Sugarholic 3

Gong GooGoo – Yen Press – 2010 – 5 volumes

There’s not really any surprises here, but I still think this series is highly enjoyable as a Cutie Korean Comic.

One thing that is a little different is that Jae-Gyu seems to be leaning towards Whie-Hwan rather than Hee-Do, the lost love from childhood. Admittedly, it isn’t even pretending that Hee-Do is in the running, but all the same, when was the last time the lost love didn’t get the girl?

Hee-Do is in this volume more than the previous ones, when he shows up to save Jae-Gyu from a rich creep and finds himself in a confrontation with Whie-Hwan. He has a heart-to-heart drunk conversation with Jae-Gyu, who is still under the impression that he hates her. Jae-Gyu doesn’t really have any feelings for him, but she is beginning to warm up to Whie-Hwan, and vice versa. She’s still not all that likable, and it’s hard when someone as useless as her is fought over by three men, but I think it’s a testament to how addictive this is that I didn’t give that a second thought when it came up in the story here. It helps that this has all the things that make Korean comics interesting, like characters that unintentionally needle one another, a lack of timidity all around, a fast pace, and a snappy contemporary mood. Couples in these series aren’t usually harboring shy crushes, but are generally drawn together after not getting along at first. I like that approach a lot.

A couple major and really cool things happen. Whie-Hwan brings Jae-Gyu out in public for the first time, but nobody is fooled and Jae-Gyu is kidnapped and attacked by the same creep that tried to buy her at the auction last volume. Hee-Do shows up and saves her, then takes her from Whie-Hwan and the relationship is developed on all sides, with a near-admission from Hee-Do and Whie-Hwan missing Jae-Gyu like crazy with her gone. Later, Jae-Gyu and Whie-Hwan go on a date, which is rather contrary to the usual rich boy date in that everything goes wrong in a tremendously embarrassing way, with just enough realism so that you feel bad for the characters (ie the characters aren’t run over by an ice cream cart or something equally ridiculous, but are in a couple fender benders, are stranded in a strange place, get caught in the rain, et cetera). Later, Whie-Hwan begins to open up, but I think most of that will happen next volume.

The characters still aren’t all that sympathetic or terribly deep, but again, this type of Korean girls’ comic is definitely a weakness of mine. I think I just prefer the character types to their Japanese counterparts (like the heroines being strong-willed and not shy doormats, or the sarcastic banter that seems to go on between couples, or the characters that antagonize one another and keep things interesting). They’re still light reads and relatively… trashy, I suppose, but I could inhale a countless number of these and never get bored. I don’t know what it is, but Yen Press really chooses good titles. I really hope these types of series are doing well for them.