[Very minor spoilers, because they're inevitable when discussing such a long series. Also, as noted on the author's page, Mi Ri Hwang is not the name of one person, but a collective pseudonym used by multiple authors, so there wasn't only one person deciding what would happen.]
Story - 4/10
The first half of HBW is overall pretty lighthearted and comical apart from the scenes where Ha Ji (as Aram) is actually injured, when you remember that she's a teenage girl going against people who're naturally stronger than her. At this point in the story — which revolves around Ha Ji and Aram getting used to their new lives and forging new bonds against the backdrop of different gangs and individuals fighting for power — it's easy enough to excuse the unrealistic writing when Ha Ji bumbles her way out of danger so comically. About halfway in the body swap subplot ends, a few characters make their exit, and the focus shifts to Ha Ji, Han Seo, and Sin Uoo. It's more of the same, except now there are more direct confrontations between the two guys, with Ha Ji bearing the brunt of their jealousy, pettiness, headgames and macho complexes.
I'd estimate the violence in this series is divided into about 90% men vs. women and 10% men vs. men. You can argue that it's because Ha Ji, the female protagonist, gets into a lot of fights, but the overall narrative doesn't "work" because it feels exploitative. It's not meant to be realistic, but the authors purposefully keep Ha Ji willfully ignorant of the world around her, specifically so she can continue being a punching bag. Sure, Ha Ji is arrogant and naive, but she isn't allowed to learn from her mistakes and evolve because that would force the authors to move on from the "tough girl isn't unbeatable like she thought" trait that is the basis of her character. And for what reason are we repeatedly subjected to seeing a teenage girl beaten, abused, humiliated and tortured, if not for cruelty's sake?
In short, the story can be summed up as "How much can Ha Ji suffer, emotionally and physically, until she breaks? Let's find out!".
Characters - 3/10
At first, Ha Ji was entertaining to watch; she has a "punch first, ask questions later" MO mixed with a vague code of ethics to make us empathize with someone who beats up people for fun. She's loud, brash, crude and completely clueless about anything except fighting and food. There is some development to her character, such as the acceptance of her budding romantic feelings and occasional realization of how sheltered she'd been, but at the end of the story, Ha Ji is still impulsive and violent and refuses to see the truth when it's staring her in the face, and I felt myself losing a lot of compassion for her following the repeated and pointless headfirst dive into dangerous situations despite the many warnings.
Aram is the typical rich bitch with a sad past, more of a plot device than a character in her own right. When she does finally come into the story, she spends the little time she is afforded pining after Sin Uoo and hatching evil plans to manipulate people. Inexplicably obsessed with her is the Soul Collector whose incompetence is the cause of all these shenanigans, Moya, whose inconsistent behavior — trying to get Aram and Sin Uoo together in one chapter, then trying to break them up in the next — and weird possessiveness towards Aram made him a weird addition to the story. Despite Moya insisting that Aram is a pure soul worthy of pity and love, her actions are just as despicable as Han Seo's and she is just as cold-blooded upon seeing others in pain.
The "nicer" main male character is Sin Uoo, a typical rich asshole kid who enjoys bullying Aram to the point that he bullies others into bullying her. A tsundere at heart, he is secretly all giddy when Ha Ji (in Aram's body) pays attention to him, while verbally rejecting her with cruel words. He also engages in fighting, though he's more of a "won't attack unless pushed to the limit" guy most of the time — until halfway into the story, when he takes over the headgames and scheming role from Aram.
The one I have the most problems with is Han Seo, Ha Ji's cartoonishly evil "friend" who revels in torturing people and being feared, while taking advantage of Ha Ji's naivete to manipulate and make fun of her. He's probably a sociopath and the closest thing HBW has to an antagonist, turning even his supposed best friend Ha Ji into a target of his abuse when she doesn't dance to his tune. Highlights of Han Seo's shenanigans include: ordering his underlings to break Ha Ji's (as Aram) limbs and rape her on SEVERAL occasions; having Ha Ji (as Aram) tied up and dragged behind a motorcycle; and straight up throwing Ha Ji off the school roof himself. These are excused by others as either trauma from the guilt of causing Ha Ji's accident, or "playing around" and "going psycho occasionally to relieve stress". Infuriatingly, Ha Ji refuses to accept Han Seo's true nature despite personally witnessing it herself on all those occasions, so maybe he does have legitimate reason to call her a "stupid toy".
The other characters are fine, mostly used for gags or as fight props. Te Hu (Ha Ji's childhood friend) is an exception, as the gang member who's the least of an asshole. He's given a subplot that ties into Aram, but other than that doesn't get a lot of development or attention compared to the others.
Around 2/3 into the story, we get a love rival to Ha Ji in the form of Yeong In, who looks 99% like Aram and at first has the same bad personality, except less depressed. She is a great foil to Ha Ji for a bit and I actually enjoyed this part of the story more because Han Seo wasn't in it and Sin Uoo was relegated to the background most of the time. It's a pity that the authors waste time by making Yeong In plot and scheme as if this were a telenovela, then erase any kind of interesting development she got by the end of the story.
Ha Ji miraculously gets away almost every time with only scrapes and bruises, save for a point halfway into the story when Aram's body is beaten so badly that it's very likely she would've died just from that — but that's OK, because it's not Ha Ji's body so it's expendable! None of the male characters show remorse at mistreating and abusing women, physically or emotionally, unless apologizing or holding back from further abuse benefits them in some way. No important character, except for maybe Ha Ji and Te Hu, seems to have any mercy towards anyone, and with Ha Ji it's mostly due to her naivete, which circles back to the argument about her stagnant character.
Thinking back...no one really changes much throughout the story. Anytime they seem to make a step forward, something happens that pushes them back into their slot. Sin Uoo spends a lot of time moping and pushing Ha Ji/Aram away, until he does a 180 and begins clinging to her; Han Seo gets increasingly violent and jealous; Ha Ji is naive to the point where you wonder if she's doing it on purpose or has brain damage, then is hastily given "development" in the last 2 volumes that's completely inconsistent with what we've seen so far; and Aram does an enemy-to-antihero speedrun in the whopping, blink-and-you'll-miss-it, 2 chapters before she's put on a bus. And Ha Ji's only acknowledgement of Sin Uoo's actions, that could have resulted in her being raped at best and killed at worst, is over and done in 2 pages and a "sorry", after which it's never brought up again.
Around volume 20, the authors make the baffling decision to have an "ah-ha" moment in the form of Ha Ji seemingly having played dumb on purpose for awhile; after that she does seem a bit more aware of things, but this "reveal" comes completely unprompted and is inconsistent with the previous 20 volumes' (!!) worth of development.
Art - 6/10
The character design is fine, though any character apart from Ha Ji, Aram, Te Hu, Han Seo and Sin Uoo is drawn in the bare minimum of detail. There is emphasis on the main 5's facial expressions, notably making their eyelashes white when they are angry. Other than that, the art suffers from the dreaded Yaoi Hands occasionally and the anatomy isn't that good in cowboy shots or full body shots. And once I noticed that sometimes the screentone is added only to the face (not the neck or body), it was impossible to ignore.
Enjoyment - 3/10
At first, I enjoyed this; it's easy to gloss over the clumsy writing and pacing in the first few chapters, and the characters aren't reprehensible enough yet to hate. But as I kept reading, it began feeling more like a chore. I decided to pick HBW again after dropping it many years ago, and felt the need to drop it again at the same point, but soldiered on, and remembered why I dropped it back then: after the halfway point, the story is more of the same and I realized that most of the tension and suspense comes from wondering how Ha Ji will suffer next. Will she be beaten? Betrayed? Made fun of? Used as a pretext for Han Seo and Sin Uoo to dick-measure their macho complexes? Once I got to that point, the story lost my active interest and I just kept reading out of inertia. Things picked up again for a bit around volume 20 when Yeong In was introduced, but that's at least 7-8 volumes' worth of boring and ultimately inconsequential content.
The most I'll say about the ending is that it's even more melodramatic than the rest of the story, and very predictable — maybe not in the events, but in the general outcome. I'm not exaggerating when I say that you could probably skip volumes 13-21 entirely without sacrificing neither story nor character development.
Overall - 4/10
All in all, is HBW worth reading? Putting aside the level of commitment necessary to read 24 volumes, it does have a decent start and setup and is entertaining to read when it doesn't try to touch on topics that are way above the authors' ability to portray in a way that's not insulting to common sense. If you're uncomfortable with gang violence and attempted rape as (poorly, very unrealistically handled) plot devices, I'd recommend skipping this. Hell, you can even drop this manhwa at around the 12-volume mark and just imagine your own ending. You probably won't be too off the mark from the real one.
You want a long story that's actually good, has great characters and plot developments, and a strong and tomboyish female lead? Check out Tokyo Crazy Paradise instead — it's what HBW wanted to be.
