Manga Review | Que Sera, Sera

Before we begin hit Play on the video above, then, and only then should you begin reading.

[sing] Whatever will be will be… [sing] Yup, had to do it…

I’ve recently taken an exponential amount of interest in manhwa, Korean styled manga comics, and you’ll find some reviews of them here on the site. That being said, all of the manhwa that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing to date have all been of the ecchi variety. In fact due to that I assumed that all manhwa were just the ecchi lewd cousins to Japanese manga, but that turned out to be an inaccurate assumption. During my never ending search for more tantalizing manhwa I stumbled upon something even more interesting. A romantic manhwa. Readers that have been following our site for some time should know that I’m not only a fan of ecchi, but also romance. I’d even go so far as to say that my interest in romance is far greater than my lust for the lewd goodnesses that exist in this world. So when I found Que Sera, Sera I was first stunned, stunned to learn that manhwa came in romantic flavors, and also stunned by its art.

This manga’s art is not the same shiny ✨ lewd goodness that’s found in most other manhwa. No, its different. The character art is sweet, subtle, elegant even. It’s the type of art one would associate with the likes of manga like princess tutu. The type that would be considered feminine friendly, as more of the focus is on features that are considered to be more attractive to females, like slender less curvaceous bodies, and attractive faces.

Oh, and I’m gonna state it right here and now… There is no fanservice in this manga, or at least not the sense that most readers consider fanservice.

Fanservice in this manga comes in the form of those “awww” moments. The sweet adorable situations whereby the guy holds the girl in his arms, and confesses his feelings to her while she blushes without the ability to speak, then pushes him away, because she knows their relationship shouldn’t be, because she’s afraid of what others may think, afraid to express her feelings for him…..

Mandatory pause for squeals and gushing…

In Que Sera, Sera we are introduced to a character called Hani who works as a translator for a yaoi manga publisher, and her boss happens to be her best friend’s husband. This friend is a woman that she’s grown up with like a sister due to an unfortunate situation that will be revealed periodically during the story. Hani lives a pretty simple life, and is contented with being able to afford all of her monthly expenses without ever going into debt. At the beginning of the story she isn’t shown to have much aspirations other than paying her bills, and spoiling herself once a month. As the plot thickens we are introduced to this best friend’s younger brother Joon, an insanely attractive student who only cares about working to pay back his sister for school fees, and studying so that he can get a good job to achieve that goal. Joon is initially shown to have no interest in anyone, and ridiculously frugal with his money, even going to far as to sleep in a sleeping bag in a club room so that he doesn’t have to waste money on rent. Now I think it’s quite clear where this story is going, so I won’t beat around the bushes with you. Hani and Joon are the main focus of the story, and it progresses at an almost immediate pace. So quick in fact that If you were to skip a chapter you’d miss a lot. Que Sera, Sera isn’t the kind of story that tip toes around the overall plot, it gets to the point in an interesting yet dramatic way. The only hindrance to its rapid progress being it’s short yet sweet chapters.

The manhwa also managed to propel itself to prominence in my eyes, because of its well developed multidimensional characters. You won’t find any good or bad characters in this story. No one is simply an archetypal character. Everyone sits in that arguably grey area that real people inhabit. They are characters that have feelings, emotions, desires… These are characters that you can believe would exist, because of how well the mangaka has developed them, and it just gets better with each chapter.

I have an unnerving urge to go into more details about the plot here, but I feel that will be a disservice to those of you that appreciate following a story, and experiencing it as it naturally progresses. All I am willing to say is that it’s an engrossing story with highly likable characters, especially the two main characters, and one other character that is introduced later in the story.

Resist the urge Q, resist….

Anywho….

The manhwa is in full colour like most other manhwa, but as I mentioned before the art had less of a glossy sheen to it. Some may consider it bland, but I like to think of it as subtle. If you’re accustomed to reading manhwa then you should feel right at home with this one after the first chapter. This chapter also happens to be one of the most creative chapters in the entire manhwa, due to it using the prospective from a video camera with a recording outline. The other chapters are of the standard manhwa style, having blank pages with fully coloured cells seemingly randomly arranged on the page. Chapter 0, otherwise known as the prologue does a lot to introduce the two main characters, and the art of the manga in a nice way that I think will both surprise, and appeal to a majority of readers.

Final Verdict

Fans of drama, and romance are going to adore this story more so than anyone else. The relationships between all the characters are believable, and complex enough to convey a realistic sense of what both male and female adults deal with everyday. It’s not your typical type of romance, and I loved that aspect of it the most. If you have some time to kill, and fancy some romantic entanglement then you can’t go wrong with picking up this manhwa.

Que Sera, Sera is written and illustrated by Gonalisa, & Sujeong, and is currently not being published outside of Korea, but we hope by writing this review that Lezhin Comics will bring this gem westward.