Love in the Mask

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A love to hate manga, not because it's so horrible but because the characters really piss you off.

Do the characters have their bad qualities? Yes, but at this point I think their qualities are essential to the drama and its unfolding.

[Mild Spoilers but very little]

Suh Hyun-bin. She’s had a rough start in life. Watched her little brother die in her arms without being able to do anything. Was later picked up by a wealthy man who needed a bodyguard for his granddaughter. It was either be a guy forever or be on the streets. She chose what anyone would have chosen. Used and abused by ... everyone for everything. Even Yae Ha, who is suppose to be her friend manipulates her for her own benefit. Hyun finally falls in love only to be taken away and taught a lesson on the reality that she isn’t suppose to feel anything for anyone.

Yun-ha Lee, a boy with a tragic past. Lost the girl he liked and his brother is in a coma. Only has his dad. Made his own gang and was willing to leave everything for the person he loves. Even though he is mean to Hyun and hate him protecting yae-ha he is still devoted and sincere. I am willing to overlook that he’s the one closest to Hyun and hasn’t figured out he’s a she. His character is the one that has given and given to Hyun expecting nothing in return but to see her smile

Yae-ha, I'm not sure if her character is suppose to be a manipulative, self absorb, rich girl or if that's just the way the mangaka wants her to be perceived. She has no redeeming qualities. Even her good qualities at the beginning were to satisfy her narcissistic personality. She’s spoiled and deserves a beating, maybe I‘ll make a poll to see how she should be beat…
The truth about her was told to her face by no other than Ji-Woong, “You don’t know anything about love or the act of loving another.”

Chi-ho, he’s a follower of Hyun, to the point that he stalked him to the bathroom and harassed the girl out of him. He loves her deeply. Even confessed when he thought she was a guy. He was the top in Lee’s gang before Hyun got there and took his spot as the better fighter.

Kang Ji-woong was the best addition to the manga. Abandoned when a child by the people he cared about. He gave up on love and hates when people love. But somehow Hyun got under his skin. He was the only character that automatically saw her as a girl. He got extra credit points just for that in my book.

Art: The fighting scenes are good. They get cleaner as the manga progresses then reverts to it's former state. There’s no suave way of saying it so here goes, I like knowing how one person gets beat up and you don’t miss anything with this manga. Also, the characters expressions are not the best towards the middle, I’m not sure why I noticed. Just somewhere along the way their expressions were always sullen. It could also be that the mood of the manga shifted.

My opinion on the characters are pretty consistent with my version of their description above. I have to note thought that though Hyun is the protagonist I feel that she would have better off she if she told someone of her circumstances instead of hiding it and suffering in silence.

I can’t say anything else without spoiling (even more) the rest of the story. I know how it ends, I have seen the raw and I am looking forward to it to see the look on their faces!

After all is said and done this was one manga that was worth reading until the end.

I absolutely love this manhwa because it really goes in detail of the characters from their childhood to their adulthood. The story is about a girl who is an orphan, but live amongst street gangsters. She conceals the fact that she's a girl so that she can survive. One day she's taken in by a rich family and becomes the family's granddaughter's bodyguard. The owner of the house tells her to conceal the fact that she's a girl to everyone and concentrate on training and protecting the weak granddaughter. Hyunbin is the name that is given to the heroine. She lives her life as a ... bodyguard for many years and go to high shool with the granddaughter. While there, she meets many different people, and even guys who fall in love with her despite the fact that they all think she's a boy.

The story gets even more interesting because the Hyunbin was taken into the rich family for her use later on when she gets older. She is concealed as the family's grandson and is allowed to be kidnapped by another family, who happens to be a mafia, and the enemy of the original adopted family. She has to contain her secret of being female for 9 years with the mafia, so that they do not know that she's the fake grandson. She also has to give up on her love back at the high school.

The story is really original and interesting.
I love the fact that it has 32 volumes, because I really hate underdeveloped storyline and characters. You'll really regret it if you miss this manhwa.

If you love gender bender and shoujo, this one is definitely for you!

Let's see.

-Really long, going on circles (I love him, can't reveal, I love him, can't reveal, I love him...). Would have worked way better as 30ch series.

-Art is awful. It is hard to describe, but the art is very crude except for hair.

- Plot is bad and unrealistic, every single character is unlikeable.

Unless you are 12-13 years old and female, I'd stay away from this. There are so many better series.

I've never written a review here before but after spending however many hours reading and completing this manhwa, I felt the need to write something, cause oh boy was it all over the place.

I'll keep it brief:

The characters are all pretty unlikable and many are just plain annoying.

The story is dragged out and seems to just go in circles, basically nothing happens in the first half that means anything.

I can't say much to avoid spoilers but I got quite annoyed at the ending, not to mention the lead up to it, Hyun-Bin's motivations completely change in a matter of chapters and the conclusion is just ... stupid.

The art is not the best, especially the eyes, I figured i'd get used to them as it went on (like Clannad) but nope, they were distracting the whole way through. The hair is well drawn though, lots of detail in it.

In the end I feel like I wasted my time with this one, I probably should've dropped it but by the time I was sick of the story and characters I was about half way through and still wanted to see the ending cause I figured it couldn't be that bad. It was that bad. I can't say much about whether it's a good gender bender or not since I haven't really read any others but I can definitely say there are much better romances out there. 2/10.

I don't really usually rate something I watched or read, but this manhwa was an exception. This really is one of the best manhwa I have ever read! I strongly suggest many to read it, but if you are as sensitive as I am, be prepared for a lot of tissues xD

Love in the Mask is about an orphaned girl, Suh Hyun Bin, who was forced to live as a guy in order to survive. She isn't just your typical protagonist who lived a horrible life and then just magically becomes one who lives a perfect life. It is way much more than that. This ... manhwa was pretty long with a total of 134 chapters but I completed all in three days with nights I've spent past 1 am to read. Although long, the story was really well written and just kept pulling me to continue reading.

The art wasn't particularly unique but is enjoyable. In the beginning, Hyun Bin was portrayed as a male but later on, the art changes a bit and readers can tell that Hyun Bin looks more of a female. There were some designs that I didn't really like, but overall, it was beautiful!

The characters are the best feature of this manhwa. Each individual character's past and story were really well portrayed and were strong. There were some characters that I really wished that the author could have shown more though.

Enjoyment was outstanding. I really enjoyed reading every chapter of this manhwa and I still can't get enough of it. It would be awesome if they made a sequel.

Overall, I still give this manhwa a 9. Near the end, I felt that things were a bit too rushed and didn't give enough time for readers to get used to them. I believe that the author could have done more but it is still an awesome manhwa! Truly a beautiful manhwa and one of the best!

This manwha... Just yikes.

I honestly was in love when I started this manwha. It has so much heart and the heroine is strong in the face of tragedy. The two leads gradually begin to have feelings for each other despite the fact that our heroine is believed to be male.

Then things just took a downward spiral. Don't get me wrong. It was great for a while, but soon things just got so dragged out to the point where it seemed as though these romantic conflicts wouldn't conclude. And then of course as we need the end soap opera-like occurrences begin to pop up ... taking the story in a direction that I really despised.

So baskically, the ending was shotty and ridiculous (I won't be specific to avoid spoilers) and just such a waste when this manwha had so much potential to be great.

This manwha was a mess.

It was all over the place. The story started out very interesting with the introduction of characters and all. I also liked the main female lead very much because she was a tough girl and was able to fight and defend herself.

However, then the author started introducing more characters and unnecessary drama. Half the time, I could not even understand the whole vengeful situation and interactions between Chairman Kim Pil Joong and Chairman Yun (I think this was their names. I also couldn't keep up with all the names because there were just that many characters) whose relationship actually instigates ... all of Hyun Bin's issues and sadness.

The author introduced not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different love interests. I felt that one of the guys that fell in love with her (Chi Ho) would have fit the plot better if he played the main role of friend instead of obsessively trying to gain the love affection of Hyun Bin. Then we have Yun Ha who is second to fall in love with Hyun Bin (or realize it) and is the actual main male lead. He was a "nice" character but I could not, in me, find any other reason to like him. His love for Hyun Bin was also overly obsessive. His main role essentially contributed a new-found sense of freedom and comfort to the ever tragedy-stricken Hyun Bin and that was it. Next, we have the crude, love child of the superior of Chairman Kim Pil Joong who also falls in love with Hyun Bin. I don't remember his name but he's the type of character we all love to hate. I didn't so much mind his role in the plot because it actually did contribute to the relationship of the two main leads. Lastly, we have Chun Bi Rak who, in my opinion, is really the only redeeming, lovable character in this entire manwha besides Hyun Bin and is also the second main male lead. Bi Rak was the only character that I felt contributed happiness to Hyun Bin's sad life and provided her with unconditional love and understanding. In addition, the author included two supporting female rivals, both of who had very washed-out, cliched personalities (typical spoiled princess-like female and typical evil-like female).

The author also had a bad tendency of introducing characters that seemed like they were going to contribute to the plot in some way and then in the end, the author seemed to have forgotten entirely about these characters from her large gene pool of repetitive, cliched characters.

Again, this manwha had so much unnecessary drama and impulsive turning points in the plot that weren't thought out and drawn/written clearly. Lots of repetitive events also happened. This manwha could have easily been ended with 30-40 chapters but instead was dragged out in 134 chapters. It was literally 20 volumes of Hyun Bin crying about the fact that she couldn't profess her love to Yun Ha because of her role of a male bodyguard, fear of her life, and sisterly love and respect for the princess-like rival character.

On a positive note, this manwha does have heart-wrenching moments that will make you tear up. This was one of the main reasons why I continued to read it as far as I did aside from curiosity of Hyun Bin and Bi Rak's relationship and the reveal of Hyun Bin's gender.

But in all honesty, the ending was very cliched and disappointing and I do not wish to go on any further with this review because it was the type of ending to abruptly put an end to the developing plot and feelings of all characters.

I've never written a review before here but I feel like I need to write about this or I am going to die.

Anyways! This manhwa was AWFUL, but I'll start with the good.

Ever since I was a kid, I've always really enjoyed older shoujo, which this series captures the feeling of perfectly. The artwork is very off in some places, but the the style is very nostalgic and similar to some other manga I've seen, so I didn't really mind.

The story, if not anything else, was VERY interesting. I actually finished it all in around 3 or 4 days, which is a good indicator of ... how easy to read it was. That is because it was ABSOLUTELY insane. Gang wars, love rivalry, military training camps: this manhwa had it all. While the contents certainly weren't top tier (as obvious from my rating), it was enough for me to get through it quickly, so I'll give it points there.

NOW FOR THE NEGATIVES, which I would say absolutely destroyed the manhwa for me. I should've stopped reading after the first 20 or so chapters honestly, but I was SO desperate for it to be good that, unfortunately, I pressed on. I will be getting into spoilers from now on because they feel pretty necessary for me to talk about, so if you're not interested, click away.

I'll start with the least bad: the romance. Although it was all over the place, it felt like it was going nowhere. The two main leads, Hyun-bin and Yun-ha, although not lacking cute scenes and chemistry, felt like they weren't getting anywhere. The most frustrating part was Hyun-bin's unwillingness to confide in Yun-ha. It felt strange seeing her suffer so much when her problems could've easily been solved by telling them to someone, even if it wasn't Yun-ha. Eventually, it just felt like the sole purpose of her keeping her secret was to keep the manhwa going. Like, if you have a boyfriend who is the heir of an ultra powerful corporation, I think he might be able to help you out at least a little.

Secondly, the ending was really awful. All of a sudden, after over 120 chapters of pining for the Yun-ha, Hyun-bin suddenly just falls in love with Bi-rak? I understand they were close, but the story didn't foreshadow her feelings at all, only showing that the Bi-rak had unrequited feelings for her. AND THEN HE JUST DIES RIGHT AFTER? AND THEN! AND THEN! She loses all her memories? Like she just straight up gets her memories replaced by a hypnotist? It was completely jarring because the reason for her memories being gone wasn't revealed until the last chapters, meaning you suddenly start reading a chapter and she has just forgotten her name and her entire past. It was ridiculous. By the end, even if Yun-ha and Hyun-bin did get together, it felt hard to be anything but angry about it because they threw in this completely unnecessary plot point of her falling for another guy and losing her memories when the ending most likely would've been BETTER without it.

Now, for the most egregious thing, the reason this gets such a harsh score over the average score I would've given it otherwise: the sexual assault. Obviously, the topic is sensitive and the end portion of this review focuses on that, so click off if that could be potentially triggering to you.

- Hyun-bin is subject to NUMEROUS 'surprise kisses' from NUMEROUS different men throughout the manhwa. It gets to the point where she barely reacts because it happens so often! It's not 'cute', it's just sexual assault. NEVER do the men receive permission beforehand.

- Just, the entire character of Ja Chi-ho. He is such an abuser and the story never condemns his actions, saying he did it for love. He gropes Hyun-bin for 'proof' that she is a girl, is one of the many men who kiss her without consent, and will not leave her alone and is obsessed with forcing her to love him no matter how many times she tells him no. I can't count how many times I wanted to stop reading JUST because of him.

- The rape of a male character and the subsequent pregnancy of the perpetrator is viewed as 'happy'. Bi-rak, who is drunk and unconscious, wakes up to find himself in bed with Ga-hyun, who was completely sober and took advantage of his vulnerable position after she took him home the previous night. Not only that, but the child she has a result of the rape is viewed as 'a gift from him', and she constantly romanticizes their 'love'. Other than that, Ga-hyun, a minor throughout the first half of the story, consistently stalked Bi-rak in hopes of receiving his affections. While it's viewed as 'pure' because of her age, her age is the very reason why there never should have been a romantic subplot between them at all.

- Rape as a plot point. Many times. There is a plot point where a victim of rape herself, Ga-hyun, attempts to orchestrate the rape of a girl she dislikes, Yae-ha, to 'get back at' and 'corrupt' her. Additionally, Yae-ha later goes on to fake a sexual assault on herself to receive sympathy from the male lead. It's very obvious how disgusting this is, and not only is it uncomfortable, but it makes villains of victims of sexual assault.

Honestly, I just wish I'd stopped after the first few chapters. The hook was interesting, but it just wasn't worth the trouble of reading through this garbage just in hopes of a good ending (the ending wasn't even good). I don't think I've been this disappointed reading a manhwa since The Abandoned Empress. If you want a good shoujo with lots of action, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

I initially read this because the basic plot of "girl is trained into being a boy" seemed interesting and I like those kinds of stories, however my expectations were veeeeeery low as they are with most korean manhwa. As expected, I believe only the first ten chapters were salvageable, out of almost 140 chapters. As most sunjeong (korean shoujo) this is an exasperating, badly constructed story where romance and fighting over annoying boy characters is at the forefront and any kind of thoughtful progression is thrown out the window. Only like three characters are somehow likeable, but again, since they're moved around by the brainless ... romance and the author's whim, they aren't the best either. I do wish we could see a similar plot be picked up by a modern korean webtoon artist since some of them have progressed into actually knowing how to write... and as long as they don't make it an isekai or high school romance which seem to be the modern bane of korean comics sigh.

If you're looking for a simple manga without any unnecessary complications, look somewhere else.

Plot (8)
When you read the synopsis first, you may think it's pretty simple, but it totally complicated. The story focuses on the dark side of life: Death, orphanhood, lonliness, crimes and more. You will see unmoral actions (which will influence some of the characters. Even a character who doesn't look hurmful at the beginning, may reveal its darker side).
The story in the beginning pulls to certain direction, and as it goes on, the relationships are changing as well as the feeling of the characters (and even their mental condition).

Characters (8)
In one word: ... tragic. Most of the characters lost someone who is important to them. You can see the first death in the very first chapter! The death in each of the character's life is going to change their lives forever. There are also the charcters who were unfortunate from an early stage of their lives. The charcters can make you angry and also make you sympathize with them.
Most of the characters go through a change in a certain point, and this will be a point of no return (they will never be as they were before).

Art (9)
There are better, but it's really really good.

Enjoyment (8)
I enjoyed, but in certain points it started to be confusing and really irritating (but maybe the things that made me angry, will make others happy. It's very individual)

The first thing I did when reading this manga was cry. This manga was for me heart-wrenching and very depressing. This poor girl has had unfortunate upon unfortunate thrown upon her. Her little brother died in her arms then she had to become a heartless body guard. After 9 years of trying of what I can only describe as a half-hearted darkness she falls in love but she can't reveal it. Then to top it all off the has to spend another 9 years as a heartless gangster all the while having to pretend to be a boy.

I read this manga thinking it would be ... like Tokyo Crazy paradise but instead I am tortured by this poor girl's life so much that i want to cry. Personally I don't like heavy manga's so I'll just drop it and when it is completed I will read it's happy ending I was so close to finishing it only a couple of chapters but I honestly don't want to cry any-more.

This manga is just too DEPRESSING!!

I have never written a review for any manga till now. But this manga really captured my heart. It is awesome! There are so many touching moments. I love it so much. I cried at least 12 times, that means that at least 12 chapters were so sad. It really broke my heart. I love this manga and how it expresses fate and destiny and about true love! I love this manga! I might even read it someday. One day, I will share this manga with my kids. LOLXD This manga has made me feel so sensitive and now I am babbling and talking nonsense. ... I feel like a retard. Argh, I love this manga so much! I love Hyun Bin. I really wish that I too will be loved like him. I hope that everyone who reads this story can experience the same feelings as me. The end is sad yet happy. I really don't know how to express it, but I know one thing-I love it!

Let me begin by saying I loved this manwha all the way until chapter 127. I liked the characters and although I got a little annoyed with all the self sacrifice (and there is a lot of it) I liked seeing what was gonna happen next and waited anxiously.
The reason it wound up with an 8 from me is because the ending was completely rushed. Its like waiting 2 hours for a really short and uneventful ride at an amusement park. The majority of it is awesome keeps you interested and shows a lot of longing, emotional stress, and the true value of relationships and ... things.
I think that ending really upset me so this is a great story with a happy cliche fast food ending.

Story: 8/10
Han Yu-Rang made the gender bender of the story unique. I haven't seen gender benders done like this, so I was really happy. There's not much to complain about the story itself, yet there's not much to brag about the story either. But it did keep me really interested.

Art: 9/10
This is the first time I'm fully engaged in a manhwa, and the different style it has from manga is very obvious that it took me a while to get used to it. In the end, I still love the art. I didn't give it a ... 10 because there were times I didn't know which character was which.

Characters: 4/10
As much as I love the story, some of the characters sucks so bad, I couldn't ignore them. The heroine's character was also confusing; I didn't know what Han Yu-Rang wanted her to be portrayed as. Is the heroine supposed to be strong or weak?! Make up your mind! Then the hero could've been better. There were only two (maybe three) people that I actually liked.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Even if there were flaws, I still enjoyed it, always wanting more, more, more, and more. Like I said previously in the Story section, it was interesting. HYR knows how to lead a story in a good direction that will keep her audience interested and at the edge of their seats.

Overall: 7/10
I can't ignore the flaws. If I did, it would've been a nine. I know there are some people who won't mind, and others who actually like the characteristics of the manhwa that I see as flaws. I actually don't mind the imperfections because I'm always going to have a disagreement with anything and everything, but even so, I rated harshly because I feel it's more honest this way. It's also because it could've been better. I'm still satisfied with it and would recommend it. The flaws aren't actually as bad as I make it seem because I didn't even notice it until I was in chapter 100 something.

Anyways, I recommend it!!

This is the longest manhwa/manga I've read that is completed. Overall I rate it a 7 even though I enjoyed the story and the fact that it's reverse harem.

Storyline: As mentioned already, our female lead has a pretty rough life as child and is saved by a rich powerful man. In exchanged for her survival she's to obey their orders and pretty much live as a robot without feelings and opinions while acting as a bodyguard to the family's only granddaughter. Eventually she meets multiple men that puts her through a whole lot of emotional and mental roller coasters. Despite having feelings for ... one of them, she tries her best to conceal her feelings.. In my opinion she doesn't do a really good job at it. xD There'll be lots of hardships encountered.

Art: not really a fan of this style but I got used to it. So it's okay.

Character: there are a few characters I found extremely annoying at times like the other female character. There's also a male character that comes into the picture in the middle of the manhwa... I didn't quite feel like his appearance was necessary as he kind just showed up, talked about love not being able to exist, then falls in love, and leaves the story after admitting defeat. Tried my best not to spoil it, but..


Romance: there's way too much going back and forth. Although I always love persistent men, in the latter half there were many times I wished the female lead would just die so the men would feel bad for causing her death. xD I'm exaggerating it, but really. If she says leave, and she'll find you there's probably a reason. Like what do you want to do by showing up? Witness her death?

Anyway, I would've probably scored this an 8 or9 overall IF the romance was a little better, and the ending wasn't so rushed. It was terribly rushed and in like the last 3 chapters I didn't have the slightest clue what was going on anymore. And then comes the last chapter or two to explain the current situation. IT IS A HAPPY ENDING but, just because it's happy doesn't mean I was happy with how they rushed/executed the ending.

Try it out! May or may not be for you. There are at times too much drama, but if KDramas are already a thing to you, it's no different.

I've been following this manga since it started till it finished and I absolutely love it.
The only thing that urks me is the fact there are so many time skips like 7 years later, 2 months later =-= Also, two of the girls just won't accept the fact their love doesn't like them-after years as well==" *spoiler warning* One even goes as far to sleep with the guy when he is drunk and has his kid-but it helps the plot so I can accept that.
I love the fact the main girl and the main guy falls in love and no matter what happens, they ... don't fall out of love.The plot was wonderful, develops really well though the ending was rushed.

Never Written a reviw before, but this one needs one. It has such amazing characters and such a great plot but i was soo disappointed at the end, the story moved soo fast towards the end while at the start it was at a nice pace. OMG i felt like the author needed to finish the story quick. I really wished it would explain a bit more. Can't believe she made the main character like another guy.....and what happened to Chi ho!!! - i felt like he was forgotton i really thought he would end up with the other women! It is an amazing story ... and i would really recommend it but i gave it a lower score as it was not a really good ending but it was a happy ending :)

The manga is a good gender bender. It has lots of action, drama and romance.
But what I did not like was the fact that Hyun-Bin is a girl, she was beaten almost all the chapters. It is cruel and inhumane to take a woman like that.A woman would never have sufficient physical strength to beat several men at the same time, take both. It was part of the fantasy author

This is an absolutely fantastic manga.

It shares a concept of cross dressing and having males falling in love with them, but the concept has been taken to a new level.

This manga will have you wanting more and put in twists you'll never have expected.

WARNING: This manga has some males that have taken their love to a different love. Some say that they have become obsessed, or very possessive. It also involves gangs, abuse, alcoholic abuse, and the yukuza.

How do i say... The story isn't bad, in fact the plot s actually pretty good, something that will sound dramtic and enjoyable if a friend was discribing it to you, however, the set up was not very good. It is a great plot but not well executed.
I originally planned a 6 but taking the good parts like the plot in consideration i guess it is more deserving for a 7. Giving a grade score, 60% would be too low for it and 70% sounds about right, a C.
The art was not very good, the eyes were really large and shimmery looking and ... the proportions werent great either. The houses were nice though.
Characters were mediocre, they seemed pretty immature in general except for a few and were lacking in some way. There wasn't an immense amount of character development but its there. Most of the gang members seems butthurt which was annoying. Bik Rak was the manga's savior character. Hyung and Yun ha werent bad but Bik outshines them imo.
The biggest flaw with the manhwa was the dialogue. When it wasnt chessy it was boring, when it wasnt those two it didnt make sense, when it wasnt those three it was lame or downright sexist. Some lines sounds pretty sexist and was offensive. A few parts were funny but not as much as i would expect for a comedy manga. Though i cant judge too harshly on it because it may be wrong on the translators part.