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Title: Snow Drop
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents may want to preview this series before letting their children read this. It contains characters that do nothing but demonstrate immature behavior towards one another, there is some dirty language, nudity, violent acts towards women, and all sorts of problems. Fans of drama may want to look for another series to check out, as it's very hard to take a series seriously when the narrative is amateurish. Fans of romance should move on, as this series comtains some of the most unlikable characters I've read in a series in a LONG time, and I doubt you'll be rooting for anyone in this particular series to get together. |
If my reviews were mere sentences long, then I would simply tell everyone to ignore "Snow Drop" and leave it at that. But my reviews are not mere sentences long, and as such I am faced with writing a long and balanced review for a series that doesn't really deserve it. The task, to say, is quite daunting. "Snow Drop" revolves around a teenage girl named So-Na. So-Na is a nice girl, but she is insulated from the world. So-Na can only be found in two places at any given time: at school and in her garden nursery. So-Na spends every waking moment in the nursery because a book her deceased mother wrote touched her in some strange way. So-Na insists that her love for the nursery is natural because the nursery is special to her for a very personal reason, but her best friend Ha-Da knows that So-Na has an unhealthy obsession with the nursery that goes WAY beyond being a mere hobby! However, when So-Na goes back to school her life will change forever in the form of a new student named Hae-Gi (man, what is up with these names?).
To make a long story short, on a dare So-Na and Hae-Gi end up trading their most valuable belongings with each other. So-Na gives Hae-Gi her key to the flower house, and she gets his marble. However, that night she loses the marble, and now Hae-Gi refuses to give So-Na her key back. This makes So-Na extremely ticked off, because without the key to the flower house she has nowhere to waste her time on, so now she has to actually DO something to get her key back! There is another "interesting" twist when Ha-Da falls in love with Hae-Gi's brother, who looks so much like a girl it's not even funny (or cute). Once we get past all this, the story turns into a game of cat and mouse as everyone tries to outsmart the other person, get revenge, and hurt the ones they love. Whether it be holding a girl's nose and kissing her so that she'll suffocate, or slapping other people's hands so hard they get sprained, there is one thing that is certain: this is the most twisted "romance" series I've ever read. When I first started reading it I couldn't quite figure out why this series wasn't touching me on any sort of level whatsoever, and I must have read this book fifteen times before it hit me: I DESPISE these people!
As I read this series, not a single character came off as likable. So-Na is obsessed with the flower garden and seems to scare everyone around her. Hae-Gi is just as much of a jerk, who looks pretty but doesn't treat anyone nice at all; it's a wonder he has any friends at all (oh wait, he doesn't). Ha-Da is the only character who seems to have a good side, as you can tell he cares deeply for So-Na, and is always giving her good advice (which she never listens to), and when push comes to shove he'll get physical with someone who wants to hurt So-Na, even though he's not very strong. If it weren't for the fact that Ha-Da has such an annoying personality, I could get used to him. Hae-Gi's brother doesn't do much of anything from what I've read so far (I didn't even get far enough to get his name), but I can tell you that guys who look like girls creep me out. And he doesn't just look a little like a girl, he's a REAL feminine-looking guy! And I thought Dante's feminine figure ("Demon Diary") creeped me out.
The art also creeps me out to a certain extent. Now I know that manwha that is geared towards girls is supposed to have very girly artwork, but even this is too much for me. Every single character in this book has a sexy body, the girls all have slender and long legs, the guys are all muscular, even the people who are supposed to be the geeks of the series look much more pretty than your average high schooler (and someone has to hook me up with their hair stylists). In fact, I want to know where these people live, because if I can find out where these people live, then I can start my own fashion magazine, as I'd have the perfect place with an unlimited supply of models to choose from. However, one thing about these people that doesn't look so great is their lips. I'm not sure what is up with the lips, but a good majority of the lips in this book look like they're "puckered." I'm not sure how else to explain it, but their lips are just very puckered-looking, and they creep me out (as if you couldn't guess by now).
From what I keep hearing from everyone, Korea's stock of manwha is a treasure trove just waiting to be picked up, and some Korean artists actually write stories that rival some of CLAMP's and Frank Miller's best series. I think that's great. Now can we see some of these "groundbreaking manwha series" come to the States instead of these horrible cookie-cutter romances that don't have any likable characters in them?!
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -