You are My Pet/Tramps Like Us

Sumire and Momo

Konnichiwa

Today I’ll be reviewing the josei  Kimi wa Pet by Ogawa Yayoi. The series is actually a spin-off of another one of her series, Candy Life, which I plan on reading later. The series is 14 volumes in total and is completely scanlated. Lets begin:

Sumire Iwaya is an intelligent, successful, and beautiful woman who works for a big newspaper, though not in the department she wants. She has big dreams and hopes to one day transfer to a more serious department, such as the English news section. She’s a determined woman with big dreams who wants to maintain her image and apparently too intimidating for her fiancée. He tells her she is too perfect, and that being around her is uncomfortable. Heartbroken, frustrated, and depressed, she returns home, where she finds an unconscious young man lying in a box in front of her home. She takes the young man inside, who quickly becomes comfortable, acting happy-go-lucky and appearing rather simple-minded. He’s personality and curly hair reminds her of her childhood dog “Momo”. She comments how she could keep him as pet, and he tells her he’d be perfectly fine with that. Thus, he is named Momo and “officially” becomes her pet. Though a rather unusual relationship, the two of them easily accept it and begin their life together. While she attempts to keep him a secret from her co-workers and later her conventionally perfect boyfriend, the two of them grow closer and closer, developing a strong bond.

And since this is a romance, this bond steadily becomes love.

Well, steadily on Sumire’s part. Momo falls in love very early in the series, and he does a great job of hiding it. Though he appears carefree and simple-minded, Momo, or Takashi, is actually very clever and complex, he can also be very serious at times: when he does show his seriousness, Sumire is always shaken and unsure

what to do. He loves dancing, but unsure about his future. You really see him mature and grow as the series goes on. And even though Sumire is more settled into her life as an adult, you also see her grow as a person. In the beginning, she isn’t very honest with herself or those around her: in front of everyone beside Momo, she tries to act like the perfect woman, always confident, calm, and collective. Her family is extremely strict, judging, and prestigious, so it makes sense that she would put up this front. With Momo, she lets herself be the lazy, emotional, and insecure. She can be a crybaby, a smoker, and a excited pro-wrestling fan. Even with the man she planned on marrying, who she planned on spending the rest of her life with, she put on this act. But the same way she helps Momo mature, he helps her grow and get rid of this façade. Gradually, her co-workers realize she isn’t cold and always serious, they see her slightly dorky personality.

Main Characters: Momo, Sumire, Sumire's hilarious best
friend, Sumire's boring perfect boyfriend(and first love),
and annoying (and pitiful) Shiori

I rarely enjoy slow romance, usually because the ones I find have ridiculously slow pace, but I liked the pace of this one. I liked seeing their love grow, I think because seeing their master-pet friendship was entertaining and the other characters they interacted with were compelling. Their past also played a big part in the story, so when a new aspect of their past was revealed, there was always a ripple in their relationship. A change

preceded by a little bit of drama. There was something to hold your attention besides the slow building romance. I feel in many slow romances, there isn’t much there, so gets boring. Something that does bother me though is her boyfriend Hasumi. They met in college and is Sumire's first love. He is kind, loving, and appears to be nearly perfect, but he got on my nerves quite a bit. He claims he wants to see the real Sumire, but not the "real" Sumire. I felt he had his own illusion of her true self and didn't understand her very well. He does really care about her though, so I can't really dislike him too much. I got impatient with Sumire at times too: every time they were together she had to act, she even states numerous times that its exhausting being with him too long. So why be with him? But in her mind, since she loves him so much its only natural to try so hard to keep him. I kind of understand it and I kind of don't, sometimes I was annoyed and sometimes I was sympathetic.
Anyway, this manga manages to be a realistic slice of life while also being an unrealistic comedy; and I love that when things do start getting unrealistic, the characters’ sort of point it out. Though there were parts in the manga that confused me, they're usually insignificant dreams that you can move past.

Overall, a really great josei. I know it’s also been adapted to a drama and a live-action movie. I think I’ll check one of them out since I really enjoyed the odd story based around a pet and master relationship, the characters, and watching their love grow.

Bye-Bye

~Nadeshiko-chan

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