Orange Marmalade is
one of those rare stories you come across that deals with social
issues - albeit not directly since our protagonist here is a
vampire-girl who wishes to get along with humans. I might have come
across a few that deal with not-so-common life-issues, usually seen
in Aya Nakahara’s work.
But this one beats
them all with respect to how powerfully, yet subtly, the author has
managed to bring out the plight of an outcast.
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The story is a
Korean supernatural drama web-comic written by Seok Woo. Apart from
the fact that it is gorgeously drawn, making it look more like a
series of screenshots from an anime, the perfectly paced story and
narration makes it even more enticing to read.
Plot
The plot is quite
simple: Baek Ma Ri is a female vampire studying at a High School,
disguised as a human. It’s an alternate world where the vampires
and humans are trying to come to terms with each other and live
peacefully, but most people are still scared and disgusted about the
fact that something as vicious as vampires are actually living among
them. And of course, just like any human with stereotypical thinking,
they want to drive the vampires away - even though the vampires are
trying to hold back as much as possible from attack humans, so much
so that they have resorted to blunt their sharp fangs and only drink
animal blood.
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So, in a world like
this, Ma Ri has disguised herself as a human for obvious reasons and
is trying to give herself a chance to get over her contempt for
humans, blend in and try to get along with them. But things are not
as easy as she wishes since she has to hear her classmates bad-mouth
her race right in front of her and even force herself to agree with
them so they won’t suspect her.
So, how’s Ma Ri
going to deal with this and learn to stand up for herself?
Story Review
The story may be
about vampires, but I think you can easily relate this to the racial
and sexual discrimination you get to see in the real world. The
author has beautifully captured the inner battle of Ma Ri between her
pride and wanting to get along with everyone and live a peaceful
life. Her personality is not overdone, you don’t see Ma Ri as an
“emo” teen crying about her problems, but trying to find a way to
get through them without making the situation worse or lose her
friends in the process.
The story speaks
volumes about the everyday social oppression people come across for
varying reasons, with the simplest of daily events in the story
making enough impact to actually make the reader understand the
situation from the perspective of the one on the receiving end.
The story, though
slow paced, doesn’t waste any time in getting to the point, which
makes it quick and enjoyable to read.
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The beauty of the
story lies in how the author has managed to keep the character strong
enough to bear the discrimination she deals with, though not
directly, since she knows that everything that she’s managed to
build so far are all based on lies and spilling out one little fact
about herself would bring everything crashing down. But of course Ma
Ri is less than happy with this kind of status-quo, which will bring
her to the edge of ruining everything she has achieved. On the other
side, as any other human (or a vampire in this case), Ma Ri is
worried more than anyone about her identity being discovered, which
talks about the ever-present anxiety and fear of the minority (of any
kind) to be discovered and thus, hated and cast aside. And even with
all these things troubling her, she manages to maintain her calm and
stoic personality rather than turning hysterical or hating her
friends who are (unknowingly) verbally bashing her race.
The story finally
reaches its climax when Ma Ri has had enough of it all and wishes to
free herself from it.
Orange Marmalade
also brings out the stereotypical mindset of people to bash on
everything that is different and hated by the masses, even though
they haven’t been affected or hurt by it and how much that affects
the person on the receiving end of this hatred.
I believe nobody
other than this author would have managed to maintain the balance so
perfectly without pushing the story or the characters to an extreme.
Characters
We have a lot of
interesting characters here, each of whom play a very important role
in the story and Ma Ri’s life.
We’ve got the main
protagonist, Baek Ma Ri, who is the main target of the oppression but
still manages to stand her ground and not lower herself which is what
I, personally, love about her.
Then we’ve got her
family, who subtly keep her reminded that they’re always there for
her no matter how much worse the situation gets – a happy family
who have practically forgotten that they are actually different from
humans and are hated by them - living their lives in their own happy
dreamland.
Of course there are
Ma Ri’s friends, who are some of the nicest people she’s ever met
and would do anything to make her smile, but actually hate vampires
and don’t miss a chance to bash them and talk about how much of a
pain they are. Ma Ri’s mature enough to understand their hatred,
but not strong enough to let the insults not affect her at all.
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Then there’s Jae
Min, a guy who’s in love with Ma Ri and doesn’t understand why
she’s being so anti social or acts weird - like suddenly trying to
bite his neck or cover her nose when he gets too close to her, but he
still loves her anyway! And he never misses a chance to let her know
that he supports her, though he doesn’t know she’s a vampire.
Other characters are
mostly vampires who either hate the humans or know that people cannot
be generalized, like Ma Ri’s aunt and people like Jae Min’s
mother, who have no hard feelings towards vampires and understand
that they have their own way of living.
So, you get to see
the situation not just in Ma Ri’s perspective but others with
different opinions about humans and vampires as well.
Art
I’d give a 10 on
10 for artwork. I don’t know how the author managed to come up with
such stunning art for each panel, but it’s absolutely flawless. The
art style seems to be quite similar to Makoto Shinkai’s style,
which is the biggest assurance factor that you will not be
disappointed by its art. The panels are perfectly done and adjust the
pacing just enough to give the right effect.
The manhwa is a good
read if you are looking for something slow paced and a story with
good and unique content.
In Closing
Overall, I have no
complaints about it, apart from the fact that the chapters have
gotten extremely short lately. So, I suggest you wait for the story
to complete and then read it. Otherwise, you’ll be up for a lot of
disappointments at the end of each chapter.
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