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Reviewed by Hannah King "Kai and Spike are best friends who share a common background: they are both half-Korean. Searching for identity in a world filled with intolerance, they feel uncomfortable in thier own homes because of thier mixed heritage. Then they meet Sunil, a Korean foriegn-exchange student, who leads them on a journey that is part self-discovery and all heart and soul..." The introduction sounds promising, but unfortunately the book doesn't quite live up to it. Soul to Seoul is the story of Sunil, a Korean girl and her two love interests Kai and Spike - half Caucasian and half African American respectively. Sunil goes to the same school as the two boys, but has never spoken to either of them as she is a 'social outcast' whose English is not very good. Sunil decides that to get a place within the school hierachy, she must learn more about Kai, the self professed 'player' of her year. This results in the two of them 'going steady' despite the fact that she knows little to nothing about him. From that point on, the story veers off in a different direction, leaving Sunil in it's wake. Kai takes centre stage and we learn that he is an outcast in his own family as the only blonde, we learn that his younger half sister has a disturbing crush on him and that the fourteen year old boy living with the family is, in fact an adopted street urchin with a disturbing past. Kai himself, it transpires, has a dangerously potent desire to be a New York Gang Member. Spike, on the other hand, turns out to have left school a year earlier to support his alchoholic father and apathetic younger brother. He dearly wishes to return to school, but can't - and he has a crush on Sunil that ultimately leads him to turn his back on Kai's friendship. At first glance this seems like an ok book, but after actually reading it, I soon became bored and more than a little confused. Why, exactly, would a seventeen year old foriegn-exchange student, take it upon herself to date a fellow student whom she knows absolutly nothing about, and further, the boy who had forcibly dragged her to his house and accosted her on his bed? Why does anyone put up with Gelda - Kai's younger half sister - whom it appears has only one emotional state, 'bratty teenager'? Why does Spike even put up with a friend like Kai? None of it really makes sense. One of the most confusing things about the book, is the fact that absolutely every character is either Korean or half-Korean - maybe this is an important factor to the creator, but to me it just grates and doesn't work. The pick-pocket street urchin who ends uo living with Kai's family just happens to be Korean? It's too coincidental to set well. Art wise, this book is not as good as it could be. All the female characters have the same face and but for skin tone and lip size, so do the male. The only thing that reliably distiguishes the characters from one another is the hair style - and even then I confused Gelda for her mother at one point. In general, the art work - though competant in proportions and anatomy - is bland and uninspired, half the panels look stiff and more than once a pose has been repeated. In contrast, however, I do enjoy looking at the background characters - these appear to have been drawn either from life or from photographic reference and are much more pleasing to the eye. Keep an eye out towards the end of the book - there is a cameo appearance of Spike Spiegel and Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop. Over all, I don't rate this book very highly. I couldn't engage with any of the characters and the artwork was a bit of a turn off. I only reccomend this book if you are interested in an outsiders view of New York and looking at pretty frontispieces for chapter changes. I'm afraid I won't be buying the second volume. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
18 October 2010
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