Title: Snow Drop
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2004
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Choi Kyung-ah (English adaptation by Sarah Dyer)
Artist: Choi Kyung-ah
Letterer: James Dashiell
Editor: Julie Taylor, Bryce P. Coleman
Rich-kid high school drama with a lot of tragic backstory and a fair number of plot twists. So-Na dropped out of junior high school to run the Snow Drop plant nursery. The nursery is her safe space, where she can mourn the loss of her mother. But when her father pressures her to return to school and finish her diploma, she is stuck in the same classroom with her rich and obnoxious childhood friend, Ha-Da.
Enter pretty boy (and actual professional model) Hae-Gi, who was named after a character in a novel written by So-Na's mother. He and So-Na immediately hit it off in all of the completely wrong ways, and we're off and running. The introduction of Hae-Gi's crossdressing younger brother provides a nice injection of chaos toward the end of this volume.
This was a fast-paced romance fueled by a lot of teenage angst. It suffered from some of the usual issues of "these problems would not be problems of people would just talk to each other", but that is to be expected in this type of plot. So-Na seemed particularly inconsistent, and hopefully this will be smoothed out as the series moves on. Right now, she's likeable only in certain moments.
Rating: 5.5/10
