 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | NET COMICS | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | YOUNGRAN LEE | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | ENGLISH / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 184 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | ALL AGES | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 11/23/2006 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/12/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SANDRA SCHOLES |
Joonha's best friend is being shouted at outside the school by other class friends who think she is too pompous to be around her. They think she has no idea who her friend is now that things have changed.
While Joonha and his triad friend discuss a ten billion dollar deal to be taking place soon with the head of the Hong Kong triad boss, Joonha gets stars in his eyes at the very sight of him, and wonders why he ever wanted to be a black belt Playboy when he was a boy. And thinks that maybe it was because he admired someone like him to want to become him. Joonha is distressed as he feels all he is doing is wrong. He feels about the drugs and corruption that goes on in the mafia at the time and who knows what will happen to him if he goes ahead with it. When his friend says he will pull out for him, he does not expect the outcome of what he does. He now realises how other girls must have felt being around him as he knows how attractive he is now that he is a girl. Joonha is finding school hard now that he is a girl instead of a boy, and all around him are gossiping about him, and his former love interest. His best friend remembers him being the son of a public bath owner and she used to bathe with him quite a lot when they were out of school, until they parted company a couple of years ago. She feels the pain of their separation, continues to hear rumours about him, and wonders if they are true in spite of how she feels. This fifth volume has a nicely complex plotline, interesting characters and several themes running at the same time around Joonha's friends and the love of his life. The story is full of good humour, lively characters and lives up to the first four volumes previously. There is also the aspect of Joonha having to cope with being female now, and realising after all this time of being a male that he can no longer wonder around as cocky and sure of himself as he did before. Also there is the problem of what he feels around his other friends and how they will act now he is not male. The transition for him will be very strange and harrowing, but in all of this, he keeps his sanity and his temper and just works out his life as he goes along. After his transformation, he has, he knows become a very different person from the one he used to be. The artwork is reminiscent of Let Dai with its careful form of the characters faces and frames as well as the sheer beauty of the manga art in general. Joonha is very well drawn with his short-cropped hair and tomboyish way of dressing. The cover art seems serious, though it is full of pinks and light browns and is essentially feminine and gives the impression Joonha will get used to his new life as a female. IN SUMMARY: Captivating story – stunningly beautiful artwork make this manga a winner in anyone's view! |