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
