Very! Very! Sweet 4

JiSang Shin / Geo – Yen Press – 2009 – 7 volumes

I do love Korean girls’ comics almost unconditionally (I’m looking at you, Sarasah), and this one is no exception. But I’d be the first to admit there’s… a lot of the usual stuff going on here, with a pretty strong heroine surrounded by a good group of friends and a difficult relationship. I’ve forgotten how big a jerk Tsuyoshi was in the other volumes, so at this point he’s even a decent guy that the heroine’s falling for. I’m going to forego commenting too much on this volume in favor of watching the relationship build a little more and seeing if there’s more to say about it then, but there are a couple interesting things to note here.

There is, of course, the jealous lovers coming in between Tsuyoshi and Be-Ri’s fake relationship. I think the language barrier is an interesting element in this story. Not only because Tsuyoshi can’t express himself clearly to Be-Ri and others, but also because it gives Tsuyoshi’s former Japanese girlfriend something of a shield to hide behind when she wants to talk to Tsuyoshi without the others knowing what she’s saying.

I also thought the racism being represented between the elderly Korean woman and Japanese man was interesting. That never, ever comes up in manwha, and it’s almost made into a joke here (more precisely, used as an excuse to push something aside), but it was interesting just how violent the grandmother got in this scene, and just how much was between the lines there. The translation note in the back spelled it out clearly.

Other than that… a relationship is revealed between Tsuyoshi and his keeper, Be-Ri’s older sister is going through a rocky time with her boyfriend, Tsuyoshi and Be-Ri are growing a little closer… you know the drill. Like I said, there will probably be more to comment on next volume. I’m planning on finishing this off within the next couple days, too.