The Other Side of the Mirror

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Beatiful.This little story made my day.

Characters& Story:
7/10 (both)
Two slightly original characters accidentally meet:she's a runaway-escaped with her boyfriend from a father that was violent with her-and just became a prostitute,after her partner abandoned her, and he's an ex-farmer boy who trasferred to the city in order to make a fortune,but only ended up wasting his savings.

The most important difference between them is the way they face life:surprisingly,the woman(Sunny) is optimistic and still believes she can change her life with her actions,step by step.
On the opposite side there's the male protagonist(Lou):he left his home when he was still young,with the hightest hopes,but coming to city ... he noticed how reality was different from his dream of a rapid success and became a man without a job and,above all,without any aims or wishes in life.
After his hopes were betrayed,he started gettin drunk,playing in casinos and chasing prostitutes.

That's the way they meet:after a night together she asks him for money,but he just leaves the room saying he hasn't got any.When he comes back,she-having nowhere else to go-is still there..
Theyr relatioship really starts in a rude way,but all that roughness is the expression of Lou's despair.
But Sunny,bright,genuine,able to value even the smallest beautiful thing in life and enjoy it slowly mends his wounds.
Then theyr relationship became a sweet,mature and fresh love.
Something worth reading.



Enjoyment
8/10
I really loved the two characters,they were genuine and theyr past combined with the realistic traits of theyr personalities made me enjoy this manga.
I liked the story too:the new beginning of two people with a problematic past that help each other to face it and grow together.
The end slightly ruined it to me,I didn't like it,but that's only a personal opinion.
My overall impression is stil very good.

Art
8/10
The art is really good,enjoyable if you like realistic characters instead of moe looking ones,and on top of that body proportions are well studied and drew.Anyway the most remarkable things about this manga's art are the colored pages:the characters are really well shadowed and seems pretty realistic in them.


Well,in the end a nice,non-average manga,telling you a probable story about love and growth.

I have the highest respect for this manga, simply because of the art. I have yet to see a more realistic manga that this. The proportions and colored shading are beautiful.
The story is just as real as the artwork. It may fiction but every event could occur. The farthest it strays is getting married to someone you've only known a month.
It is a romance though and that just isn’t my cup of tea.

The Other Side of the Mirror isn’t worth your time.

I will be honest, I'd seen the positive reviews for it, but after I read it I had… no words. If you want a story about love persisting through hardship and an unlikely but beautiful romance, look somewhere else. This isn’t it.

I won’t even deign to rate the art on this one– it’s good, sure, but that is completely irrelevant in the face of the shallow story and oh, how could I forget, the blatant racism. Yeah. Yeah that’s right. But no, that’s not the only reason this manhua isn’t worth your time.
The story ... is bland and trite. “Oh everything sucks and I hate life and we live in squalor but at least I have you and no one else! I’ll die without you now lets kiss and get married!” Sorry, maybe this is a personal opinion, but I need more substance.

This story follows Lou and Sunny, two down on their luck southerners who had moved from their hometowns to try their luck in NYC. Lou sleeps with Sunny, a prostitute who really honestly doesn’t know how to do her job, and blah blah they see each other here and there and Lou gets injured by a black man and then Sunny and Lou run away from NYC together and they get jobs and Sunny gets shot by a black man at her cashier gig– do you. Do you see why I’m displeased? Did you notice?

Not only are they drawn two degrees away from caricature, but the first black man doesn’t even speak a single line. What is he to this manhua? A plot device, a boogeyman of crime to push the story along. What about the black men who injure Sunny later? They get some lines at least, but again! What are they? Crime boogeymen! A slap in the face. I’m truly appalled.

I would say reading this was like listening to Bring Me to Life by Evanescence, but that’s an insult to an emo icon. I would never do that to Evanescence. Maybe it’s just me, but I am utterly exhausted by the co-dependent sob story that this manhua puts forward. Everything sucks but I have you. Could be sweet, if executed well, but The Other Side of the Mirror is not the mahua to do it. Melodramatic and overplayed, every plot beat was at once painfully overdone and boring and lifeless.

Oh, before I forget, this mahua had a few companion pieces: 99 roses was alright, not standout. Peggy was insulting, honestly, and I can’t prove it but it felt homophobic. The Funeral Procession of Stars was a disappointing, unoriginal goth ghost story (not gothic, just a shallow veneer of the goth aesthetic).

Yeah! That’s all. Don’t give this manhua the time of day and do something better with your time.