Honey Mustard

(Tokyopop, 2005-2006)
™ and © 2003 Ho-Kyung Yeo

In contemporary Korea, pretty but troubled high-school student Ara pines hopelessly over the boy of her dreams, Hanil. While together on a school trip, “friends” coerce her (with the aid of liquor) to finally “make her move.” Instead, she ends up kissing class screw-up Young-Woo right in front of the trip’s scandalized chaperone. She [the chaperone] tells all to both their families who decide the only way to preserve their mutual honor is for the two to get married immediately.

I don’t expect anything resembling realism from the plot of a manwha romance but can’t for a second countenance this ludicrous excise for a premise.

The ad copy assures readers that this is a “comedy” but, clearly, that portion of the script wasn’t translated. If it works at all, it’s as a drama: poor Ara being desperate for love because she never recovered from the death of her mother or the coldness of her stepmother. Here’s yet another absolutely unnecessary series.

— S.A. Bennett

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