More than ever, more than ever, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers the opportunity to recommend some of their favourite books and series from Japan, Korea and elsewhere from other countries. This week we will host a competitive comic at the Webtoon 2025 contest, another leap into the Omegaverse, and another death.
Herald’s song
Author/Artist: Ronroncola, Hett, Bengel
Platform: Webtoon
The Webtoon 2025 contest officially began on March 10th. From action comics to fantasy, romance and comedy, there are a variety of stories told by up-and-coming artists, just like Webtoon creators. Today’s feature is by artists who previously highlighted the spotlight in this column: Cora or Ronroncora.
Her new comic, The Herald Song, is being created in collaboration with two other artists, Hett and Maju Wengel. Cora will be responsible for the storyboards and thumbnails, while Het and Bengel will take care of the ink and color. The final results feature the best exhibitions of each artist.
The series follows Marcel, a tired, overworked maintenance worker at We.Gates, a company that handles interdimensional portals from our reality to other realities. He tackles his loneliness until he is suddenly assigned to a new partner. This partner, Pallavine, is another real We.Gates worker, or a baby from Nepo (as Marcel likes to call them). Together, the two move to other reality to see if the conditions are suitable for organic living.
Cora, Het, and Bengel’s Art combine anime-style character designs with unique character silhouettes of beings and creatures from different dimensions. The line art is beautifully paired with colour. Bright cyan and white rim lights mean depth and dimensions. The panels and layouts are primarily intended for vertical scrolling formats, with a large panel that is most commonly displayed on mobile devices rather than PCs.
At the time of writing, the first episode of the series will be held at Webtoon Canvas for the 2025 contest. The remaining episodes will be released weekly until the submission period ends on May 15th. So far, it’s a refreshing series with unique visuals and hooks. In the meantime, I have my own contest submission to finalize before the end of this month. – Justinguerero
Megumi & Tsugumi
Author/Artist: Mitsuru SI
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Touch Up Art and Lettering: Deborah Fisher
Cover and Graphic Design: Alice Lewis
Editor: Jennifer LeBlanc
Publisher: Sotaka
In a world where a majority of people mistakenly assume that your biological gender determines your social status and self-worth, Megumi and Tsugumi are outliers. Tsugami is an omega who has decided to remain faithful to himself and will not be used by Skanbagu Alpha. Megumi, on the other hand, is given all the privileges that the Alpha can have: wealthy parents, elite schools, good grades. He is determined not to use Omega as if they were playful, as his father did to his birth mother. Then, misunderstandings and fateful brawls, as well as the irregular heat of the Thugs, brings together the two unexpectedly. Join our delinquent duo as you navigate your youth and hormones!
Most people are now familiar with the alpha/beta/omega terminology. However, in the context of Megumi and Thugmi, Omegaverse is another reality in which characters are assigned secondary to biological sex. This leads to heat, a stage in which pheromones act and affect alpha and omega. This alternative universe is diversified by all new works.
Megumi & Tsugumi gives the Omegaverse subgenre fun, energetic and respectful. While the characters stumble here and there and do suspicious things, they are a vibrant bunch and extremely adorable.
This series balances sweet and Smutty chapters. We learn about each character, their motivations, their families, and their respective dynamics starting from the first volume. The series is still underway in both Japan and the US, with five volumes in English. That’s why readers look forward to the trip!
One volume series is great, as readers don’t have to wait for them to find out what happens next. Let’s face it, those cliffhangers must be illegal in at least one country. These books are easy to take opportunities and invest. But as a boy’s love fan, I’m grateful that Sublime has licensed the long ongoing BL series. The opportunity to follow characters over a long period of time and experience life through the lens of their relationship is valuable.
Have you read Bad Boys, Happy Home, Simplified Perverted Romance, Will I make you cry, Iberico pork and love and camelia? Are you a teenager who manipulates a single brain cell like me? Looking for fun, sultry, uncensored BL manga? No need to search anymore. – I agree with giray
Hiraeth – The End of the Journey –
Author/Artist: Yuhki Kamatani
Translation: Leah Surgent
Lettering: Salud Campos Blasco
Edited by: Jessica Brooks
Publisher: Kodansha
Mika wants to meet her dead friend Mitsuha one last time. Hibino wants to die after immortality for centuries. The almost forgotten unnamed god is at the edge of the collapse. The three of them set out on a journey to Yomotsuhirasaka in Simane prefecture, where they step into Yomi, the land of the dead.
Perhaps a dozen cartoons about death and nonpersistence are due to the pandemic’s experience of at least one genocide and violence committed by fascist governments around the world over the past few years. Hiraeth – The End of the Journey – The ground already on Yokohama Kaida Shikikou and Frelen walking: the end of the Journey. However, neither of these series was portrayed by Yuhki Kamatani. Hiraeth is and it is worth reading.
Kamatani has some tips for creating visual metaphors that pop out of the page. From flowers and grapes that tie Mika’s bodies together to “the path of death” that puts each character’s life on the page, as a chain of panels towards their end mise, the book turns abstract topics into burning emotions within your gut. Kamatani is careful to highlight the characters at various stages of life, including suicide teenagers, terminal patients, and older people. No one is taken for granted as “default.”
It’s also fun to see how Kamatani reinvents Japanese mythology. The unknown god, changing between thinning hair and long hair shapes, reminds us of anonymity from our dreams of Kamatani’s masterpiece at dusk. Three armed black yatagalass appears, and a skeleton horse will also appear. I especially liked the trip to Yomi at the end.
Hiraeth may not be very new to say about death. But it has something to say about life and how much of the world feels like it lasts when it’s uncertain. The most influential scene in the final chapter, apart from the mystical things that support biological reality, is that each of us only has that much time. – Adam Wescott
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