In contemporary Korean society vampires are living among normal people having found pig’s blood is a adequate replacement for human blood, but the people are still harbouring hatred towards them, so they have to hide their identity. We are introduced to Ma Ri Baek a cute high school girl who has just moved to a new environment with her family, after the people in the town where they lived before, found out they were vampires and had to run away. Because of her painful memories of rejection she is afraid to make friends and so she quietly sits by herself trying not throw any attention onto herself. One day while being hungry on her way back from school she completely zones-out and starts sucking on the neck of a boy from her school.
The premise itself is nothing special in itself, but the way the story unravels is just great. The way she wants to avoid him at first, to her slowly acquiring feelings for him but not willing to open up for the sake of not getting hurt, it is all put into writing perfectly. It is not all about love we can also see her slowly getting friendlier with her surroundings and slowly breaking down the wall she has built around herself. The execution is the thing that makes this manga stand out from the crowd as it manages to create this unbelievably calming atmosphere that was able to transfer me to this “happy place” while reading it and that in itself is something few other manga have accomplished. The story itself includes all the characteristics associated with the shoujo genre but the storytelling is done so well it rarely bothered me.
The characters are all great a bit stereotypical and are still believable if not overly realistic, but that is expected from a manga like this. Our main character is really withdrawn because of the rejection she faced after some of her friends found out she is a vampire. She keeps to herself longing for time to pass so she could leave this school and the people in it. After she is made to join the music club she slowly starts opening up and start making friends. What is a shoujo manga without a male protagonist, in our case that is Jung Jae Min, the boy whose neck Ma Ri sucks on. He has some serious issues with women and tries to avoid contact with them, but after the incident he completely falls for Ma Ri, but she, afraid of him finding out her secret, rejects him, but for us to have a story, he is very persistent and does not try to quit his endeavours of conquering her heart. We also have two female friends Ma Ri manages to make in the music club, another boy who falls for Ma Ri and a few less important classmates, but all of them manage to fit into the story seamlessly an each of them brings something unique to the table.
The art is the thing that drew me in and I have to say that it is exceptional and manages to stand out even among the Korean webtoon crowd. The characters look amazing, the background are detailed, the colours pop and all of this just pulls you in and doesn’t let you go. The presentation is beautiful as well, if not as breathtaking as Annarasumanara, and makes Orange Marmalade an easy read.
All in all Orange Marmalade is very good piece of work, that has decent characters, exquisite storytelling and beautiful art, it also manages to avoid many of the pitfalls of the genre. It still is has its fair share of problems and so it deserves the score of a high eight. I would recommend this manga to anyone interested in a bit of romance and to all of those who can just admire the art.
This is actually my first manga review (more of them are coming soon) and so would appreciate some feedback so that later reviews can be improved.
