Chocolat

    (Ice Kunion, 2005)
™ and © JiSang Shin & Geo

Keum-Ji is a huge fan of boy band DDL, especially its lead singer Jin, but, when she can’t get into their official fan club, she decides to pull a scam and join the fan club of new boy band Yo-I (Korean for Chocolat), because they play the same concerts as DDL. But Yo-I member E-Soh discovers her “secret” and blackmails her into being his slave. (Happily, it’s confined to running errands and the like, but it’s still desperately creepy.)

Although beautifully drawn, with boy bands now a thing of the past in America, it’s hard to know if the target audience of teen girls will be able to relate to the chillingly fascistic-feudal world of Korean fan clubs that seem to be half cults, half delusional autocracies. (There are frequent admonitions for characters to “watch your place.”)

Moreover, it’s impossible to sympathize with any of the characters, especially the “heroine,” since her futile, pathological love for DDL is only equaled by her loathing for Yo-I, when they’re basically interchangeable, and the unspeakably cruel pretty boys.

— S. A. Bennett

From the Publisher:

How far would you go to meet your favorite boy band? Kum-ji was little late getting under the spell of the chart topping boy band DDL. Unable to join the DDL fan club, she almost gives up meeting her idols until she develops a cunning plan—to become a member of their rival fan club for a brand-new boy group, Yo-I. This way she can act as Yo-I’s fan club member and also be together near Yo-I, who always seem to be in the same shows as DDL. Perfect plan… except being a fanatic is a lot more complicated than she expects. Especially when you’re actually a fan of someone else.
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