Review of "Two Will Come, Vols. 1-2"

Review Type: Manga & Anime
ChunHyang72's Rating: 4 of 5

Two Will Come centers on Jina, a high school student whose life revolves around earning good grades, getting into college, finding a boyfriend, and staying out past her curfew. Jina’s life is irrevocably altered when she discovers that her family has harbored a secret for hundreds of years: Jina’s ancestors killed and consumed an enormous serpent that lived in the mountains near their home. Unbeknownst to them, the serpent was a sacred animal (or an Imugi); in its final moments, the snake placed a curse on the family, dooming one member of each generation to die at the hands of two close relatives. Though Jina has lived in ignorance of the curse for most of her life, she is forced to confront its gruesome implications after a shaman reveals that Jina will be her generation’s sacrificial lamb—unless, that is, her cousin Myunghyun and his clairvoyant friend Yunjin can protect her.

Not much actually happens in volume one. Author Kyungok Kang devotes her opening chapters to explaining the curse’s origin and introducing us to a large cast which includes Jina’s schoolmates and extended family, as well as a shaman with less-than-holy motives for helping Jina’s clan. The leisurely pace suits the story well, however, as Kang allows us to spend some time with her characters in everyday situations, strengthening our attachment to them. As events begin unfolding at a more rapid pace in volume two, we feel a palpable sense of dread whenever Jina interacts with her family: who poses the greatest danger to her? Is the shaman’s prediction accurate—as her estranged aunt Junghee insists—or is he a fraud? And is it possible for Jina to pacify the Imugi’s vengeful spirit, or is she doomed to die?

Readers familiar with In the Starlight may be surprised to see how much Kang’s style has evolved from the 1980s, when her character designs and layouts bore a strong resemblance to the pioneering work of the Magnificent 49ers. Though Kang’s art is now more refined, and more likely to appeal to American shojo fans, I miss her sparkly-eyed heroines and rock-god heroes. One technique that Kang still uses to good effect, however, is the two-page spread, with simple images superimposed on a black background. Kang uses this type of layout as Keiko Takemiya did, to emphasize her story’s darker themes and suggest her principle character’s sense of isolation and despair. It’s an economical, elegant gesture that yields some beautiful sequences in both volumes.

Kang may not be a household name among manga (or manhwa) lovers. But if NETCOMICS continues to license her work—which encompasses a variety of genres from sci-fi to romance—she may finally find a well-deserved following among readers eager for compelling stories about ordinary teens in extraordinary circumstances.

This review originally appeared in the Manga Recon blog at PopCultureShock.com.