My Starry Sky (BL)
My Starry Sky is a BL (non-R19) korean webcomic manhwa that is complete and available in both korean and english on Lezhin. There are two "seasons", each about 30 chapters (for a total of about 60 chapters).
This is not my favorite BL comic, but it had such good points to it that I feel like talking about it, for whatever reason.
Summary: Two childhood friends (Skyler and Yeonduk aka 'Young Duck') are on the verge of their relationship as friends collapsing as they enter high school. Young Duck is in love with the Skyler and has been since forever, but has finally decided to quit his friend due his friend's chilly behavior toward him in recent days. The two boys individually are forced to come to terms with the fact that what they had thought they had experienced together in their childhood was skewed by their own faulty perception of the situation (largely due to being like single-digits in age at the time), all the while they have to work through some very believable outside interference as they try to rebuild their relationship.
First off, the art in the series is interesting and grows noticeably in quality throughout the run of this comic. The hair of Skyler 'nebula' and the school councillor 'sky' is very pretty and I loved staring at them any time they showed up in panel. I think the artist was going for 'sunshine' with Young Duck's hair, but couldn't quite pull it off, which was unfortunate because Young Duck is the main character, so you see more of him than anyone.
Speaking of the characters - While you can't get away from BL/yaoi tropes completely in any manga, I do appreciate that the author played with some of these tired archetypes and changed things up a little. Unfortunately, this isn't completely apparent until all the way in season 2 where Young Duck manages to get some time away from Skyler and is finally allowed to flourish.
I also want to congratulate the author on the very subtle character development of the backstories of the two boys, and how their storylines intersect with their parents and others. It is all built up very well and revealed at a slow, methodical pace, to get you into an appropriately beaten-down state of mind as some of these landmines are finally dropped on you. I can't stress enough how well this was written; especially Skyler's story. Espeeeeecially with respect to Skyler's mother and his siblings. It's horrible and real and really good. My niece's life went a lot like this, so it's not just some made up bullshit that never happens.
In some cases, I can see people being frustrated with Skyler's behavior or Young Duck's passivity early on, but they do eventually move beyond these tropes into characters that behave the way they do for good reasons. They each have their moments to shine, where they get to make active choices in their lives with each choice significantly affecting the story going forward. A lot of BL/yaoi manga don't let their characters have these moments, so this is pretty noteworthy too.
There were also choices made in the manga that I did not see coming, knowing what I do about how these stories tend to go. I can applaud it when an author turns a trope on its head in an unexpected but believable way.
So, one of the main reasons I wanted to talk about this manhwa was that despite liking it enough to write about it, there are still flaws that exist that make me sad because with just a few minor tweaks the story could've been elevated from a 'B' to an 'A' grade property.
Thus I will talk about the changes I'd make to this manhwa to step up its game.
[Spoilers ahead, obviously.]Spoilers ahead, obviously.
1. (This is a change) Young Duck is now a megane-san (glasses guy), with the trope that he's plain-seeming with his glasses on, but is revealed to be super hot with his glasses off, but he doesn't realize it. Skyler will be one of the few people who know just how hot Young Duck is because he's known him forever. This will put Young Duck and Skyler on more equal footing. I prefer stories where there is balance between the people in a relationship, and this will give a boost to Young Duck without changing the social dynamics of the other characters in the story barring a few instances noted below. Now, Skyler already has plenty of reasons to like Young Duck romantically even without this, but this change will help the story later on in other ways, so it's definitely necessary.
2. Fix Young Duck's hair, please. Make it look more like real sunshine using similarly engaging patterns as with Skyler and the Councillor. This is just a general art fix that needs to happen to keep Young Duck's attractiveness believable and consistent with the other main characters.
3. Bomi (a girl from the story). Now, not only does Young Duck have a crush on Bomi in elementary school before she moves away (this is canon), but she secretly has a crush on him too (this is new). Everything plays out the same except: the gifts she gives to Skyler and Young Duck when she leaves now are addressed 'Skyler' (no change) and 'Young Duck' (changed). 'Young Duck' is the nickname kids back then used to make fun of Yeonduk in elementary school, and he absolutely hated this name. This change has Bomi using this nickname to tease him because kids this age don't know how to show affection properly and do stuff like this in their pitiful attempts to grab their crush's attention. It is both good foreshadowing and believable for the situation and ages. Now, when Bomi returns in season 2, the threat of Young Duck pursuing a relationship with her becomes a real possibility for Skyler, not just the kind of half-assed not-really-that-believable toss-in that it ended up being.
4. Jung-Goo (bully guy). First, give him a more attractive character design (this is new). Second, change his motivation for beating up Young Duck from "i don't like gays and I'm making a baseless assumption that you, Young Duck, are gay" to: (new->) Jung-Goo has seen Young Duck without glasses, finds himself attracted to Young Duck, is now pissed that he can't deal with the fact that he's having these feelings for Young Duck, and thus tries to take it out on Young Duck, cornering him and attempting to beat him up. The story as written, this character just assumes Young Duck is gay because Young Duck hangs around Skyler all the time making moon-eyes at him (it's actually sad-face eyes) while Skyler does not seem to show any particular affection for Young Duck outwardly. Jung-Goo just assumes this to mean Young Duck is 'gay' and therefore he, Jung-Goo, should beat him up (note: never once in the story does Young Duck say he's gay, and one can conclude, at most, that he's bisexual since he is obviously attracted to Bomi too, even in present day). As written, there is no internal conflict for Jung-Goo, Jung-Goo was never such a good friend of Skyler's to inspire the need to beat up Young Duck, so the motivation to do this assault is questionable at best, and the character goes nowhere once his attempt to beat up Young Duck fails. With the changes I propose, the character is much better written, now having actual believable motivation, making him more of a real character with the potential to return in season 2 (he doesn't), and providing even more potential for a spin-off arc or a spin-off series if it's done well enough. This change would strengthen the story 100-fold because this arc is kind of a turning point in season 1 but it just feels cliche and shoe-horned because of the questionable motivations of Jung-Goo.
5. Change the reason for Young Duck family's return to Gangwon at the end of season 1 - As written, it was because Young Duck decides he can't be around Skyler anymore after quitting him for good, so his family leaves (this is canon). Change this to: they leave because they can't afford to stay in expensive Seoul after Skyler's mom stops subsidizing them once she realizes Young Duck wasn't really spying for her anymore. I don't like the idea of people deciding they have to move away from a relationship that can't work out; it's too melodramatic and unrealistic for someone Young Duck's age, and it weakens Young Duck's character and all that he's endured in this new school for Skyler's sake. This change would fit the story better and would allow Young Duck to have the dignity of maintaining his supernatural endurance, where the situation would now be forced upon him (in a believable way) instead of him making a weak-sauce choice and his parents just going along with it for some reason (I'm not sure why a teenager is allowed to dictate where a family lives???).
6. Have Young Duck and Noel (new guy friend) actually be dating at the start of season 2 instead of it just looking like they're dating. Now Skyler is forced to compare his feelings for and behavior toward Young Duck against someone who has never treated Young Duck so poorly as he has. This will allow the introspection Skyler does anyway to unfold more organically. It'll also allow for a better conclusion to this arc because there will be actual stakes in the conflict (Young Duck might stay with Noel *gasp!*) instead of it just being the weak-sauce bait-n-switch that it was, which didn't allow either of the two leads to make any active decisions in the plot. (potential) This could also tie into a second Jung-Goo arc where after Noel is rejected by Young Duck, a Noel x Jung-Goo relationship could start being seeded for a spin-off.