Park SoHee - Goong: The Royal Palace, vol. 01 (Eng. trans.)
Fri, Jan. 5th, 2007 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterI haven't read much manhwa, which I keep vowing to remedy and never quite actually get around to doing.
In an alternate history in which the royal family continued on in Korea, schoolgirl Che-Kyung finds herself engaged to Prince Shin. I figure you can all extrapolate the plot details from there.
I'm still getting used to the manhwa style, which I can't quite define, partly because (see above) I haven't read that much. The art is really beautiful; Shin and Che-Kyung have spidery lashes and willowy limbs, and yet, they look different from nearly any other manga I've read. The chibi forms are startlingly ugly and deformed to me; there's no real attempt to make them cute, as there often is in manga.
There are some incredibly meta bits in the book, in which the author notes that this is where a manhwa heroine should stand up and say what everyone is thinking... except Che-Kyung is a coward and doesn't like to rock the boat. I like that Che-Kyung is genuinely awkward and gawky at times and not ethereally cute no matter what. I'm still not quite sure what to think of Shin, although I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him later. And being a complete clotheshorse, I am fascinated by the hanbok, particularly that last picture of Che-Kyung in full wedding finery.
I really need to read up more on Korea; reading this, particularly the palace scenes, makes me want to know more dynastic history, how the royal families worked in the past and the like.
Anyhow, I'm not particularly in love with this series yet, but I'm not put off either. Plus, I love stories about palaces and courts and the like, and it seems like there will be a lot of scenes with that, given that Che-Kyung has to learn all sorts of protocol and etiquette. I mean, it is highly doubtful that it will become a complex, plotty, intrigue-y series, but hey, I'll settle for elaborate hanbok and palace architecture!
In an alternate history in which the royal family continued on in Korea, schoolgirl Che-Kyung finds herself engaged to Prince Shin. I figure you can all extrapolate the plot details from there.
I'm still getting used to the manhwa style, which I can't quite define, partly because (see above) I haven't read that much. The art is really beautiful; Shin and Che-Kyung have spidery lashes and willowy limbs, and yet, they look different from nearly any other manga I've read. The chibi forms are startlingly ugly and deformed to me; there's no real attempt to make them cute, as there often is in manga.
There are some incredibly meta bits in the book, in which the author notes that this is where a manhwa heroine should stand up and say what everyone is thinking... except Che-Kyung is a coward and doesn't like to rock the boat. I like that Che-Kyung is genuinely awkward and gawky at times and not ethereally cute no matter what. I'm still not quite sure what to think of Shin, although I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him later. And being a complete clotheshorse, I am fascinated by the hanbok, particularly that last picture of Che-Kyung in full wedding finery.
I really need to read up more on Korea; reading this, particularly the palace scenes, makes me want to know more dynastic history, how the royal families worked in the past and the like.
Anyhow, I'm not particularly in love with this series yet, but I'm not put off either. Plus, I love stories about palaces and courts and the like, and it seems like there will be a lot of scenes with that, given that Che-Kyung has to learn all sorts of protocol and etiquette. I mean, it is highly doubtful that it will become a complex, plotty, intrigue-y series, but hey, I'll settle for elaborate hanbok and palace architecture!
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