Orange Marmalade

Konnichiwa~

Today I’ll be reviewing a webtoon called Orange Marmalade by Seok Woo. The series is ongoing in Korea with 105 chapters, 104 of which have been scanlated. Its actually a weekly series, a new chapter coming out in Korea and one being translated every week. Though the author has taken several breaks since the series began in 2011, which can be very frustrating. But lately the series has been pretty steady in releasing. Anyway, lets begin:

The story takes place in a  society where vampire exist, but they live like normal humans do. They go to school, they get jobs, they get married, and they have kids. The only thing that makes them different from humans is that they’re hematophagous, meaning that they drink blood. They don’t drink human blood though, they drink pigs' blood. They don’t drink human blood and they aren’t any different from humans, but they’re treated like outcasts. If someone discovers you’re a vampire, you’re attacked and abused, you either have to flee or be sent away. Because of this, vampires in this world do their best in pretending to be human and that’s exactly what Ma Ri Baek is doing. Ma Ri and her family have already been driven away from several neighborhoods, so she hopes that they can finally settle down. Believing all humans will fear and hate her, she distances herself form the rest of the school, gaining the reputation of being an ice queen. Then one day, half-sleep on the train, she’s attracted to the scent of Jae Min Jung’s blood and nips his neck. Now Jae Min hates being touched by girls and in general finds girls annoying, so he immediately confronts her at school. Ma Ri remains relatively calm, telling him sorry, lets just forget about it. But Jae Min can’t forget. Because of the incident, he noticed Ma Ri and he begin falling for her. But Ma Ri isn’t interested in dating a human that could betray her as soon as they realize she’s a vampire. She's also not interested in becoming friends with the energetic Soo Ri, but she’s determined to get close her no matter what Ma Ri says. How is this distrusting vampire going to react to these two pesters?

This is my favorite webtoon: Ma Ri undergoes a lot of character growth, she stops running away and try to enjoy life. You also see other characters like Soo Ri realize how ignorant and prejudice they’ve been, how

vampire really aren’t any different from humans. At times it feels like Ma Ri’s living during the Civil Rights movements, meeting those who are either accepting, tolerant, or “racist”. Her romance with Jae Min is really adorable, I love it when guys are very direct about their feelings. The misunderstandings and complications will keep you interested and sitting at the edge of your seat. But as much as I like this webtoon, there are many aspects about that frustrate me. The problems often repeat themselves; you’ve think Ma Ri has made progress or decided what to do, but she ends up doing the exact same thing for another 8 chapters. The character growth is as wonderful as it is terrible. She goes very slow and makes poor decision that don’t seem to match what she’s been thinking about or her experiences so far. Jae Min makes some pretty stupid descions as well, but I believe they are justified considering his past and trauma and the fact that he’s made reasonable progress after making the mistake. Other than this frustrating and slow pace at times, I think it’s a great webtoon worth reading. I especially love Si Hoo Han who brings a very interesting perspective when it comes to vampire discrimination. That’s all for today, bye-bye

~Nadeshiko-chan