![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I purchased this manhwa while in Seoul two years ago:
While I'm not a fan of shoujou, it came down to this series or the licensed translation of Fullmetal Alchemist, and you may rest assured I was not about to attempt that one without another decade of Korean under my belt.
Fast forward two years to the present, where Kung/Gung/Goong/whathaveyou has become the most popular shoujou title in Korea and spawned its own drama adaptation. Yours truly is perusing the aisles of the Big City Animate, when what does she happen to spot but this. Behold:
The licensed Japanese translation of Gung. (And oh dear,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fragilistikal, check out that title...) I of course purchase it, and am now able to understand the other 95% of the story.
It's a quick read with moments of sparkly humor. And based on the licensed English translations of manhwa I've encountered in the past, it reads much, much more naturally in Japanese than it would in English.
All in all, a nice example of Ooh, Shiny! leisure reading.
It also reminded me why I'm not a fan of shoujou.
Take for instance the advice of Our Heroine's mother upon said heroine's impending arranged marriage to Royal Brat #1.
Being plucky, Our Heroine does not take this lying down. But shoujou heroines are plucky, not heroic, and that makes all the difference. 'Is that really how it works, Mom?' she emotes before crumpling against a wall. From what I've been able to make of the following Korean volumes, Our Heroine's pluck and spunk and other related adjectives will begin to win everyone over.
But I vastly prefer the shounen hero's response. To whit: can anyone seriously picture Edward Elric or Ichigo or any other shounen protagonist taking an admonition to 'just do what you're told and wait it out' lying down? Can anyone even picture a shounen hero being told to do something like that without illiciting an immediately violent and adverse response?
Which I suppose is just a very roundabout way to discover that I prefer my protagonists battering their way out of the system with reeaaallly cool weapons as opposed to changing it from the inside with their winsomely feminine (yet endearingly idiosyncratic tomboyish) ways.
これで以上です。
While I'm not a fan of shoujou, it came down to this series or the licensed translation of Fullmetal Alchemist, and you may rest assured I was not about to attempt that one without another decade of Korean under my belt.
Fast forward two years to the present, where Kung/Gung/Goong/whathaveyou has become the most popular shoujou title in Korea and spawned its own drama adaptation. Yours truly is perusing the aisles of the Big City Animate, when what does she happen to spot but this. Behold:
The licensed Japanese translation of Gung. (And oh dear,
fragilistikal, check out that title...) I of course purchase it, and am now able to understand the other 95% of the story. It's a quick read with moments of sparkly humor. And based on the licensed English translations of manhwa I've encountered in the past, it reads much, much more naturally in Japanese than it would in English.
All in all, a nice example of Ooh, Shiny! leisure reading.
It also reminded me why I'm not a fan of shoujou.
Take for instance the advice of Our Heroine's mother upon said heroine's impending arranged marriage to Royal Brat #1.
Just do what you're told. When they tell you to do something, do it. When they tell you to go somewhere, go. And it will all be over before you've even noticed.
Being plucky, Our Heroine does not take this lying down. But shoujou heroines are plucky, not heroic, and that makes all the difference. 'Is that really how it works, Mom?' she emotes before crumpling against a wall. From what I've been able to make of the following Korean volumes, Our Heroine's pluck and spunk and other related adjectives will begin to win everyone over.
But I vastly prefer the shounen hero's response. To whit: can anyone seriously picture Edward Elric or Ichigo or any other shounen protagonist taking an admonition to 'just do what you're told and wait it out' lying down? Can anyone even picture a shounen hero being told to do something like that without illiciting an immediately violent and adverse response?
Which I suppose is just a very roundabout way to discover that I prefer my protagonists battering their way out of the system with reeaaallly cool weapons as opposed to changing it from the inside with their winsomely feminine (yet endearingly idiosyncratic tomboyish) ways.
これで以上です。