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Miho, a woman of beauty, intelligence, and temper, arrives at Cheju Island to teach school and is immediately thrust into a world of terror and the supernatural. A demon attacks her, but she is saved by the sudden appearance of a mysterious man who seems to have only one mission: demon killing.
(Source: Tokyopop)
Island was published in English by Tokyopop from January 15, 2002, to January 7, 2003.
In the beginning, Shigeru Miyamoto created anime and games. Now the bookshelves were formless and empty, darkness spread over the weaboos as people grew tired of reading picture-less books…
Time skip billions of years later (yay no fillers) and you now find that we live in a world full of manga. Yes, we have plenty of manga. But do you know what the anti-christ to all manga is? It’s the manwha. Poor, poor (repeat twice for dramatic effect) neglected and often forgotten manwha. It’s said that if you read enough manwhas it will bring about the end of the world (SMB3 World 1 Level 1). Furthermore, those caught reading manwhas on the day of judgment will also not get 99 loli virgins. That being said, it’s always good to read a manwha once in a while. And that’s the reason why Daimyo has brought you all here (all 3 of you), today we’re going to read some manwha. Now, now (repeat twice for dramatic effect) don’t get mad; I know what you’re going to say: reading sucks (and I really can’t blame you all; reading is a bitch). But don’t worry, I already read this manwha so all you have to do is read my review (sounds like a fair deal, right?). So let’s get started with Island by In-Wan Youn (5 dollars if you can pronounce his name). The great thing about manwhas is that you don’t need to be a weaboo to read them. They actually read like normal books left to right. So your friends won’t think you’re a lunatic who stays at home fapping all day to underaged cartoon girls if you read them, that is until you explain the story…
Story 8/10
The story is set on the very unfictional (made-up words are the best) island of Cheju in southern Korea. Here we have our female protagonist by default, Miho, who came to this island basically because she’s a spoiled rich brat who has nothing to do but complain all day and make other people’s lives miserable (sort of like me, minus the rich and brat parts of course). Yup, she’s so rich she could sell her shit on eBay as gold bricks and have 99% positive feedback. But would she make Gundams out of her gold shit bricks? No, and that’s why she’s a brat. But she’s a hot woman and definitely my typo so I excuse her. Anyway, moving along, somewhere down the road she meets our real main character, a man known solely as Pan (no, he is not pansexual… I think?). Well, how did they meet, you say? Well, let’s just say that this very real island isn’t so much of a tourist destination, for people at least. It’s a hotspot for demons, and let’s also say that demons love virgin blood (so if I was the one reading this review, I’d run away by now). You can pretty much figure out how this goes down: weak spoiled brat meets strong terrifying demon, brat is about to get killed, brat meets hero, hero saves brat. At this point, the story can either go two ways: it could become a tale of romance between the two characters or it can just become a character-of-the-day rinse-and-repeat type deal. However, Island chooses the third route, the WTF route. Island is not about a romance between two insecure characters; Island is not an episodic character-of-the-day routine. Island is goddamn Island, not bound by rules of convention and stereotypes of traditional stories and characters. You get a tale that truly is dark and unpredictable. Although the story was somehow short and didn’t tie up all the loose ends, the fact that we are given a tale that is not afraid to break the mold warrants a solid 8.
Characters 7/10
As for the characters, there really wouldn’t be a story without this assorted mix of pals & gals. Variety is key here. First and foremost, we have Miho, said rich brat mentioned earlier (but I still love her). The story is pretty much told from her perspective, or at least with her as the primary focus. Which isn’t necessarily bad, but later on you’ll get slightly annoyed with her attitude (feel free to bitch slap her afterwards). Next is our star player, Pan. He’s a deranged serial killer, goddamn. Don’t be fooled, he isn’t in it for the good of us all, to be a hero or to save the world; he’s just in it for the lulz. Literally, that’s the only way I can describe his motivations for killing these demons, he just enjoys murder. Don’t be fooled; he isn’t chaotic evil—he’s most likely neutral evil seeing as he can be bargained with and even has certain things he won’t do. He’s the primary reason I suggest you should read this manwha (I love saying manwha). There are a lot of things he’ll do that you won’t like. In fact, he’s quite the hateable guy. His only motivations are greed and self-interest, but I find people like that to be realistic. I mean he’s not the type of guy who ends all his sentences in dattebayo, foolishly tries to protect everyone, or thinks he’s justice incarnated. He’s just a cold-blooded murderer, no false pretenses like in so many other manga (though this is a manwha). Next, we have John, a priest of the non-ordained (yay for sex…not with little boys!) brotherhood from America. He takes the role as the character that gets pummeled down and gets beaten up most of the manwha (see I said it again). Unfortunately, unlike Pan, he thinks he’s justice. So all his enemies better beware, justice will always prevail at the end of the manwha! Next, we have our group of Japanese groupies who are there primarily to make this manwha appeal more to a Japanese audience. What we have here is a rowdy mix mostly involving bastards, traps, and reverse traps. Sounds delicious, doesn’t it? Combined with the fact that these guys act like complete assholes the majority of the manwha, we have a clear message here. What our Korean dictators want us to know is that all Japanese people act like bigoted asshats (isn’t that right, Kim?). Let’s be fair, they do try to change their jerkass personalities towards the end, but it all felt too Hollywood and cliché. There isn’t much character development in this one, mostly due to issues with the story’s pacing and its abrupt ending. However, what we do see of the characters is fairly interesting and satisfying enough.
Enjoyment & Overall 8/10
Despite this manwha’s flaws, i.e., the length and some of the characters, I had a good time with this one. It was a good read on a slow day when I couldn’t fap (I was all maxed out that day), didn’t feel like going outside, and couldn’t find a manga to read. I myself tend to avoid manwhas. While I feel many manwhas start strong, the stories tend to get more and more convoluted and end quite horribly. This was especially the case with the other manwha I completed, Veritas. However, as far as Island is concerned, that statement is only partially true. After reading this one, you’ll almost feel disappointed that it ended so soon. There is so much that needs and/or can be explored. Despite this fact, the ending, while not necessarily complete, certainly isn’t bad (and with a little ecstasy, what’s the difference?). This series is a solid 8 overall, definitely worth reading if you find yourself bored with nothing else to do.