Mar 5, 2024
BL has a poor relationship with the wider animanga community in the same way the black plague has a poor relationship with Europe. BL has always been seen as the deranged bastard of the romance genre, and nothing shows that better than probably the biggest BL manhwa right now: Jinx.
Let’s start off with the very little good this comic has. The art is magnificent. The way the author uses shadows is commendable as they add on the drawings so well and make every page come to life. Their use of lines is also amazing, and everything from the character's clothes, to to their hair,
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to their facial features just looks beautiful. If Jinx didn’t have such good art I wouldn’t even give it a 1, and message MAL to add a 0 rating and even that may be too generous. Okay, that’s all the good time for the bad.
The characters:
EVERYONE SUCKS, outside of Potato my pookie. The two leads are just your average bl couple, but showcase all the bad stereotypes that people have about BL. Let’s start off with Dan, the uke. We go from sympathizing with Dan as this destitute man being forced to sell himself to Jaekyung, to just being annoyed with him. Dan isn’t the most bold man, but the way he instantly becomes helpless at the mere sight of Jaekyung is frustrating. He instantly turns into a slave with no will or thoughts of you outside of “muh Jaekyung.” He develops feelings for Jaekyung for reasons I can't fathom after he was nice to him a few times in between all the times he’s assaulting and belittling him. Dan started the series off sympathetic, but now I just find myself annoyed at his presence, and hoping he leaves Jaekyung so the story ends quicker. This is a romance btw, and I don’t want the main leads anywhere near each other
AND JAEKYUNG OH JAEKYUNG. He is the most arrogant, self centered, cruel psychopath I have ever encountered in fiction. It’s amazing people put up with this guy even with his talent as a fighter. He treats everyone like garbage, and I find myself fighting the urge to close my laptop and question my life choices every time he’s on the page. He’s your generic psycho bl top, and he has little to zero characterization outside of that. The reason I can’t write much about him is because there isn’t much to write. He’s just a walking trope.
The pacing:
It’s just awful, the story is over 40 chapters long and it feels like we are on chapter 4. The plot has not moved outside of Dan falling in love with Jaekyung. Everytime the author has seemingly thrown a challenge that may actually make the story interesting, the author swerves us and has Jaekyung win because of reasons.
The message:
This manhwa romanticizes things like sexual assault and manipulation. It tries not to by showing how much it hurts the uke, and how much he verbally hates it, but then again shows how hot it is with the good art making it look sexy. It just makes you wanna vomit.
The fans: Minor tangent but the amount of people who think this is some amazing written romance concerns me. The amount of defenders Jaekyung has is mind boggling. I have heard the absolute dumbest excuses on why he is not that bad. “Oh he got bullied as a kid.” Okay? That does not excuse even 10% of what he’s done. He’s an objectively evil person that deserves chemical castration more than he deserves Dan. He is actual proof that no matter how evil you are, as long as you are hot, people will defend you.
Conclusion:
Jinx is an absolute awful manga that is the personification of every bad stereotype that people have about the BL genre. It romanticizes SA and coercion, has horrendous writing and pacing, and all of the characters are just walking tropes who get more and more unlikeable every chapter. The only saving grace this manhwa has is its art, and that does not make up for a fraction of the flaws this series has. This is what people thought Killing Stalking was, but at least Killing Stalking is a thriller, whereas this is a straight romance. Jinx is a horrible manhwa that no one should waste their time with.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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