Idea
I was consciously looking for a manga/hwa about communication and love between a brother and sister. And despite the title, there isn't as much time devoted to their interaction as expected or desirable. That's the first major cons. The beginning in this was very encouraging, there was a lot of interaction, reading the first few dozen chapters I was thrilled with them. But later on, the story began to sag, both on the interaction parameter between them and other aspects of the story itself, which I will now tell you about WITHOUT spoilers.
Plot
I can't recommend reading this for relaxation and recreation. This is not a
...
light work, this is more a work about emotional/psychic trauma and overcoming it. All of the main characters have problems to one degree or another in this regard.
It is secondarily a romance. It brightens up the drama by making it lighter. True, given that there is a love triangle here, the romance itself can be uncomfortable if it is not connected to the couple that one considers the OTP. But it's worth noting that it doesn't leave a bad aftertaste after a full read, which is rare.
It is also worth noting the humor, which also helps with the not easy atmosphere. The author is skilled and loves to joke around.
The author is good at making a bunch of little off-the-cuff twists when you want to say "wow." But half of them are not positive. He constantly rotates negative and positive twists and turns. For the first 100 chapters it's still interesting, but later it starts to get annoying. Because it keeps you in a constant, over-extended suspense that doesn't allow you to enjoy it. The characters spins back and forth and if you were rooting and worrying for one of them at the beginning, by the 160th chapter you DON'T CARE, you have absolutely no desire to worry about anyone or to unravel intrigue, you just want to wait until it's all finally over. And the chapters are almost 220! If I hadn't spoilered myself who would stay with whom, I really would have stopped reading. Plus I wanted to leave a review because there were almost none before me, which didn't give the full picture to whoever decides to read.
DON'T CARE because the plot is too protracted after the first hundred chapters. They added a love line of secondary characters, and while it was really cool in the beginning, over time you just want to read about them diagonally, it's not the same anymore, it becomes too much. In addition to the love line, they added a lot of twists/turns, though not particularly boring, but not moving the main plot, which you really look forward to because of its importance. Instead, it feels like moving in circles. That said, you can see that the backbone of the plot has been thought out in advance. The volume of the manhwa was probably built up just for the money for publication in the magazine.
DON'T CARE because you often don't know what's going on, who's feeling what for whom, why a character did exactly what he did. This doesn't depend on the reader's attentiveness and shows up in the hundredth chapters, where a lot of questions about actions and feelings started popping up in the comments and a very small percentage of them other people were able to answer. Some of the questions can be answered by reading much further, some are not answered at all by the author. I think it would have been better if the writer spoke to the readers more openly, instead of guessing. Perhaps this is the second major disadvantage. Perhaps, partly (20%), the misunderstanding is also affected by the double translation: Korean -> English -> Russian
Drawing
Delightful. All the characters are beautifully and nicely drawn. Especially beautiful is Han Mi (the sister). Without any nudity or underwear.
The chibic version is cute, too. The reactions are colorful. The interiors and surroundings are excellent.
Characters
All of the main characters are awesome. That's the main pride of this manhwa. Everyone is good, absolutely not cardboard.
But then again, especially Han Mi. She won't leave anyone indifferent. Smart, cunning, adorable, strong personality with balls of steel, a "I want to have kids with her" level girl. She would definitely make my top 10 anime/manga pulls. That's an extremely high score.
All of the characters aren't stupid, no one you want to slap for their blatant stupidity.
Pretty chaste, very smooth relationship development, and some even consider delaying sex closer to marriage.
Impression of the ending.
I liked the ending. If you analyze the traumas and fears of the characters well, you can come to the conclusion that this was one of the best solutions. Once you're done with the manhwa, you can find a thread on reddit at r/webtoons by Kahlua_Milk with a detailed analysis of the ending, I agree with him.
Having read the entire story I feel that the author could have told more both at the end and throughout the story. A lot of plot threads were cut or quickly curtailed, there is still a lot that could have been said about the characters, particularly Han Mi's mom. As a parent, I really liked her. The author is probably tired of writing by now.
Idea 4/5.
-1 point for little interaction between brother and sister compared to the overall scope of the manhwa
Plot 3.5/5
-1 point for dragging out the narrative. And also for the fact that after the 100th chapter it is sometimes hard to understand why the characters acted the way they did.
-0.5 points for a few plot threads that were severed, there's still a lot you could say about the characters
Humor 5/5
Characters 5/5
Drawing 5/5
Summary: 4/5
Aug 25, 2022
My Secret Brother
(Manga)
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Idea
I was consciously looking for a manga/hwa about communication and love between a brother and sister. And despite the title, there isn't as much time devoted to their interaction as expected or desirable. That's the first major cons. The beginning in this was very encouraging, there was a lot of interaction, reading the first few dozen chapters I was thrilled with them. But later on, the story began to sag, both on the interaction parameter between them and other aspects of the story itself, which I will now tell you about WITHOUT spoilers. Plot I can't recommend reading this for relaxation and recreation. This is not a ... |
