Hwaja

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This is one of those stories wich remember you that a good story doesn't need much. It doesn't need explosions, lots of non-stop action, big breasted girls, panty shots or any of these appealing things. It just need to be good.

Story 8/10
The plot is really simple, but keeps you interested in it. It starts with a boy named Ryu who founds a girl about his age living in an abandonned house - known as "The Haunted House". Ryu and Jay, his childhood friend, soon find that grown up men often goes to the house to give her presents in exchange for "entertainment". The story then ... goes on showing the development of their relationships, the jealousy of the grown ups, and the growth of Ryu from a little boy to a man. Although the story covers up around 20 years in a short time, it doesn't get confusing at all.
The themes are not inovating, but don't stay in the cliché too. It's most about how selfish and obsessed people can be, shown in the acts of the grown ups of the city who don't want to lose their "toy", though knowing how wrong they are.

Art 7/10
Although it's most because of the artists style, I didn't liked the art, although it was it that attracted me at first (if the art was like this one shown here I'd given it a 10). The sharp angles and kinda cartoon like art is good for the first and more childish part of the manga, but I don't think it fit wells with the most dark and adult parts... but is not really bad, I just would like it more if it really was like this one.

Character 8/10
The manhwa is short, so we should first take this into account when judging it's development. Having this in mind, I do think the characters were well developed, although only Ryu and Hwaja really gets some development, while the others have very little "screen time". Even so, most of them got the right time to do what they needed to do in the story, don't letting many loose knots or that feeling that too much was not shown (even though it was, but nothing of great importance to the plot).

Overall 8/10
Well, I really enjoyed reading this manhwa and I'm glad I found it. I miss this kind of simple story sometimes, and it's getting more and more difficult to find good one of theses (or of any kind). Hwaja tells it's story, without putting too much like many does, nor leaving too much out and giving that feeling of incompleteness. If you're searching for a good story to read calmly in a rainy day or something like that, this one should really entertain you too.

Hope this review have been of any help and sorry for any english mistakes, hope it's understandable, at least.
Cya o/

"Keep your promise. That you'd be with me the day the earth comes to an end."

Ostensibly, Hwaja presents itself as a supernatural, coming of age romance story with a boy, named Ryu, falling for a mysterious girl, named Hwaja, who does not age, and his experiences with her over the course of his childhood, to becoming an adult. For readers who are interested in an emotional story that is hard to predict, and keeps you involved from end to end, this might be for you. The art is rather striking, and the main characters are believable within the scope of the story.

The first ... time that I had read Hwaja, I thought it was a fascinating premise that failed to deliver a satisfying conclusion to its thematic throughline under threat of a resentful audience. However, following my personal reading of the webtoon, I came to appreciate how the story allowed me to interpret its allegorical value as a depiction of systemic issues of addiction and abuse in South Korea's low SES class demographics, as represented by the old village and haunted house. Hwaja, as a character, represents issues that do not change over the course of the story, and thus, does not age. Of course, this is only my interpretation, and readers can find their own value in this work, which is a challenging, exciting read.

Hwaja's story is very short and not to mention that even being short it manages to be very good and stories of this caliber deserved a little more recognition. Hwaja addresses a topic that we are used to seeing in the news, newspapers and the internet. Not only Hwaja but other children went through the same situation and some ended up being killed by the men known as "Grown up men". The characters are one of the strongest points of the work and even though they don’t have as much development they are great.

We have the main character called Ryu and his best friend Jay ... who in a joke ended up meeting a girl of the same age who lived in an abandoned house known as "The Haunted House" and that's when the three began to see each other and were creating a friendship, but on one of these visits Ryu was almost surprised by one of the "Grown up men" who would kill him with a stone to the head. But that's when Jay ended up saving him.

And they ended up discovering the "secret" of the "Grown up Men". But after that we are surprised with a TimeSkip and we already see an older Ryu knowing that Jay had died from a car accident, but he found it strange and decided to live in the city to find out what really happened to his friend.

Actually Jay discovered the things that happened to Hwaja and what had happened to the other children and that's when he tried to end this cycle, setting the house on fire to try to make the souls of the children at last finally rest in peace. , unfortunately Jay was killed. But before he was killed, Jay still managed to send a message to Ryu after years containing the following phrase "Don't come back."

I was really worried about where things were going, the main character started to feel jealous of Hwaja and started acting weird almost becoming one of the "Grown up men". Seriously, I'm glad that didn't happen because it would be even more bizarre than the whole story already is.

Okay, but why didn't Hwaja run away?

Well, she herself says that she couldn't leave the house since she made a promise to the souls of all the other children who were killed and not to mention that she would feel guilty if she left the children in that house. There is even a scene where Ryu invites her to leave the house and she makes an expression of "sadness".

The scene of Ryu hugging Jay is simply beautiful and at the same time sad to see. But finally their souls were freed and now they can rest in peace.

There are few works that made me shed tears and I think that Hwaja was another one of those works that made them cry, the story is painful, but the ending is rewarding and beautiful.

It's amazing how stunning the art style of the work is and how well each panel is detailed.

Theend is so fucking emotional and beautiful!