Goong

You can see from the summary that Goong answers the “What If” question. What if Korea still had a monarchy and the prince heir to the throne attended a regular high school. Not the high school persons of his status attend filled with rich kids and kids that belong to important dignitaries but a regular high school filled with normal students. What If the prince had to choose a bride or be stuck with whoever his parents choose and what if who his parents choose think he's a total jerk and he thinks she's weird and irritating? What if they have to get married very, very soon because Korean monarch's marry young? A lot of shojo drama that's what but a lot of shojo humour too.

Our leading lady is Che-Kyung a headstrong girl who is very spirited and adorably cute a lot of the time. She is also the granddaughter of the deceased King's best friend and is betrothed to the prince heir because of a promise long ago the king and her grandfather made to each other.

Lee Shin is the prince heir and seems to be a bit of a jerk, meaning he's brash, not very compassionate and is at time rude to our leading lady. Lee Shin however is just as surprised as Che-Kyung to find that he is arranged to marry her and he didn't get much of a heads up when his parents told him he was going to get married.

And that's the main thing that bothered me. This arrangement had been thought up when both Shin and Che-Kyung were just little kids. The royal family knew who Che-Kyung was and had arranged for Lee Shin to attend the same school as her in hopes that they would meet but nothing more direct was ever done. I could think of a lot of better ways that this scenario could have been that would have saved a lot of shock and confusion but despite that little problem I did enjoy seeing a manga (or manwha) character actually interact with her family.

I enjoyed the relationship between Che-Kyung and her mom, it wasn't perfect but it was very realistic as well as her relationship with her brother. Lee Shin's cousin (the former prince heir)also returns home to Korea after being away almost his whole life and I like the brotherly dynamics that seem to be playing between the two of them but I can already see the seeds of love triangle being planted in this first volume.

The art is also very lovely especially the detailing in the royal ornamental outfits and the design of the palace. The mains boys I have to say are a bit too beautiful for my taste and could easily be female characters but I'll let that slide since their princes ;).

Its a good starts to the series, lots has happened and lots more will considering there will be 20+ volumes in this series and I am looking forward to more shojo cuteness that I can vicariously live through.