“If sharing my passion and love makes me happy, and I can help someone in the slightest way, wouldn’t that be amazing?”
There are two ways to look at this story. You could read into all the words and subtexts and make your own explanations about what something means and see beyond a story of a two kids wanting to make a difference. Or you can just take it to be a really neat story about friendship and stray cats.
That’s right, this is a story about cats.
From the outside, through a very small crack, it’s about Yun-lee, a sweet girl who just feels lost. She’s twenty-one
...
years old and is in that point of her life that she’s an adult, at least by age standards and yet her time froze at nineteen and she missed her own transition. A car accident and she skipped from nineteen to twenty-one leaving her wondering who she was. Living in a monotonous pattern of school and home trying to catch up to where society dictates she needs to be, she only finds solace in feeding stray cats on her breaks. A chance meeting and what she’s been missing jumps in front of her; a young man who is living the gap she can’t.
What no summary mentions is that the cats are central to this story. Everything revolves around them. Yun-lee’s life changed because she took pity and saw in the strays what a lot of people didn’t. In return she meets Donghwi, who loves the cats and feeds them. He is currently on break from school and just working, enjoying his last year of blissful freedom before he is an official “adult.” He saves her in a way, from herself. Days pass and they meet through feeding the cats, saving them from their own people that dislike them and want them gone.
Somewhere along the way they decide that stray cats shouldn’t be stray anymore and start a plan to change it. One cat at a time, or maybe I should say people since it really starts with changing people’s mind in the nicest way.
It’s a journey for her, Yun-lee, about figuring out who she is and growing up, or staying young since there’s sometimes no difference and other times they’re polar opposites.
“If you don’t want any regrets, think about your future seriously..” We have all heard those words or some variations of it, throughout our life. Whether from our parents, school counselors or our own peers. We do nothing but try and shape ourselves for our future.
In a hurry to grow up we don’t realize that our most carefree time is the one before adulthood. The wanting badly to grow up, in order to have say and be listened to takes over and before we know it we shove ourselves into a world that isn’t by any means fair.
For some of us, we only see what’s in front of us, worrying only about what we can or can’t do. Taking it one day at a time. Others want to make a difference. “Be the change they want to see in the word,” one person at a time. Whatever the case may be, we have all wanted at some point to leave our footprints behind and not be forgotten.
Characters are few in this one, no more than ten characters in the whole volume. Out of those, half speak more than a few sentences as a whole. But they are great ones. You have your grownup who still maintains his child essence yet is mature as an adult. The girl who through humility and caring goes outside of her shell to make a difference in someone’s life. The boy who’s smile and casualness was so heartwarming it invited a stranger in.
The art, if I’m being honest it’s not beautiful in the way other manga are. It’s unique and elegant with a touch of realism. It is one volume of colored pages I am pretty sure due to the fact that it's not really classified as a manga but a webcomic in some places, but I could be wrong. Leaving nothing about the colors and places to the imagination, it creates the scene for us and livens up the characters. It’s not perfect, but I'm sure all the imperfections were done on purpose. For all of that I give it a perfect score in art.
Why not a ten then? If it's so great I mean. It's portrayal of someone who's transitioning into their own persona is very accurate and even though it had the character development that in most cases makes me giddy (I'm a weird girl and as my friend says, "whatever floats my boat."). But throughout reading, the hold it had on me from the beginning because of her personal struggle left, only to reappear in small glimpses later. The cats took over, and unless you take the cats to be symbolic for something you're going to end up feeling like something was missing and you can't quite put your finger on it.
All in all, it was memorable. Art was great, story was very nicely done and the characters were ordinary in the best sense of the word. For those who're wondering if there was romance, don’t fret because this one has it, even if it is in small doses.
It could be simple or it can be complex, you choose. :)
 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: 19-21, Nineteen, Twenty One Japanese: 열아홉스물하나 InformationType: Manhwa
Volumes: 2
Chapters: 21
Status: Finished
Published: Aug 9, 2010 to Dec 27, 2010
Serialization:
Naver Webtoon Statistics Ranked: #15872 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #796
Members: 22,670
Favorites: 336 Available At | Reviews
Filtered Results: 7 / 8
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May 6, 2011
“If sharing my passion and love makes me happy, and I can help someone in the slightest way, wouldn’t that be amazing?”
There are two ways to look at this story. You could read into all the words and subtexts and make your own explanations about what something means and see beyond a story of a two kids wanting to make a difference. Or you can just take it to be a really neat story about friendship and stray cats. That’s right, this is a story about cats. From the outside, through a very small crack, it’s about Yun-lee, a sweet girl who just feels lost. She’s twenty-one ... 
Jul 2, 2011
First of all, you should know this is mainly a slice of life manhwa.
The romance story itself isn't the main plot of the story. If you're looking for an intense shoujo romance, this is not the one. Still, you should try it because I believe it captures the attention of any reader. Should people stop living in a carefree way in order to become adults? And when exactly are we becoming adults? Nineteen, Twenty-one revolves about this interesting matter. Yun-lee is a 21 year old girl who lives her life in pain due to the fact that she has missed one entire year of her life and realizes ... 
Dec 26, 2011
Beforewhen I read the MAL summary I got an ideaof what the manga would b about; but as I read on I realised I was wrong. This change of thought made me more erger to read on :)
One thing I disliked was the amount of time spent talking about cats :@ But overall, the slow paste of Nuna and Dongwa's relationship was not rushed which made the manga that more worth reading. At times It had me laughing (especailly the Dongwa character) then at other times the suspence of whether they would get together or not would have me rushin through the pages 
Dec 31, 2014
Nineteen, Twenty-One is a slice of life more than anything. The story is about two people who, during their times of distress or anxiety, find comfort in cats. 8 stray cats to be precise. These cats help us to acknowledge and understands important life lessons. Topics such as growing up and equality. Ju Dong-hwi doesn’t want to grow up, but in order to help the cats, he can’t be a teenager forever. He is also taught not everyone can be happy and the world isn’t kind. Cats aren’t exactly seen as equals to humans. What’s even worse is the cats in question are stray. They’re
...
May 2, 2015
I not really want to write so much because it's a very short story and i may spoiler too much.
Still this review may contain some spoilers! You wanted to read a good slice of life and romance manwha? You are looking for a story where the main characters face difficult times? You really like cats? Then this is what are you looking for! Story: 8/10 ... 
Apr 25, 2019
Short, sweet, and thoughtful.
Story - This is definitely a slice of life, so the story pretty simple. That being said, the storylines across as very natural, and the characters are not put into contrived situations. I do not always like slice of life manga because it can feel stagnant sometimes, but there was enough of a plot in this story to keep me engaged. The description of The story led me to believe the plot would focus mainly on romance and memory loss with a dark undertone, but it was actually very uplifting, and focused more on relationships in general , not just romantic ones. ... 
Jun 17, 2021
A brilliant manhwa brothers, I recommend to all with all my heart. As long as I read I felt so good, but some moments I also felt bad.
But that didn't stop me from reading this manhwa. So I recommend you too, you will not regret it. Cat lovers have something to read here and see the magic of love. story, characters, drawing style: story: the story was brilliant brother, I liked it very much. Especially how many things happen, and I never thought about cat lives like that, nor do I think I would if I didn't read this manhwa sheep. It was really well done ... |
