I said before, a long time ago, that since I read and enjoyed manga, I wanted to talk about some manga. Now, technically, this is from Korea, I believe, so it’s actual name is Manwha, but they are the same thing. They are just formatted differently. This manwha is very easy to find. It’s on Lezhin comics and the first six chapters are actually free. There are 74 chapters total and each one is worth 3 coins. I didn’t do the math to find out how much that is. So sorry.
First let’s get all the warning out of the way. This manwha features graphic content such as murder of humans and an animal, stabbing, self harm, abuse, and mental illness. This review will also be talking about such things so if it’s not something you wish to read about, you probably don’t want to read the rest of this.
An Uncomfortable Truth is a psychological drama about a Korean freshmen(In America, where I’m from, they would be a sophomore,) who was just arrested for the stabbing of eight people, and how it got to that point. The manwha tries to answer the questions of why this high school boy would do this, and what it has to do with his older brother.
Firstly I would like to say this story is wild. There was moments where I just stared at the page wondering why. Why was this happening? Why would anyone do that? The manga definitely did its job of making you wonder, What the Fuck?. There’s lots of things I want to say about this manwha, but let’s get to know the four main characters.
We will start with character we first get to see. Yoseob.
Yoseob is the high school freshmen who we start off by seeing at the police station for the stabbing of eight people. We first see this innocently looking boy with blood splattered all over his face, showing that he is not innocent at all. There is a few things to note about him, the main one being his obession with his older brother, Jaeha. He is also very violent and not mentally stable. I would say that’s a spoiler, but you can tell from pretty early on that he is in need of help.
The second important character is the older brother, Jaeha
Jaeha, the sweet adorable Jaeha, is the object of his little brother’s obsession. He is nice, shy, and very sporty. He is a second year, I believe, and takes care of his little brother. Everyday he tells his friends he can’t hang out with them because he has to go home with his brother. He spends a lot of time worrying about his sickly little brother. *He is so adorable I felt so bad for him through the whole story*
Next is the only girl main character, and there so much to her, and I love her.
Yura is my probably my favorite character in sense of development and complexity. I think she was done incredibly well. Yura is seen as the beautiful popular girl, and she is Jaeha’s crush. A lot of the story features her story and her interactions with the two brothers. I love seeing Yura’s character. She is first seen as the typical mean girl, but the more the you read the more you understand Yura.
And lastly, Taeoh
Taeoh’s story features a lot of his past, and is how we get to see a lot Jaeha and Yoseob’s past. He is friends/classmates with Yura, and a previous victim of Yoseob’s.
So I said the story is about a high school boy who gets arrested for stabbing people and is telling is story, but what is the story? Well, to be honest, a lot of the story features Yura, because she is the new equation to the brothers lives. Jaeha has a crush on Yura and Yoseob notices this, and for him that’s a problem. Yura knows Jaeha has a crush, but does nothing about it because she finds him amusing, but then one day she gets a weird visit from Yoseob, and from there the story goes. A lot of the story is Yura trying to avoid Yoseob, by avoiding Jaeha, and Jaeha confused by the whole thing. There’s also Yoseob noticing his brother is distancing from him, and him being confused by that.
Now I won’t tell anymore of the story, because with these type of stories it’s best to watch it all unfold around you so you get the whole experience. Instead I will go into the topics the manwha brings up, because I think they are important and real messages.
- Yura’s Character- There’s a lot to Yura’s character and what she deals with. She is constantly being asked out and hit on by the guys in her school, to the point where she hates them. It causes a bitter resentment in men for her and eventually causes other issues. She also brings up something many people have to deal with and that’s expectations. People have the tendency build up other people in their head to be something they’re not, and then there’s a bitterness for that person not being that type of person who they were built up to be.. that was probably worded weird, but I hope you get it…Then there is the biggest part of Yura’s character, to me at least, and that is how trying to be other people’s expectations creates a sense of loneliness and a usually backfires.
- Ignorance and How it Hurts- Ignorance is such a big part of this story. There is a whole part of this story where one of the characters in is emotional distress and everyone is acting like they are faking it and ignoring it, even adults. It’s sad because it happens. There’s also many issues that could of been handled and stopped if someone had just paid attention. Like’s Jaeha’s parents paying attention to Yoseob, instead they put their job first and ignore what’s going on.
- The Cause of Effect of People– The story shows the downward spiral of what happens when you treat others badly. Make someone feel like shit and they might make other’s feel the same way, or the will crave love and affection from other people, dangerous and toxic people. It paints the picture of how one bad action done towards someone can ruin their life, and others.
- Mental Health– Mental health is such a big part of this story and shows why you show NEVER ignore it. Just it seems fine now, but that doesn’t mean it will always be that way and warning signs of it getting worse should always be taken seriously. Yeseob is the villain of the story, but it’s hard to see him as that way when you want to help him and feel bad for him. He just desperately needed help. Yes, he was obsessed, and it seems odd, but in his case it’s normal. He needed that love and feeling of safety, so he did what he needed to have it. Also, and this may be a bit of a spoiler, but because of his early childhood, Yoseob doesn’t understand emotions. It’s not that he doesn’t have them, but he doesn’t understand what they are, which again, in his case is normal. You need to be treated with love to love and understand it fully. When a child is not given the love and sense of security they need, not understanding emotions and looking for a sense of security is normal. So even though Yoseob is the villain, I can’t fully see him in that way. He’s problems were ignored and if they hadn’t been he could been of been ok.
Manga like this one are some of my favorites to read. I love psychology and seeing stories explore the mind in it’s deepest and darkest moments. I love seeing why people or characters do what they do and how it could of all be avoided. I read this manga in one whole night and I loved it. I loved the story, the characters, and the art. Also, THAT ENDING! It got reallllll messed up. There was also parts I didn’t expect, but I also wasn’t sure how it was going to end. Obviously with Yoseob stabbing the eight people, but everything included in it…. it was defiantly a moment.
Also, the art when Yoseob was having a moment was great. You really got that feeling of something is wrong. There is another manwha that gives me the same feeling and that is Bastard, which is my favorite manga/manwha of this type. It is so good and genuinely gave me chills. It’s on webtoon, for free, so if you like stories that are messed up, go read that. That author also has a more tradional horror manwha out right now, and that is Sweet Home(also on webtoon), which has actually made jumped scared me, and made me tear up because it scared me. Enough about that author though. Maybe I’ll talk about them another time. Back to talking about the art of this story, or more like me showing you little snippets of it, and don’t worry. I’m not spoiling any important parts. Just the art. Also. i’m not showing the graphic scenes. I didn’t want to show those.
Overall, this is a really good story and if you like psychological horror or drama, you should check it out. Just beware my warning above if you are scared or dislike any of that.
Simplistic Reader 