You’re So Cool 2

YoungHee Lee – Yen Press – 2008 – 6 volumes

I have been in something of a shoujo drought here on the site lately, since my shoujo indulgences have been entirely composed of frequent re-reads of From Eroica With Love.  I do have a few girly things lying around, so let’s see about injecting some romance back into things here.

As I tend to mention every time I review one, I love these cutey Korean series and they very rarely disappoint me.  I like the strong heroines, the weird and elaborate scenarios that tend to spring up, and I love the cute romances and the love/hate relationship between the main couples in many of the titles.  You’re So Cool is a good example of the cutey Korean comic genre I love so much, and it only gets better in this volume, which always seems to be the case with this type of series.

Surprisingly, after revealing himself to be the king of jerks last volume, Seung-Ha begins to soften ever so slightly towards Nan-Woo here.  He does chase her around and threaten her and make her do things against her will, like study, and generally menace and make her life miserable, but then he tends to leap to her rescue and save her from the jealousy of other girls and even the advances of other guys.  He also, unusually, forces her to study so that she won’t fail her exams, something that seems inevitable initially since Nan-Woo is… well, strong-willed, but not necessarily all that smart or interested in school.

Chan-Gyu knows Seung-Ha’s true nature and keeps trying to intervene and steal Nan-Woo away, but Seung-Ha insists that he will keep the girl with him as long as she is fun to tease.  This reeks of unspoken jealousy, and I’m curious to see how this develops.  I know I’ve seen a thousand romantic triangles before, but the good ones still snare me anyway.

There’s also a couple subplots that seem to be running untouched.  Nan-Woo still lives in a house that is inexplicably populated by young men and no real adults, and one of the men, Jay, is developing a friendship with another guy.  Now, the friendship seems to be good for Jay and is picking up his spirits, but the other guy seems annoyed despite the fact he keeps indulging Jay.  And then he starts to inexplicably have feelings for him.  I don’t know.  That might be interested.  I’m more interested in who Jay and the other boy are, and why they live in a house with no parents.  There’s also some background details revealed for Seung-Ha, but it’s a pretty predictable well-to-do-family that neglects their son scenario.

Notably, this volume featured the most perfect depiction of a character’s thoughts drifting I have ever seen.  While Nan-Woo is studying, it’s literally a huge thought balloon where thoughts associate themselves with one another and lead her completely away from her studies and through a variety of brief randomness.  It’s very funny, and it’s strange touches like that that make reading these cutie Korean comics fun.

If you like romance manga, and shoujo, I think you’d be a lot cooler if you were reading this series.  I’m just sayin’.