Review: Bloody Sweet

This review covers the volume 1 book that was part of the Kickstarter. I will try not to spoil too much.


Title	Bloody Sweet
Author	Narae Lee
Publisher	Tappy Toon
Genre	Romance
Age Rating	T
Official Website

Today I am here to talk about a Manhwa by Narae Lee that is very popular on Tappy Toon – a fairly new distributor of Korean comics. Bloody Sweet tells the story of Shin Naerim, a young high school girl who is fed up with her life. Her mother is a moodang(a traditional Korean shaman) and as a result many people including her classmates constantly bully and harass her. Unfortunately her mother is so wrapped up in her work that she is oblivious to Naerim’s cries for help. Even her friends have appeared to have turned on her and the few that attempted to stand up for her ended up being threatened by the other students. As a result, she begins to feel very lonely and depressed often contemplating why she even bothers putting up with it all. Through a series of fateful encounters she ends up meeting and awakening Fetechou, a vampire who has been dormant for many years and makes a contract with him. He gets to suck the blood of a moodang(or in this case someone with moodang blood) and he will become her “dog” and protect her with his life. Once the contract is made Fetechou became attached to her both physically and metaphorically. He even gets a cute collar. The rest of the volume shows us how their relationship evolves and how much more “interesting” Naerim’s life is about to become….

Throughout the volume we get to see just how horrible her life is and how much the other students torment her. It’s actually quite heartbreaking and soon you really start to feel bad for her as she never asked for any of it. Seriously, the harassment she endures is almost on par with what Shoko Nishimiya goes through in A Silent voice which you should check out if you have not already. Back to Naerim, a lot of what she was going through at school was instigated by one of her classmates and former best friend Song Jina who now seems to really have a huge grudge against her. In later chapters, you find out why she felt that way towards her and why she turned on someone who was supposedly her friend. This was also the beginning of Naerim becoming really depressed.

However thankfully, things do start to look better for our protagonist as the story moves on. I found myself surprisingly invested and really wanted to see her get through all of the pain she was going through. This story could have easily been one of those very cliché love stories, but it actually ended up being very entertaining thanks to characters like Fetechou and how adorable and caring he is towards Naerim. There are some genuinely cute scenes that are sure to make you hopeless romantics out there feel butterflies. Seeing Naerim’s mood gradually change for the better felt very satisfying considering just how deep in despair she was towards the beginning of the story. This story is complimented by excellent artwork and coloring which further brought these characters to life. What also made it an engaging read were the references to Korean culture. I’ve read lots of manga in the past that are very deeply rooted in Japanese culture and mythology so to read a story that is focused on Korean culture and mythology felt like a bit of fresh air.

All in all, I definitely recommend checking out Bloody Sweet. Its a solid story with some fun characters that can definitely help pass the time. The prologue and first two chapters are free. Afterwards you will need to unlock the rest of them using tokens which can be purchased on Tappy Toon’s site.

You can read Bloody Sweet on Tappy Toon.