:

Each character is unique, and you are guaranteed to fall in love with all of them. There are no cliché characters here: even if they seem like that, by the 3rd chapter they appear in, they will be fleshed out characters that you will hope to read more about.

The main character, Kyoko, is the best shoujo - nevermind that, the BEST - character I've ever seen in any manga (and even some books). While she goes through serious character development, she always stays true to who she is, using her past experiences to move forward and become a woman that she herself can be proud of.

Art:

The art has improved a lot since the very beginning, and it has seen a big - and quite controversial - change in the recent chapters. For long-time fans of the manga, it might be weird at first, but it's definitely more fresh and modern now, although I still love the initial style too.

Conclusion:

I could write for eons about the sheer awesomeness of this manga, but let me just say this: whatever you like about a shoujo manga (be it the sappy romance, the love triangles, the slow development, the excitement, ANYTHING), you will surely find something (if not everything) to love in this one. I strongly suggest you give it a chance, because it will be one hell of a ride, but on you will not want to get out of.

Before I begin, I want to state that I haven't read any of Hwang Mi Ri's work except for Hot Blooded Woman and I bloody won't judge this manhwa based on the similarities between her stories.
I believe all of you who are saying that after reading 19 HMR manhwa, the twentieth sucks, because you can predict every twist.

BUT not having read anything like this, I pretty much enjoyed everything.

As for the story:

Lots of dead girls, lots of guys blaming themselves for their deaths, soul-transfering situations, love triangles, hate triangles, almost-rape situations, fighting, cruel stuff.... just the usual.
Although it was surprising in one way. ... Almost every manga I have read or every drama I have watched turned dramatically at one point and it became sad or full of misunderstood situations and grief.

BUT it was my first time reading such a comic story like this which actually turned out to be the cruelest manhwa I have ever read. It's not just full of sorrow, but real cruelty and sadism. Most of the characters carry psychopathic traits.

At the beggining of the story, all we get is embarrassing situations and lovely scenes. Then, with the introducing of new characters or old ones we don't really know yet, the whole story turns upside down.

I think that's when you become completely addicted.

Art:

I especially like the way HMR drew Jang Han Seo, one of the main guys. He can be charming, funny, human-like, beast-like or all these at the same time.
I also like Ha Ji, the heroine, but I must admit she isn't anything special. All the other characters are stereotyped and really similar to each other. I guess dear Hwang Mi Ri's only capable of drawing 6 or 7 different faces and 3 different body types in each gender.

Characters(Finally!):

In my humble opinion... No, not in my opinion: This story's main point is DEFINITELY its characters.

Ha ji, our heroine loves nothing but eating, fighting and eating after and before fighting.(No kidding.)
So if you expect a girl who becomes cute at a point in the story and can actually behave well or look beautiful, don't be mistaken. Well, she can be stunning in her own way, for some of the characters, but most of all she is just an eating-burping-machine.

Sin Uoo is your tyipical protagonist, who goes through some serious character development. In the beggining he is that cool-headed sort of guy, who appears confident, but really, he is just unable to say what he’s truly thinking, so when he says „I hate you! You are an ugly bitch.”, he actually means „Marry me, love!”.

Another main character, who is like the other half of the love(and hate) triangle, is the antagonist of our story. And let’s be honest: Jang Han Seo is the evilest of his kind. For him, love is possessive and jealousy equals destruction. He goes by the saying that „If I can’t have it/her, no one can.”

He is a complete madman. If I could describe him in any way, it would be by listing the traits of a SOCIOPATH:

„The greatest weakness of sociopaths is that they don’t have empathy. As a result, they tend to be successful in everything they are doing, since their goals are generally ruthlessly achieved. At the same time sociopaths are often appealing, have a spontaneous personality, and persuasive speaking skills. They get bored quickly, they can’t stand monotony and they need impulses which often go with irresponsibility. They are skilled at lying and manipulating others. They have no remorse, poor emotional life and insensitivity. They are impulsive. They are good at hiding the fact that they only follow their own purposes, and they can lull suspicion.”

I should add one more thing to this title: don't believe any of them. The characters, I mean. They will fool you... None of them is what you think they are. Ha ji, most of all;)

Enjoyment:

As I’ve said before, this story is really enjoyable. Even though it can be stupid, or overly dramatized, even cruel, action is always there, with love and fun. What else do we need?
(sorry for my english i'm not native)

There are probably tons of people who've read this manga and surely all of them has a different interpretation of it's story and ending.

In my opinion, this manga is a conversation between our two main characters, Se-Wa and Se-Joon.
In the beggining, we hear the story of a man, who was loved by all, but could not love anyone, until he met this girl. Even though the girls loves him too, she cannot won't leave her husband for him, and thus he will be alone in despair and grief for the rest of his life.
The storyteller asks the main question of our story, which it builds ... upon:
"Would you choose to be loved by everyone else or would you choose to be loved by one person?"

For 26 chapters, we can see a life where he chooses one of the options. And at the end of the story, when you think everything has ended, we hear the conversation again, now with the characters, and we can get to know which choice he/she would make.

As for the story(9.5):
It is a full, round story even without these conversations at the beggining and the end.
Don't except too much laughter, it is truly a tragedy. A psychological, romantic tragedy. It has its own twists you can't even imagine. I had several ideas, one worse than the other, but I was totally surprised at the end, although looking back, everything seemed so obvious. The little movements, short sentences all led to this wonderful ending.

Characters(10):
They are a "twist" too, in a way. You can't be sure what their personalities are, until you have read all of it. They're not shallow, but really mysterious, although you might think you know their way of doing things after reading the first two chaps. Don't be fooled :) The few supporting chars are great too without too much cliche.

Art(10):
Wonderful. That's all. Really. You can find the usual "manhwa marks" in it, but it's actually unique, and just gorgeous.

Overall, it was worth reading. I almost cried and laughed at the same time when it ended. And just because it was over and I couldn't read more. This mangaka is epic. You should defenitely try it out too, even if you are disgusted by incest. The focus is not on siblings loving each other, but two strange(insane because of love and other stuff...) characters, who love each other in a unique way and have their own, crazy ways of showing their emotions.

(sorry for my english, i'm not native)

A lame, unpopular, awkward girl who suddenly starts caring about her appearance after meeting the "Rude Boy" & a hella hot, rude, popular guy, who becomes good boy no.1 after meeting the "Lame Girl".
IT'S NOT THAT KIND OF STORY.
Although the review might make it seem like that...

Characters:

Mei is awkward, unpoular, of course, but not in the typical shoujo sense. She is awkward becouse she is not like the others and that also leads to being unpopular. But she is surely not lame. At first, she doesn't give a damn about the people targeting her, but at the beggining of our story, she actually kicks the ... most popular guy in school, Kurosawa Yamato, because she mistakes him for on of her bullies. Also, she doesn't give up her morals after getting together with The Guy...

Yamato... hella hot, popular, but really far from being rude. Though don't except the "Kimi no Todoke" style protagonist, because he's not such a shy cutesy guy either. He actually HAS personality. Rare, isn't it?

Supporting chars:

You get to love all of them in the end, even the most annoying ones. They also have their own personalities. The mangaka did a good job.

Story:

You can guess they will end up together anyway, but it's not the kind of story that goes downhill after finally getting the two main chars together. Mei doesn't change her appearance just because of dating or liking Yamato, and our protagonist also doesn't change his cool personality after meeting his beloved.
Still, it's a shoujo manga, and it doesn't miss out real shoujo stuff. Though it changes it. It's like we're reading the same scenes we have already read in thousands of mangas before, all over again, from a different perspective.

Also, it's not that smut, so if you're expecting some airheaded "let's do it" story with "hot" scenes, like f.e. in Honey x Honey Drops (shame on me for even writing down its title..), it's probably not the best choice for you. It has it's own sex scenes, of course, but they are not disgusting or sweaty at all. They seem more natural. It's a manga with character development, with a common, but great storyline, and NOT a porn.

Art:

A bit different, but all in all a typical shoujo style. Although the guys seem much hotter and - maybe - manly, too.
If you like a clean style, without all that sparkly stuff, instead big eyed heroines, pretty supporting chars and hot boys, this manga was made for you.

Enjoyment:

I really enjoyed it and can't wait for the next chapter (40) to come out.


(sorry for my english i'm not native)

I could write lots of good and bad things about this manga. It had its own downhills and uphills, but have finally finished with a - in my opinion - beautiful ending.

Let's face it, the story wasn't that original to start with and the characters were stereotypes or idealized men and women. Although Yuuki - our heroine - is like that too, she was my favourite character in the beggining, but that changed when an important incident occurred(don't want to spoiler it for you, although it's quite obvious). She is cheerful, hard-working, always trying to do her best. Kaname and Zero are typical male characters: ... the sexy, elegant, kind man and the sexy, stubborn, hard-working bad guy. They're not anything special, but you may start liking them if you're into massive shoujo stuff. :)

If you want to read an awesome review about this manga, there are a lot of honest and true writings out there. The only reason why I wrote this, is because I've just finished reading VK, and I really liked the ending, which was IMHO far better than the last, like 30 chapters. It was a human ending, many people who loved this manga and its characters probably shed tears over it. Of course, when you get to the, for instance, 15th chapter, you can already guess the story will be a bit gloomy and without a true happy ending. That couldn't happen, who has read the first few chapters should be able to figure that out.

Anyway, it leaves me with no sorrow, no grieving for another volume, not even a side story – although that is really likely to happen. Overall, I give it an 8. I’m really glad I didn’t stop reading it halfway through, its end lived up to my expectations – far more, it was much better than I first thought it would be. I recommend you to read it even after you’ve watched the anime.

(sorry for my english, I’m not native)

"Shima, who is an outcast at her school and unable to get along with her third stepfather, decides to move out to Sapporo and live with her biological father. There she meets Wao and Gen. Even though she knows she would be shunned by every girl in school for hanging out with them, there's nothing she can really do about it because she's fallen in love."

Sounds cliche, doesn't it? I particularly hate these kinds of rewievs, because they don't cover the awfulness or, in this case, the awesomeness of a story. I don't want to sound too criticizing, because everything written in it is true. ... Although the story is not just another shoujo with a "girl falling in love with one or two boys while the others hate her tralalala..."

I think this manga's main point is it's characters. Shima isn't like the other heroines, who are often shallow and simple, so that it's easy for you to feel like you are in their place. Shima is quite a character and it's also cool that we don't always know that she's thinking because the author won't tell us. Also, I like her mother's letters, they give something to the mood of the manga. That's the key word: mood. I gave 9 for enjoyment rather than 10, because even though I adored this manga and its mood, it really isn't the happiest story out there. Quite depressing, actually. Although we still don't know what Wao's sickness is, it's obvious he's in real trouble. And don't be fooled, even if I say the story's not too "cheerful", it can make you laugh at certain moments!:) Really well-written!

The art is just great. Fantastic. I like this kind of art. Not typically shoujo, but showing the emotions properly, and the movements of the characters are also believable. I could compare it to the manga Six Half, but I can say this one's a bit better, although I adore that too. 10 for that!:)

Overall, I give it 10/10. You should give it a shot. It's refreshing after reading those cliche stories!:)

(sorry for my english, i'm not native)