https://blacknerdproblems.com/your-letter-comic-review/

Words and Art:  Hyeon A Cho

Publisher: Yen Press (Ize Press)

Translation: WEBTOON

Lettering: Abigail Blackman

Design: Ize Press/Wendy Chan

Editor: Abigail Blackman/Ize Press Editorial (Won Young Seon, Ju Youn Lee)

When I first read the synopsis for Your Letter in a license announcement, I was hopeful–hoping that it was the very same WEBTOON comic that I had read eons ago.  Finding my way to the Yen Press website–I was elated to…find that it was the very webcomic that I was never able to get out of my brain. This manwha has a special place in my heart as one of my favorite early pandemic rereads and generally a shorter series to recommend and pour back over time and time again. I loved the hopeful message of Your Letter and the way the young main character discovered ways to bond and try their very best in their quest to heal and be the best versions of themselves. 

The artist and creator Hyeon-A Cho is currently working in Seoul and made her debut in 2014 with a short story series titled Water tank on Naver Webtoon’s Rookies’s short stories. The following year, she posted another short story, Lunar New Year’s Eve, on the same platform. She received the 2019 Today’s Our Comics Award and the China Jinlong Award for Foreign Comics for the work I’m reviewing today. Currently, Your Letter is in production as a theatrical animation and plans for this English translated version have been underway. While drawing advertisements and cover illustrations for young adult novels, she is preparing for her next work, titled, Santa Scout.

“It was a completely normal day”

When middle schooler Sori Lee stood up for a friend of hers against their entire class, she never expected to become their newest target—but that’s exactly what happened. Later when said friend transfers schools, Sori decides to do so as well. She desires for a fresh start, new friends, and happier memories, yet she is haunted by the bullying and harassment at her old school due to her sense of justice. Luckily, for her, it seems she has a sort of guardian angel who is looking out for her at this new school! Sori finds a mysterious letter taped to the bottom of her desk inviting her on a scavenger hunt! 

Standing solidly in the slice of life genre, Your Letter masterfully fleshes out the heartbreaks and happiness of friendships, school social hierarchies and young people discovering just what type of mettle that they are made of. Sori starts to follow the trail of clues to try and uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor. As she does so, she ends up befriending Dongsoon Park, a quiet and broody schoolmate who seems to be intimately connected to the one who left her the letters. 

With Dongsoon at her side helping her collect the rest of the letters, she is able to not only explore this new school but meet new people easier and find new curious and fantastical sights around her. The previously sullen and emotionally beaten girl starts opening up more and more with each new letter she finds as she is reminded why kindness is perhaps the best weapon against a heartless world.

“I hope things work out at the new place”

Hyeon-A Cho really knows how to visually tell a story with much attention to composition, coloring, and such mastery of split panels and pages. One of my favorite pages early on in the book was seeing a spread of two pages with Sori. At the top of the first page the girl is walking to her new desk at her new school, head down looking stressed and uneasy. The very top of the next page shows Sori in a different school uniform with her head up, walking defiantly with her hands in fists. This is a scene from her last school and the bottom half of that spreads of pages shows what the Sori at the last school was walking towards: her desk covered in hurtful words and phrases by her fellow classmates. 

The author drapes these pages in darker colors with the classmates of the past faceless, with darker coloring and white jeers for smiles. The pages, as a whole, artfully communicate the readers the emotional battlefield Sori feels that she is walking back into at her new school. The trauma that is following her and threatening to negatively color her new start at this new school; that is until she finds the first letter from a kind student. 

Another subtle moment in the panels that stood out for me was Sori’s first meeting face to face with Dongsoon in the rabbit hutch. After the troubled boy aids her in recapturing the lost rabbits, he questions her on how she knew so much about the individual rabbits, especially as a new student. She should be unfamiliar with the school grounds and such quiet places like this. She answers his questions with a question of her own, making the surly boy look unhappy. The author includes a page of panels of closeups of their faces towards the end of the questioning where readers can start to see Dongsoon as a cagey boy with something, like a darker past to hide. 

“Those words were exactly……what I needed to hear at this moment.”

Your Letter is made up of ten chapters, aptly numbered as Letters–Letter one through nine. Through the hunt of each letter, Sori then joined by Dongsoon grow closer, uncover new revelations and find themselves hurtling to uncomfortable truths about each of the past school lives before they met each other. The author brings together this heartwarming and also heart wrenching narrative about the depths of friendships and what makes them worth pursuing and remembering. The author also manages to thread into the tale the value of integrity and doing by others as the key to being the type of person you’d be proud of. Through uncertainty, unstable emotions, and the fear of standing out of those to do harm to others, Sori is reminded of the right path through letters, not just the ones she’s been hunting for with Dongsoon.

What also should not be overlooked in Your Letter is the narrative theme of having hope and being hopeful in the despite unfortunate circumstances. Both schoolmates go from feeling abandoned to bonding anew and having their morals tested. Promising to stay true to themselves, they agree to make a sacrifice, perhaps the biggest one. Yet that doesn’t end the hunt for the letters and Sori and Dongsoon come to a realization that changes everything that they know about the letters and the not so mysterious writer of the letters towards the end of the book. This manhwa brings together a beautiful story about the magic of friendship that connects people through years and places–near and far.

While reading through Your Letter, I am reminded of all the little miraculous moments made with those I called friends during my adolescence. I think of the times that I battled for them and found myself at the receiving end of their love and care, too. There is a profound wrap up in the last chapter that connects all three students together that is not to be missed. These middle schoolers choosing each other and kindness–makes for an enthralling journey of healing that I originally found perfect to reread during the darker days of the pandemic–and now.

If you are looking for more teen appropriate series for those looking to get introduced to manwha or just find more of it, my heart recommends Your Letter in a heartbeat.  As much as the narrative emphasizes healing, it is also an endearing comic about connecting with others, forging true friendships, and focusing on becoming someone you’re proud of.  Your Letter will surprise readers with a story steeped in reminders that we are all connected in some way–and the lengths we go for others is the true testament of friendship.

As one of my favorite pandemic rereads, Your Letter is an incredibly hopeful reading recommendation from the realm of manwha, finally in print. I am very impressed with the adaptation and level of care paid to this English print edition of the manwha. The artwork in Your Letter moves from dark and striking to fantasy like and dreamy at the drop of a hat. Readers will get a hint of this as they can open the front cover to find a mini poster that opens up in full color, front and back of Sori, Dongsoon and a mysterious student eventually finding their way to each other. Readers will find a fun surprise at the end of the book as well that not only serves as a fun detail but also cements the ways friends find each other again and again. Not to be missed, Hyeon-A Cho’s Your Letter cements itself as a short but sweet comic beloved by online readers finally in print.

Your Letter is published through Yen Press’ Ize Press imprint and can be found where comics and manga are sold. Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to have a review copy!

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The post Review: ‘Your Letter’ is an Incredibly Hopeful Comic from the Realm of Manwha appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.