LiLing Po Volume 1

Found at a Little Free Library in Yarmouth MA USA in October, 2024.

Title: LiLing Po
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2005
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Ako Yutenji
Artist: Ako Yutenji
Letterer: Yoohae Yang
Editor: Julie Taylor

LiLing Po is an infamous thief who is released from prison to help his government recover a set of stolen magical treasures.

This quickly turns into an episodic kind of thing where LiLing Po and the government agents working with him investigate people who have been influenced or changed by the wish-granting powers of the mysterious eight treasures. While this provides some nice structure, I found the characters hard to relate to and the dialogue dense. This could have benefited from slower pacing and a bit of breathing room to get to know everyone before plunging into a sort of monster-of-the-week mode.

Rating: 4/10

Soul To Seoul Volume 1

From the boxes of books I had in storage.

Title: Soul To Seoul
Issue: Volume 1
Date: 2005
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Kim Jea Eun (English adaptation by Ellen Choi)
Artist: Kim Jea Eun
Letterer: Eva Han
Editor: Julie Taylor

This was a mix of romance, family drama, and crime drama about Korean teens living in New York City. There was a lot going on here in terms of character interactions, and the first volume just scratches the surface of all of the potential drama.

At the center of it all are rapper Spike and wannabe-gangster Kai. Kai meets Sunil, a young woman recently arrived from Korea, and Kai is willing to give up his playboy ways to date her. Meanwhile Kai's cousin arrives to disrupt the dynamics of his already complex and tension-filled family life.

When Spike gets arrested, Kai takes his first step down a dark path for the sake of bailing his friend out of jail.

This felt a bit choppy as it jumped between different plot threads and conflicts. The writer clearly had a lot to introduce in the first volume and was determined to get everything in. Some of it, possibly the character JJ's backstory, might have better been saved for a future volume. Still, the story set up a lot of intriguing elements, and ended on a strong note.

Rating: 6/10