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Bloody Sweet by Narae Lee
Feb. 14th, 2019 05:52 pmContent Note: Bullying, suicide, self-harm
Fetechou and Naerim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Sometimes obsessively checking Kickstarter has its perks, because I spotted TappyToon's KS for vol 2 of Bloody Sweet the day it went up and hit the back button SO HARD, and then waited patiently, so so patiently, for these two THICK volumes to arrive.
And my patience was rewarded with one hell of a story. A story that I finished a few days ago, but I still find myself thinking about and tearing up all over again. Ahhhh... *clutches face* Okay, let's get into it.
Originally published as Honey Blood from Kakao, Bloody Sweet follows Shin Naerim, the daughter of a moodang (Korean shaman, often written as mudang,) who is bullied relentlessly day in and day out. One day, on a school trip, she opens a wardrobe to find a 583 year old vampire, Vlad Fetechou. When he has a taste of her delicious blood, a contract between (future) witch and vampire is formed, and Naerim finds herself with a dog like immortal servant.
And yeah, it's often just as funny as that sounds like it should be.
But omg, how do I talk about this comic? I want to just scream, OH MY HEEAAART!!!! But that's not useful to anyone, really. But going on that theme, it's full of drama and comedy and, yes, HEART. Naerim's in a very dark place at the start of the story, and so much of it, amid the developing romantic feelings and ominous intentions of outside forces, is about her finding the ability to love HERSELF again. It's about friendship and helping one another and connections and accepting one's feelings, good and bad, and knowing one has every right to exist in the world. Naerim isn't the only one struggling. Gradually, we learn of Fetechou's own troubles, ones that aren't apparent because he has lived with them so long and knows how to put on a happy face. And they find comfort in one another, and it's just so LOVELY.
The cast is rounded out with a slew of others, from a 6(?) year old monk in training to a 20-something fat beauty stylist who IS MY FAVORITE OF THE INCIDENTAL CHARACTERS to the man (well, vampire) who created Fetechou, and I love them ALL (yes, including the unrepentant mean girl queen.) I'd read all of their stories shooting off from this one in a HEART BEAT.
Also this is SO non-explicitly kinky, which YES PLEASE.
Along with the funny, heartbreaking, gorgeous, hopeful story, we get Narae Lee's FANTASTIC art. It's so lively and vibrant and wonderfully conveys every tone and tonal shift, as we move from a comedic moment to a darker one to a romantic fluttering. Prior to this, Narae Lee did the comic adaptation of James Patterson's Maximum Ride, and while, uh, I have no love for James Patterson's stuff (sorry,) I am thinking of picking it up JUST for Narae Lee's art.
This story has it all - wonderful characters, great art, SUCH GREAT EMOTIONAL IMPACT, AHH. And I just checked, and there's an absolute HEARTWRENCHING extra that you can't get on the TappyToon site and can only get in the physical edition, so if you can manage to snag this two volume set, DO. It's so worth it.
My ONE itty bitty complaint is that these publishers (not just TappyToon) who license Korean comics for English speaking audiences don't seem to employ copy editors, and I'm not entirely sure how the translation process works anyway. But a copy editor on the translated script is sorely needed on pretty much every licensed Korean webcomic I've read, across different publishers, and these publishers are really doing a disservice to both the creators and their audiences by not having one. For Bloody Sweet, it's in the second half where misspellings, repeated or dropped words, and odd phrasings appear quite a bit. It was a little distracting, because they WERE relatively absent in the first half, so my brain had to readjust midway through. But it's totally worth getting through that. I just really REALLY wish it had received a better treatment, especially once they decided to go to print with it.
All in all, if you aren't bothered by the above content warnings (and do take those seriously), I HIGHLY recommend this if you want a lovely supernatural youthful romance. It's SO SWEET. It's.... Bloody Sweet, ohohohoho~~ (Sorry, not sorry.)
I'm going to be sitting with that ending (the climax, the ending, the bonus print exclusive ending) for a long time. This story's going to live in my heart. <3 <3
Bloody Sweet is available in English on TappyToon (print edition still available on Backerkit as of writing)
Fetechou and Naerim sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Sometimes obsessively checking Kickstarter has its perks, because I spotted TappyToon's KS for vol 2 of Bloody Sweet the day it went up and hit the back button SO HARD, and then waited patiently, so so patiently, for these two THICK volumes to arrive.
And my patience was rewarded with one hell of a story. A story that I finished a few days ago, but I still find myself thinking about and tearing up all over again. Ahhhh... *clutches face* Okay, let's get into it.
Originally published as Honey Blood from Kakao, Bloody Sweet follows Shin Naerim, the daughter of a moodang (Korean shaman, often written as mudang,) who is bullied relentlessly day in and day out. One day, on a school trip, she opens a wardrobe to find a 583 year old vampire, Vlad Fetechou. When he has a taste of her delicious blood, a contract between (future) witch and vampire is formed, and Naerim finds herself with a dog like immortal servant.
And yeah, it's often just as funny as that sounds like it should be.
But omg, how do I talk about this comic? I want to just scream, OH MY HEEAAART!!!! But that's not useful to anyone, really. But going on that theme, it's full of drama and comedy and, yes, HEART. Naerim's in a very dark place at the start of the story, and so much of it, amid the developing romantic feelings and ominous intentions of outside forces, is about her finding the ability to love HERSELF again. It's about friendship and helping one another and connections and accepting one's feelings, good and bad, and knowing one has every right to exist in the world. Naerim isn't the only one struggling. Gradually, we learn of Fetechou's own troubles, ones that aren't apparent because he has lived with them so long and knows how to put on a happy face. And they find comfort in one another, and it's just so LOVELY.
The cast is rounded out with a slew of others, from a 6(?) year old monk in training to a 20-something fat beauty stylist who IS MY FAVORITE OF THE INCIDENTAL CHARACTERS to the man (well, vampire) who created Fetechou, and I love them ALL (yes, including the unrepentant mean girl queen.) I'd read all of their stories shooting off from this one in a HEART BEAT.
Also this is SO non-explicitly kinky, which YES PLEASE.
Along with the funny, heartbreaking, gorgeous, hopeful story, we get Narae Lee's FANTASTIC art. It's so lively and vibrant and wonderfully conveys every tone and tonal shift, as we move from a comedic moment to a darker one to a romantic fluttering. Prior to this, Narae Lee did the comic adaptation of James Patterson's Maximum Ride, and while, uh, I have no love for James Patterson's stuff (sorry,) I am thinking of picking it up JUST for Narae Lee's art.
This story has it all - wonderful characters, great art, SUCH GREAT EMOTIONAL IMPACT, AHH. And I just checked, and there's an absolute HEARTWRENCHING extra that you can't get on the TappyToon site and can only get in the physical edition, so if you can manage to snag this two volume set, DO. It's so worth it.
My ONE itty bitty complaint is that these publishers (not just TappyToon) who license Korean comics for English speaking audiences don't seem to employ copy editors, and I'm not entirely sure how the translation process works anyway. But a copy editor on the translated script is sorely needed on pretty much every licensed Korean webcomic I've read, across different publishers, and these publishers are really doing a disservice to both the creators and their audiences by not having one. For Bloody Sweet, it's in the second half where misspellings, repeated or dropped words, and odd phrasings appear quite a bit. It was a little distracting, because they WERE relatively absent in the first half, so my brain had to readjust midway through. But it's totally worth getting through that. I just really REALLY wish it had received a better treatment, especially once they decided to go to print with it.
All in all, if you aren't bothered by the above content warnings (and do take those seriously), I HIGHLY recommend this if you want a lovely supernatural youthful romance. It's SO SWEET. It's.... Bloody Sweet, ohohohoho~~ (Sorry, not sorry.)
I'm going to be sitting with that ending (the climax, the ending, the bonus print exclusive ending) for a long time. This story's going to live in my heart. <3 <3
Bloody Sweet is available in English on TappyToon (print edition still available on Backerkit as of writing)
