Yeah who knows if this will be a thing I keep up long term.
On or Off (Vol 3 & 4)
I pretty much take recommendations and run with them, and that’s how I fell into On or Off. Late last year I heard about the Turnstyle Underground Market and headed that way after unsuccessfully finding the next volume of The TItan’s Bride. Then, the super cheery clerk asked me if she could help with anything else. So, here I am, I have invested in her recommendation of On or Off.
So, to catch you up we’re in a little bit of a requited love story between a stoic director Kang Daehyung, and the cute college babyface Ahn Yiyoung who is marketing a new gaming app developed by his quirky-but-realistic pals/team. Our leads are very bad at realizing how they feel for one another. Volume 3 focuses hard on Kang Daehyung coming to terms with this, and Volume 4 is their smutty get together.
Also the beginnings of the cracks in their relationship. Lots of ‘why me’ ‘why him’. The volume ends on a bit of a cliffhanger with Kang Daehyung being called by a mysterious man on the phone asking when he’s coming back, ooooooooo.
One thing I started to notice down the line was how simplistic the backgrounds were, often just a solid color background. It made the world of On or Off feel a little complete.
Toykopop doesn’t list Vol 5 as ‘Coming Soon’, though it looks like these four volumes cover Chapters 1 – 83 of the webtoon, and there’s only 91 in total. Hopefully I’ll have the complete set on my bookshelf by the end of the year, I’d like to see how this ends.
Hyperventilation
In comparison to what I was beginning to find a little annoying with On or Off, Hyperventilation uses simplistic backgrounds to focus in on the story and paint the setting much, much better.
Why did I order this one? Saw it under the recommendation tab. That’s it, I am very easy.
It’s a one shot centered around a high school reunion where two men – the class president and the sickly kid – come to terms with the person their first love was, and now is. It flashes between present and past and ties them together neatly, and sweetly.
I loved the pacing, the limited dialogue, and the coloring choices. Short, steamy, and sweet. (Though, the last third of the book is reference photos and advertisements, so I feel a little cheated on price.)
Limerence
The state of being obsessively infatuated with someone, usually accompanied by delusions of or a desire for an intense romantic relationship with that person
Limerence follows a soft and precious artist Pei Ran through his breakup with Luo Qingshan, and navigating through the infatuation of Yan Zhun. The background of all this college dorm life, gaming, and professional esports.
Aside from needing a serious editing pass, Via Lactea has chosen to translate ge/gege as ‘bro’, which in the context of dorm life and gaming almost works okay. Can I imagine Hua Cheng sweetly calling Xie Lian ‘bro’? Absolutely not. Wei Wuxian teasing Lan Wangji calling him ‘Lan-second-bro’? No.
Maybe.
Anyway, the story is quite cute, it reminds me a lot of Silent Hearts and Salad Days – there isn’t a lot of conflict or even a lot of drama. Pei Ran is pretty much broken up with Luo Qingshan by the first 20 pages of the book. when he catches him smooching another boy. You follow his almost methodical disconnect from Luo Qingshan and come to the same realization he does – did he ever feel for him, or was it just something he fell into?
Yan Zhun is also pretty interesting with his aloof gamer god personality, and his intense infatuation with Pei Ran.
If you’re not familiar with gaming / esports / online culture you might want to pass on it (Honestly, I’d pass on it just because of Via Lactea) as it gets a bit harder to follow as Yan Zhun falls back into professional esports.
It also emulates a bit of Salad Days where as the couple start to come out, or at least are discovered, by their friends and surrounding characters, everyone tells them they support them and the story continues on.
I’ve never been a big fan of slice of life anime because it always seemed to so heavily focus on the drama of schoolchildren. Limerence, Salad Days, and Silent Hearts seem to ramp up the life, and less of the drama. It’s cozy. I like cozy. Cozy books are the things you read between sweeping epics and whatever hollow feeling The Imperial Uncle left in my heart.
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