Type: Manhwa
Volumes: 12
Chapters: 48
Status: Finished
Published: Not available
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Drama, shoujo, school life
Authors: Hwang, Mi Ri (Story & Art)
Serialization: None
Ugh, Idol Shopping... i dont really know where to begin with this. This series seemed really interessting in the beggining because you were wondering, what happened, that everybody hates song's brother aul. But then when the mistery was solved it went downhill. In another half of the manhwa, the plot twist are just ridiculous as well as how they were solving the problems in the situation and you didn't really care like in the first half of the series. In the second half of the series the main focus is only romance. Also the story felt like mixed up different stories into one manhwa.
Shopping Idol tells the story about protector of the weak and the enforcer of justice, Song Ih Kang a.k.a "Bully Take-Carer S". Her "peaceful" life gets shaken by her brother's suicide attempt. Wanting to know why his brother tried to take his own life, she asks him about it, but he refuses to tell her why. The only thing he cares about is not going back to that school. Song wants to find out why the school treated her brother so badly and comes up with a plan - to impersonate him at his all boys private school. Her parents, worried that he will get kicked out of his private school and lose his scholarship is he doesn't attend classes, encourage Song Ih's idea to pretend to be him while he recovers. Leaving her "job" as the" bully take-carer S", she goes to school for him to find out the truth and to beat up whoever did it. However, the school is filled with dark secrets...
The Characters:
They all add something to the story, though some of them I wish didn't. There are some bad characters, by this I don't mean evil, even though they are. I liked the secondary characters more than
the main ones. Keep in mind that this is all I could share without much spoilers.
But there are also nice/sweet though sometimes dumb-as-rock characters. Who can't figure out she's a girl. I'm sorry but I find it ridiculous that even after finding out she was a girl (it's not a spoiler because it's bound to happen in any manga) they don't notice when she's herself or her brother.
-Song Ih was a strong female at first. She beat up "bad guys" for money but still. Then she changed, but the roller coaster that she is she picked back up. She could have been better portrayed. her decisions were sloppy and sometimes it felt like the author came up with this stuff on a whim. She had this back and forth between guys that could give anyone whiplash.
-A Ul's character lacked emotions. He was either in one side or the other. I get it he was in pain, but come on. Without spoiling all I have to say is that being her twin, he would have acted better. It wasn't believable, but then again this is a manga.
-Ga Yun, the male lead in this story is a little on the boring side and he is perfect, not because he's so great but because he really is perfect. He gets the best grades and is top of his class, best fighter, loved by his parents and girls and is even the male lead here. See, "perfect". The second half of the manga is better than the first because his character's metaphorical mask comes off and he finally shows a backbone. his best friend is the most interesting though.
-Hoan Se Ryun was in my opinion the best though a little annoying. He fell in love with the wrong person and fought to keep her (wonder who he fell for?). Though even at the end I felt bad for him because I don't think he realized that he kissed a guy. How did he not figure that out? And what does it say about the rest of the characters if this one is the best?
The art was not very impressive. The fighting scenes were sloppy and were all over the place. They were weak and failed to leave a lasting impact. Ga Yun's character artwork was slip-shod. In one panel, he's wearing glasses but in the next panel of the same page, he isn't. There was also this one scene where they even made him blond. And mostly the characters looked same to me or may be it was me who is confusing a lot. In the end I should stop reading Manhwa? Overall, a very average job indeed.
Even after finishing the entire manga, I still couldn't figure out why it's called Idol Shopping. There's only one idol (as in show biz), but he never took her shopping.
All in all, Idol Shopping is a manga that has a pretty good story, but fails to deliver due to extraordinarily dumb characters, a predictable plot and mediocre artwork.
