The drama and momentum of court intrigue are undermined by some genuinely unfunny attempts at humor.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: SoHee Park
Translation/Adaptation: HyeYoung Im/Jamie S. Rich
What They Say
With Prince Shin in London, Chae-Kyung is feeling lonely without him. Exiled to an outer providence by Shin’s scheming aunt, she is comforted by Prince Yul, the second in line to the throne, who reveals the shocking truth that it was to him – not Shin – that Chae-Kyung was originally betrothed.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The daebi’s plan to wrest the title of Crown Prince from Shin is well underway. With Shin now in England on some type of royal exchange with Prince William of the British royals, she isolates Chae-Kyung in a rural palace under the guise of improving her knowledge of rural area customs and needs. This isolation from all that is familiar to her will prove to have a devastating effect on Chae-Kyung, and Shin’s unresponsiveness to all of her calls aggravates the anxiety she feels.
Shin, for all his court savvy, is completely blindsided by the daebi’s next move. Shin is found in a nasty and public mess that embarrasses him, the Korean royal family and the British royals. It is, of course, all hushed up, and Shin is all too aware of how this is playing with his father, who makes no secret of his displeasure with Shin. His stated intention to remove Shin as Crown Prince may please his old flame, the daebi, but government officials have made it clear that their support could well not be there.
The realization that he has been set-up has unnerved the normally unflappable Shin, and when things seem darkest to him, who should arrive in London but needy exgirlfriend, Hyo-Rin, ostensibly to see a ballet competition, and the public scandal that ensues when Shin and Hyo-Rin are photographed together by the British tabloids finds its way back to Korea. Shin returns to Korea to find situations much changed.
And let’s not forget Price Yul. He is very much the spoiler in this series. The implications of a revelation to Chae-Kyung are not lost on her, and his confession to his mother indicates that he may be more in charge of his own destiny than his mother would like. We know that Yul hates Shin and that he isn’t crazy about his mother either. But what about Chae-Kyung? Is Yul just an opportunist looking to use her or does he really care? Park Sohee is very deliberate in her treatment of this character, never letting the balance tip one way or another in the reader’s perception of him.
In Summary
Plots and subplots abound in this volume and, in spite of the decent storytelling, I’m sorry to say that Park Sohee lets the reader down here. It’s not that she doesn’t have well-paced, dramatic material here, but she’s sabotaged the effect and flow her narrative by punctuating it with odd and quirky tries at humor. She has done this in previous volumes, largely though what be considered her unusual face fault style, but in this volume she indulges herself way too much. I have never found court eunuch Kong to be very amusing, and his appearances until now have been mercifully brief. However, the bonding up of eunuch Kong with Prince William just comes off as creepy; in fact, the interaction of the two royal families comes off as a distraction rather than what is intended as a look into the courtesies and privileges that royals extend one another.
In spite of some disappointments, this is a critical volume in this series and well worth the read.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: June 9th, 2009
MSRP: $10.99
