I'm Still Alive...and Reading.

Why the lack of updates?  First, there was the hitch with my next entry in my backlog of reviews.  I was having trouble choosing an image to use for Imadoki, the next in line.  That's a stupid reason to get stalled.  Now, I'm thinking that maybe I should just grab whatever pops up, and to hell with whether it tickles my fancy.  Meh.  The next hitch was that I was having trouble writing the review for the "latest" read (at the time), Kekkaishi.  I have a lot of thoughts on Kekkaishi, and unfortunately, nothing is really coming out of me and into my word processor.  I'll try to work a little harder on this.

I'm reading Please Save My Earth now.  I suppose I'm a little late getting on that one, but better late than never, eh?  I chose it as next to read more or less at random.  So far, I'm really enjoying it.  I've still got quite a ways to go!

In other news, I found out something that gave me a super sad face. :(  When I went to order Vol. 12 of Goong, I saw that Vol. 13 was still listed as available for pre-order, despite the fact that it was supposedly released on May 22nd of this year.  Wait a minute.  That's not right.  I popped into Yen Press's website and found that further releases of Goong have been postponed for the time being.  As far as I know, it hasn't been officially dropped, but...  C'mon.  Something tells me that it's not going to recover from this and magically find its way to my shelf.  Dammit!  I love Goong!  I want the whole damn series!  Plus, where Yen Press has stopped, they've really left ChaeKyung and Shin in a pickle!  You can't do thaaat!!  Shit.  Another one bites the dust, I guess.  Still, there is a part of me that's gonna hold out and hope for its continuation.  Ya hear that, Yen Press?  Here's one more person in demand!  Blaaaarg...

Oh, and in case you didn't notice, I quickly saw that trying to keep up with all of the new chapters I was reading just wasn't gonna work.  There's just too many.  I'm gonna try to limit it to any meaningful chapters that I feel the need to discuss.  I realized that it's too late for a couple of recent ones (Naruto and Gakuen Alice, specifically).  I'll try to be more timely.  Yeah, like that will happen...

Goong Ending SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

Life has been busy, so the reviews have been on hold for a while.  Also, it's slow going through Kekkaishi.  I'm most of the way through it now, so I'm trying to make more time to read so I can hurry up and finish it.  So much manga, so little time!

When I woke up this morning and checked online to see if any new chapters were posted of any of my ongoing series, I was in for a treat!  To celebrate their third year as a scanlation team, Evil Flowers had a huuuuuuuuge release, which included the final SIXTEEN chapters of Goong, all at once!  I was absolutely giddy.  I immediately dove in and began reading.  Unfortunately, I had to work, so I only got a few chapters in, but as soon as I got back home, I headed straight for the computer and picked up where I left off (sorry, Kekkaishi...reading the finale of Goong took priority...).  This is the part where I simultaneously bash and praise the ending.  Get ready for some mood swings.  As the title of this post suggests, there are SPOILERS AHEAD.  BIG SPOILERS.  IF YOU'RE READING GOONG AND HAVEN'T FINISHED, MAYBE YOU SHOULD STOP HERE.


SERIOUSLY, I'M ABOUT TO SPOIL THIS SHIT HARDCORE.

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YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.


I'll start from the less interesting parts and work my way up to the juicy bits.

Park worked her way through the minor characters throughout these chapters, tying up all the loose ends.  Hangoong regained her memory and accepted the proposal of Eunuch Gong.  I wasn't too wrapped up in that, but it was nice to see that Park didn't forget about them.  Yul seemed to finally take a couple of steps toward Miru, though she seems to be still be her usual conniving self.  I had really hoped to see a somewhat softer side of her for Yul to respond to, but in the end she was still manipulating him.  Yes, I know that her character is for comedic relief and that her antics are meant to be funny, but I only ever found her to be annoying.  I'm glad that Yul has someone else so he can move on from ChaeKyeung, but come on.  As horrible as he has been, he still deserves better.  I would have accepted Miru if she had just shone the tiniest bit of a genuine side.  Throughout the whole series, my thoughts on Yul were back and forth.  In the end, he did redeem himself some, but more on that later.

HyoRin found something to replace her dancing:  acting.  After all this time, ChaeJun goes to see her, and they seem to be on their way to a reconciliation.  I felt good about this one.  I wish that Park had been able to spend a little more time on this couple.  I really would have liked to have gotten to know ChaeJun a bit better.  I don't think that it was stupid of him to go back to HyoRin.  It had been about three years since they had broken up, and I think old wounds have healed.  Though it wasn't directly addressed, I think HyoRin finally gave up on Shin.  I feel like her decision to pursue a new career sort of symbolized that she was moving on with her life and trying to begin anew.  There shouldn't be anything in the way of her and ChaeJun now.  I liked how later, ChaeJun tells TaeJoon that HyoRin isn't his girlfriend, but that with time, she might be.  I think the two of them will move slowly and build a stronger foundation for their relationship.  I was pleased with their ending.

The King and Queen even got a little closure in the end.  The King falls ill due to stress, and the two of them are able to spend quite a bit of time together, where I think they rediscover their intimacy.  He tells the Queen that he's always known that she hides her true emotions, and that he's only ever pretended not to notice.  However, now he wants her to be more upfront with him and not try to hide what's on her mind.  I think the two of them are on their way to falling in love again (or for the first time?  The Queen has hinted before that she wasn't the most willing to be in that relationship...).

Now, I'm gonna lay out what all went down between ChaeKyeung and Shin.

So where we left off in the previous chapters, our lovely couple were finally back together again after having been apart for nearly two years.  Shin was on his way to being demoted from his position as Crown Prince, and he was ready to live a life outside of the palace with ChaeKyeung.  He had to return to the palace once more to give his consent for his demotion, but he promised that upon his return, he would propose to her once again.  I was so happy...

And then Yul just HAD to go and fuck it all up.  I said my thoughts on Yul were back and forth, right?  They fell waaaay back at this point.  That little fucker didn't show up for the public announcement of his promotion.  Instead, he hopped a plane and left Korea, knowing damn well that this would force his demotion and leave Shin to remain the Crown Prince.  His parting words were something along the lines of how he wouldn't be able to strengthen the position of the King from the inside.  He needed to be outside of the palace to do that, and then he would make sure the council passed the bill giving the rights to the throne solely to the goons (Korean term, not our English word "goon"), and THEN he would be king.  Dude.  That is so convoluted.  And how do you even know it's gonna work?  At least if he had accepted the promotion, he would have been next in line to the throne.  This plan seems to have a lot of "ifs" involved.  And then to REALLY piss me off, this plan is left hanging in the air.  Once we skip to a year later, he seems to have forgotten all about his plane to become King.  What happened, Yul?  Why the change of heart?  That whole plot development just pissed me off.  Sorry, Park.  I didn't go for that one.

So Shin is left stranded.  He was ready to give up palace life to be with ChaeKyeung.  Now, he has to remain the Crown Prince.  Or does he?  He could have just told everyone in the palace to bugger off and ran out the door and back to his love.  But did he? Noooooo.  THAT WOULD BE TOO FUCKING SIMPLE, NOW WOULDN'T IT?  Nope, instead he feels as though it is his responsibility to hang out and be a good little royal since there is no one else in line.  Then his father becomes ill, and he becomes Deputy King (dude, English really needs some better words to describe these royal titles) for a while, so now he's REALLY burdened.  So what does he do?  He basically breaks up with ChaeKyeung. He says he can't leave the palace like this, and won't she please come to the goong and live with him.  Of course, she says no!  From day one, she's been the one having to sacrifice everything.  He promised he'd leave the prison of a palace for her, and now he wants her to chain herself down again?  He tells her that if he had truly meant to leave the palace, then he would have followed her when she left during the divorce.  Of course, he's remembering his upbringing while he says this, when he was taught to "become an emotionless machine" when it comes to making royal decisions.  All he wants is to leave with her, but he feels like he can't.  Despite his desperate pleas for her to stay with him, she says she just can't do it.  It's not the life for her.  Good for you, ChaeKyeung.  I wouldn't have been happy to see her give up everything once more for him.

At this point, I'm sensing a little Serendipity Syndrome.  What's that, you say?  Have you ever seen the movie Serendipity starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale?  Stupidest fucking movie ever.  All you want is for this stupid couple to get together, but they just keep missing each other.  Some stupid little something always comes up.  I fucking hated that.  This is the way it has been for ChaeKyeung and Shin.  After they finally get back together after the divorce, all this shit happens and tears them apart again.  A year passes.  ChaeKyeung is sort of dating someone new now (the Taejoon fellow I mentioned earlier).  They haven't even kissed even though they've been dating for months.  Clearly, she's still hung up on Shin, but at least she's doing her best to try to move on and put him behind her.  Meanwhile, Shin's a mess.  He spends his days getting drunk and going on rants about the one who got away.  I actually enjoyed seeing this rather pathetic side to him.  She did all that suffering after the divorce, and while it's true that he wasn't having fun then either, now he's really getting what's coming to him.  This time, it's his own damn fault that she's not with him, so he deserves to be miserable.  ChaeKyeung held an auction of her things for charity, then accidentally discovered that it was Shin who bought everything.  She starts to wonder if after all this time, he hasn't let her go.  She decides to call him, but oops.  He's changed his number.  Serendipity Syndrome strikes (it will now be known as SS).  Ugh.  But then, wait!  Drunk Shin decides that he just needs to hear her voice!  Though he's changed his number, he still kept hers, "just in case."  He starts to call her......and then hurls his phone away!  SS strikes again!  But!  But!! His tiny little toddler brother picks up the phone and hits "send!"  Finally!  They're connected!  But Shin doesn't say anything to her to identify himself.  He decides that she sounds too normal and must have moved on.  Dammit!  More SS!!  Then Drunk Shin whispers something into his little brother's ear.  The next day for a royal interview, little Sun spills the beans on what big bro said during the very live broadcast.  Shin told his little brother to grow up big and tall just like him.  When that happens, Shin will leave everything to him and leave the palace to marry the girl on the phone.  But alas, ChaeKyeung had decided not to watch the interview.  There's that SS again...  Before I move on with the next part, I wanna say that I did feel a little bit of squeeing come on when Sun was blabbing Shin's secret.  There ya go, ladies and germs!  Shin's true feelings (as if we didn't know already).  It was kinda sweet.

Of course, ChaeKyeung does eventually see the interview, and she recognizes Sun's voice as the child on the phone the previous night.  Now, she's really having her doubts.  Will she truly be able to will herself away from Shin?  She decides to go see him at the Royal Procession celebrating the King's return from his recovery retreat.  However, TaeJoon says that sitting in the back and sulking won't do any good.  This was a really cool moment for TaeJoon, one that almost made me wish that he would catch a break.  He was in the story for only a short time, but that poor guy never stood a chance.  He manages to get ChaeKyeung up to the front of the crowd, and when she's afraid that Shin will see her despite the throngs of people there, he makes an impromptu mask for her.  It's not enough though, and Shin does see her, and with tears streaming down her face, she calls out to him, "Were you serious about me, you bastard?!"

At this point, I'm envisioning the various ways that this series can end.  One of them is that they both decide to move on with their lives.  I tried to decide how I would feel about this ending.  It would be almost bittersweet.  I mean, I loved Paradise Kiss because the protagonists didn't end up together in the end.  But no.  Hell no.  Not for Goong.  These two have been through so fucking much, if they didn't end up together, the whole series would be rendered pointless.  ParaKiss was about a girl learning who she is.  Goong is about boy and girl falling in love.  If they don't end up together in the end, then what a waste of 179 chapters!  Ok, so now I've decided that somehow, they have to find each other.

As soon as she can slip away from TaeJoon, ChaeKyeung makes a break for it, running for the palace as hard as she can (at which point, I envisioned Coldplay's "Fix You" to be so very appropriate).  She arrives, but nooooo, her passage is blocked by the guards!  But along comes Yul, conveniently back from his trip to Africa to tell the guards that she can go wherever she wants.  As he walks away, he knows that he's helping ChaeKyeung and Shin get back together, but he hopes that this can be the first step towards forgiveness.  Dammit, and now I like him again, even though it's gonna take a LOT MORE THAN THAT for ME to forgive the bastard for putting them through all that shit to begin with.

While ChaeKyeung is running to Shin, we see him leave the table where he was seated with his parents to go after her.  He opens a door, and the two meet, after having been apart for yet another year.  A few awkward hellos are exchanged.  Then he answers her question.  Yes, he was always serious about her.  He tells her it will be a while before he can rest easily and leave everything to Sun, but he promises her that he will leave everything for her.  She falls into his arms, and they kiss.  Thank God.  I was gonna be sooooo pissed if we didn't get a nice big kiss out of this ending.  At this point, I forgot all about my frustration and just gave in to the giddy little shoujo fan in me that just eats this shit up.  I may have been a little teary-eyed.  Maybe...

Shin's so cute!  And I love Taejoon's and ChaeJun's expressions in that last frame.

In the end, ChaeKyeung narrates that there was still a wall between them that they could not cross, illustrated literally by the doorway between them.  Though they had embraced, Shin still stood just inside the palace, and ChaeKyeung was just outside.  But one day they will cross it.

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Wait a minute.

So does this mean that she's just agreed to wait about 18 years before she can be with Shin?  What exactly does this mean, Park?  Are the two of them gonna remain separated, and then get back together after Sun becomes old enough to claim the position of Crown Prince?  Are they gonna date and maintain their relationship and only get (re)married when Sun is older?  Or is she gonna stay by Shin's side while he carries out his duties, and then he'll leave the palace behind to have a quiet life with her?  I definitely prefer option 3.  I like to imagine that the wall between them was only figurative.  That part of me hopes that she does immediately remarry Shin and wait by his side for him to fulfill his promise.  But then again, that disagrees with what I said earlier about how I didn't want to see her give up everything again to have to live in the palace.  So maybe option 2 won't be so bad.  They might still see each other, date, and for all intensive purposes be a couple, only making it official through marriage when he's able to leave the palace.  So, I guess that option could work.  But still, by then, they would be almost 40.  I guess the Queen had Sun when she was in her forties, so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that they could start a family then.

Ok, so there it is.  The final 16 chapters of Goong.  Overall, was I pleased?  Yes.  It may have been frustrating along the way, but I guess it just made it all the sweeter when they finally do get together in the end.  I still bloody love ChaeKyeung and Shin, and this is still one of my favorite series.  I'm up to the first six volumes in my collection, with number seven on its way!

Goong

Title:  Goong
Manhwaga:  So-Hee Park
Length:  27 Volumes (Completed)
English Translation?  Yes.  16 Volumes so far by Yen Press (omnibus starting from volume 9)
Demo/Genre:  Shoujo/Slice-of-Life/Romance/Comedy/Drama

How did I hear about it?  It was recommended by an otaku friend.

The story takes place in a fictional version of modern-day South Korea in which the royal family still exists.  Chae-Kyung is just your average high school girl.  However, she happens to attend the same high school as Shin, the Crown Prince.  A few awkward encounters between the two leave them with a low opinion of each other.  When Shin receives pressure from his parents to marry, he is informed that if he cannot find someone suitable, they have a long-since arranged marriage to fall back on.  When the only girl in his life turns down the caged life of royalty, he is slated to marry...Chae-Kyung.  Yeah, who saw that one coming?  It turns out that her grandfather was a close friend of the late former King and was the only person to treat him as a man and not a royal.  To thank him for his friendship, he arranged the marriage of their grandchildren.  Chae-Kyung and Shin begin their tumultuous relationship as man and wife, but can they truly learn to love each other?

At first, I rejected the artstyle.  Then, as I read, it grew on me until I found it to be beautiful.  I absolutely love it now.  Also, her SD drawings are absolutely RIDICULOUS, but in a funny way.  Seriously, it's so outrageous that it's hilarious.  If you don't like the art at first, give it a bit.  You might be like me and just need it to grow on you.

I really liked Chae-Kyung.  She's spunky, independent, and willful.  Most importantly, she doesn't put up with Shin's shit.  At the start, Shin is an asshole.  There's no sense mincing words.  He's an outright asshole.  Usually, that doesn't fly with me in manga (Black Bird, anyone?).  However, I feel that it's a compliment to the manhwaga that she created an asshole that I wanted to get to know better.  I felt that there was more to him, and I wanted to stick around to watch him grow.  I'm really glad that I did.  His cold and selfish exterior slowly melts away until he becomes someone worthy of Chae-Kyung's love, yet it never feels like he becomes someone else.  His growth and development feel like a natural reaction to his circumstances, so it doesn't feel out of character at all.  I loved watching Shin mature throughout the series.  I said before that Chae-Kyung doesn't put up with him, but then I turned around and pointed out that she loved him, indicating that she felt that way even before he "became worthy" of her.  I wasn't necessarily contradicting myself.  After she realizes how she has come to feel about him, she even tells someone (one of her only confidants) that her love for him isn't because of who he is, but what he is.  She's been placed in a completely different world, cut off from her friends and family, and he is the only constant in her life right now, and the only person she can rely on.  Had it have been someone else, she would have fallen for them, too.  Just because she loved him on some level, she didn't sacrifice her dignity.  When he picked a fight, she stood her ground and bared her teeth (figuratively and literally.  She bit him once, haha).  That being said, I don't doubt her love for him in the slightest.  I believe it may have started that way, but as Shin came to love her as well (and manned up, so to speak), I believe she genuinely fell in love with him.  I cannot express how much I love Chae-Kyung and Shin.  IMO, they were very well-written characters, and they made this series for me.

There was a turning point in the plot, and I've read that many readers didn't like what was happening so much.  Many say that it slowed the series down and frustrated them.  For me, I actually really loved it.  Though, I'll admit that my love for this plot point is heavily influenced by an outside source.  You see, there was a conspiracy between James Blunt and my iTunes that resulted in me loving this manhwa immensely and being so moved by what happened that I actually cried.  I friggin' CRIED.  And it's all James Blunt's fault.  And my iTunes.  They worked together on that one.  James Blunt wrote a very appropriate song, and my iTunes just happened to land on it at just the right time.  Shuffle, my ASS.  It's a CONSPIRACY, I tell ya.  Anyway, outside source be damned, I loved the drama.  Every time I hear that song, I think of Chae-Kyung and Shin, and my heart aches.  Who cares how I came to love something?  It just matters that I do.  Oh, and I can't tell you what song.  If you haven't read the series, it would be an uber-spoiler.  I don't think that it would be hard to figure out though (the plot or the spoiler).  Still, I shall retain my silence.

I doubt the pic is a spoiler.  If you can't read the premise and figure out that our two protagonists will eventually fall in love, then you clearly haven't read much shoujo... O_o  I had to choose it because it was one of the most beautiful pages I've encountered.  See, this is my sappy side.  It's small, but it does exist.

In summation... Goong is laugh out loud funny, yet very moving and beautiful.  The lead characters are spectacularly written, though the supporting cast is a bit lacking.  Though the series has completed its run in South Korea, the scanlations are a little behind, so I haven't been able to finish the series yet.  I can't wait to see how it ends!  Yen Press is releasing the manga in the US, but don't be fooled by the volume numbers!  Starting with Vol. 9, they packed 2 volumes into each one.  So though they've released twelve physical volumes of Goong, it actually covers volumes 1-16 of the original release.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, I am in the process of collecting it right now, and I have four volumes so far.