Why is it that it is so easy for Asia to make comics that are available digitally and for free? For that matter, it’s easier to pick what chapters you want to read. Why can’t more western comics be like this. I mean Manga Box from Japan actually introduces Love and Lies before it went to print by Kodansha. And sure Lezhin Comics from South Korea definitely appeals mainly to adults; but at least it gets content from contests and over. Wait come to think of it… why do romantic killers get the limelight?
Welcome to Comic Comparisons, the blog segment where subjects are compared and contrasted to brighten somebody’s day. Today will be a special case. We’ll be going over two series on services that bring content to the public through their mobile devices. In fact we’ll also be putting a premier focus on two rather similar series. It should be obvious but spoilers ahead.
The Killers Services
Manga Box is a magazine app where users can read manga. Most of them are by the editor-in-chief Shin Kabayashi under numerous pen names. The app became so successful that a few series managed to get more recognition; including a spin-off of the popular detective manga, Kindaichi Case Files featuring the origins of serial killer magician Takato Yoichi. Unfortunately there isn’t much for English speakers after 2015. The service keeps only a handful of titles including two of its premiere romance stories. Everything else is only available in Japanese or Chinese afterwards, not to mention some indies from Japanese creators.
Lezhin Comics however has a legacy of introducing webtoons that are anything but the norm. It fights to show content that defies expectations yet the stories are still compelling. Granted most content involves erotica, depictions of bullying, and extremely hot guys loving each other. But there are some good stories once all of the euphoric and shocking stuff is out of the way.
One weird thing I always wonder about these kinds of comic services is why romance is the most popular genre. Do the majority of people looking at their phones like looking at caricatures doing cliches? That’s one of the reasons I don’t like premium TV.
Killers’ Love Doesn’t Just Hurt… It Terrifies
Anyway, we’ll be talking about the more twisted kind of love. In Manga Box one of the few series that has a fully developed plot is Ana Satsujin; Peephole for the English translation. It is about the relationship between a suicidal man and a serial killer.
Lezhin Comics on the other hand features Killing Stalking, the Grand Prize winner of the second Lezhin World Comic Contest. It is the story about the relationship between a scrawny stalker and a serial killer.
Drawn In Similarities
Hear me out there’s more than the surface level details. The protagonists of these stories are depressed young men; they’re so gloomy they usually get pulled over by the police just for looking suspicious. The lives they live are just a vortex of downward spirals. Trauma and depression is quite literally all over their faces with the dark circles under their eyes. It just so happens that these otherwise antisocial outcasts meet and actually stay in relationships with serial killers.
The serial killers in detail are people who would kill anyone, whether they were criminals or people nobody really cares about. But eventually they come across our protagonists when doing their deeds. Rather than outright kill them however they enter a relationship for various reasons. Not to mention, they genuinely need someone to connect with.
Coats and Knives
Peephole actually starts with protagonist “Etsuro Kurosu” attempting suicide after three years of an unsuccessful life. He fails but makes a hole in the wall where he sees his gorgeous neighbor “Rio Miyaichi”. Immediately infatuated with her, Kurosu keeps an eye on Miyaichi until he sees her kill a man she brought home. Panicking the two eventually meet and Kurosu enters Miyaichi’s twisted world.
Killing Stalking has the physically and mentally underdeveloped “Yoon Bum” obsessing over his man crush, the womanizing “Oh Sangwoo”. He eventually breaks in to Sangwoo’s home to find a woman beaten and gagged but is assaulted by Sangwoo. By the time Bum wakes up, he finds that Sangwoo is actually a psychopathic serial killer. Yet rather than just murder him, Sangwoo decides to keep Bum around in a twisted display of affection. Unfortunately for Bum, Sangwoo drags him along by for every traumatizing situation.
Different Blood Types Spilled
What makes these series so interesting (aside from how attractive the killers are), is the psychological states of the characters. All of the characters are shown to be mentally ill after a life full of hardship, loneliness, and expectations.
Type A
For Kurosu, he spent his entire life trying to keep up his good grades, but when he starts failing he spirals down. In the entire run, his family is never seen; they are either dead or indifferent to Kurosu. With nobody to support him, Kurosu just lives his life as a drifting bag of loneliness; desperate for a reason to live.
Miyaichi on the other hand always kept up good grades and appearances for her family but felt isolated. The only person who understood her was her brother, himself a killer. But seeing his own sister’s curiosity about killing people actually scares him. He commits suicide one night after letting Miyaichi get too close and wanting to affirm a belief about bonds and ties. From this act, Miyaichi gains the belief that life is only beautiful when it is brought to an end; with meaning coming from the ties they have. To that end she began her life as a serial killer to find those meaningful ties.
Type AB
Bum had lived a life full of trauma and ridicule after his parents died in an accident. His uncle sexually abuses him for most of his childhood. Due to this lack of love, he gained BPD; meaning he is clingy with anyone showing him affection and unable to form proper relationships with stable people. Because of his young and gloomy looks, he was often bullied by people in school and in his military service. Because of Bum’s traumas and mental illness, he often hallucinates causing him to question what was real or not. Bum just couldn’t catch a break even after he enters his relationship with Sangwoo.
Sangwoo and his mother suffered abuse at the hands of his father. One day, he snaps killing his father and quite possibly his mother; but just doesn’t seem to be able to remember what happened quite right. If anyone looks at it, it might even be the reason Sangwoo usually kills women. He wants to remember the affection his mother gave him. He also wants reenact the night of killing someone he loves to find out what really happened. Yet nothing seems to work other than just repeating what Sangwoo thinks occurred. Sangwoo even displays a twisted display of affection for Bum; to the point of trying to drown him in rejection but is too afraid of ending up like his father. Pretty soon, Stockholm Syndrome steps in for Bum and the pair practically become inseparable; even when they’ve got a dedicated cop on their tail.
Type O+
The antagonistic side characters can be seen as the unhealthier sides of these series fandoms; including the ones who wholly support the characters and the ones against them. Miyaichi actually influences a few mentally unstable characters into their paths of serial killing. However, they fail to see the depth she has; treating her more as a goddess and something to aspire to rather than a person who has her own flaws. Because of this, they end up dying because of their lack of oversight. Even the detective and psychic who wish to bring Miyaichi to justice are obsessed with her. Like the more villainous characters, they die in their attempts because of the unpredictable world they find themselves in.
Sangwoo also has a few admirers who almost went down his same path. One of which is a middle aged man who is unsatisfied with his mundane life. He ends up dying by a terrifying plan that becomes Bum’s first kill. The cop who Sangwoo was friends with had failed to bring Sangwoo in, proving to the policeman how little justice means in extremes.
State of Killers Relationships
Now I’m not saying that only the worst kind of people can have relationships with each other. The killers are obviously abusive and make accomplices out of their partners; who in turn, only stay because they have nowhere else to go. Rather it’s the fact that even the average person often struggles to find meaning in their lives. Humans are social creatures; but psychopaths just don’t have the need for connections the way regular mentally healthy people do. Still characters like Miyaichi and Sangwoo don’t kill just for the sake of killing; they want to find love and meaning where they can. This was what allows them and the audience to look past the flaws of their partners and enter relationships with them.
Ultimately however, killers and obsessors like them just can’t live in the same world as other people. Despite their best efforts and even their beliefs coming into fruition; they become subverted by simple acts they never thought they’d be swayed by. For Kurosu and Miyaichi it’s the fact that at the moment of their double suicide; they learn that they have a child they never knew about. This revelation causes them to rethink about their actions with their last moments. Bum will be scarred for years to come after all the tribulations he shared with Sangwoo. Yet they end up getting their wishes to be together with death looming over them at every turn; but it might not have been what they need.
Thanks for coming to the end remember to like, comment, share, and always look between the panels.