Drawing to a close

Two of Yen Press's titles are coming to an end this spring, so those of you who only buy manga once the entire series has been published should add these titles to your to-be-investigated list, safe in the knowledge that the publisher won't be pulling any shenanigans.

You're So Cool: Vol. 6, by YoungHee Lee

From our first review of this series:

"When klutzy, simple-minded You’re So Cool heroine Nan Woo confesses her love to her classmate Seung Ha, she has no hope of being accepted—after all, Seung Ha is the best-looking and most popular boy in her class. But unfortunately for Nan Woo, Seung Ha has a darker side to him, and he's not above using Nan Woo's dim-witted affection to cover it up."

The final volume of Lee's You're So Cool offers more of the same: more bizarre artwork, more PG-rated yaoi, and more utterly warped "romance" between the series' dimwitted heroine and her emotionally abusive suitor. We were turned off by You're So Cool's exaggerated character design and creepy romantic plotline, but readers who enjoy the "self-consciously wacky" school of romance manhwa might enjoy themselves.

The Antique Gift Shop: Vol. 10, by Lee Eun

From our first review of this series:

"[The Antique Gift Shop] is a series of fable-and-fairytale-inspired episodes loosely connected by an overarching storyline about a young woman named Bun-Nyuh, whose grandmother forces her to take over her family's antique shop. When Bun-Nyuh realizes that most of the antiques for sale possess strange powers, she becomes even more determined to leave the shop... but something far more powerful than her grandmother is determined to keep her there."

We were much more enthusiastic about the conclusion of The Antique Gift Shop, which tied up several loose ends, answered a dozen questions, and managed to blend mystery, horror, and suspense with a hefty amount of humor. True, we would have been even happier if the final book had featured a more clearly-defined romantic resolution (and fewer shots of the crying heroine's streaming nose), but we were still totally satisfied.