Review: Goong

Title: Goong
Genres: Romance, Drama, Shojo, Comedy
Author: So-Hee Park
Scanlation groups: JanimeS, Korean-Manhwa, MegKF, Soompi, Vampire Knights

Licensed by: Yen Press

Synopsis: This manhwa deals with modern day Korea, only with a bit of manipulation of history- the royal family still exists. The crown prince Shin Lee (addressed as The Seja) is a seventeen year old royal brat who is ordered by his mother the queen to marry. He is resentful marrying so early, but has no choice as the tradition of marrying early and having a young wife ensures that she adjusts easily to palace life and children can wait until then. As a last resort, he tries asking his on-off girlfriend Hyo Rin to marry him. She refuses, saying that being the Sejabin (The Seja's wife) would automatically mean giving up all her dreams in life.

Unfortunately a young girl named Chae Gyeong Shin, who happens to a beautiful but clumsy student of the same school, happens to overhear him proposing to Hyo Rin. Unsurprisingly, she is caught by the Seja who commands her to stop, but she manages to give him the slip and run off. With the arrival of the Seja's cousin Yul from England, the royal family decides to go ahead and choose a bride of their choice, the granddaughter of a dear friend of the Seja's grandfather, the former king. Though a commoner, it is on the basis of an old promise between the men that the Sejabin is chosen, who happens to surprise, surprise! Chae Gyeong Shin.

Both of them object, but the wedding goes ahead irrespective of that and Chae Gyeong finds herself married to a sadistic brat who she knows does not care about her, isolated from her family, and thrust into a new world where everything she felt and did formerly was wrong. Her only ally is the Seja's cousin Yul, who promptly falls for her. Filled with palace politics and complex intrigues, this series is worth a read.

There is also a live action series, but I have not watched it so cannot give an opinion.

In my opinion: This is a typical wedding between two people who hate each other story, but the author manages to pull it off quite nicely. The characters are lovable- Shin is an archetypal brat who is however a good prince who cares about his people; Chae Gyeong is sweet, innocent and thankfully, not Mary-sueish. The rest of the characters (a lot of them) are also portrayed quite well. The relationship between these two, the way Chae Gyeong develops a huge crush on Shin, openly desires him, tries her best to know him and make him love her, is quite endearing. Also, the plot is quite nice and it's not all romance and boredom. There is quite a bit of humor, and that successfully pulls this series from mediocre to good.

The negative points? There are quite a bit of them. Firstly, it's a bit immature and archetypal Shojo so people who hate the genre are better off not reading it. Sometimes it is a bit too melodramatic, but then again, that's Shojo. And the update rate is miserably slow. The series is mainly aimed at teenage girls, but I did manage to be addicted to it for a few weeks and I haven't been a teenager for a year.

Overall, it is a nice series- well worth a read.

Artwork: 9/10

Characters: 8/10

Story: 7/10