Orange Marmalade

I've been into webtoons lately, and I think this is my very first one to complete from start to finish. This is also one of my first romance comic involving vampires. I am typically not a big fan of the whole vampire thing, but this one was quite a pleasant surprise in how they utilize the vampire drama.

Let's start with the first category: story (8/10)
The story focuses on the ice princess, Mari Baek. She is a beautiful, lonely girl who transferred into a different high school. Because vampires aren't accepted into the human society, she isolated herself from her classmates in order to avoid heartbreak and betrayal. But her life changes when she runs into the school's hottie, Jaemin.

This entire story is really about Mari struggling with love, friendship, and most of all, self-love and acceptance. The author did a fantastic job in building up the tension between humans and vampires, which complicates Mari and her relationship with the male lead, her classmates, and her new friends. The plot does go a bit off tangent at times because of the drama and romance, but the story follows Mari's conflict with her own identity and desire to be with the ones she loves.

Art (10/10): There's no doubt that the art is amazing and gorgeous. It's like a colored manga panel each page. I can't get over it.

Characters (7/10) : Mari is a breath of fresh air when in comes to female protagonists in romance genres. She's not the typical whiny, over dramatic, naive, or timid protagonist. She is certainly not a pushover either, which really helped my sanity. Even though Mari is usually calm, stoic, and cold, she has hilarious moments so it makes her somewhat balanced and quite enjoyable. There are times I can see where some may find her actions frustrating, but that highlights her biggest flaws that dictates the plot: her cowardice and insecurity. She kept her mask for years to avoid rejection and betrayal, causing her to become stone cold and pushing away those who want to be with her. This character flaw becomes apparent throughout, and the author executed Mari's conflict well until the very end. She's one of the dynamic main protagonists I've seen yet.

The main male lead was good for the most part. Jaemin's behavior during the times he tried to court Mari was dislikable (you'll see). He's quite rude to females (except for Mari), very persistent, and somewhat cocky. But don't worry, he has a reason for his off putting personality, and that also helped his characterization. It's better to have a character with flaws than a perfect prince charming (well, in my opinion of course).

So if I found the main leads well-written, how come I rated the character category low? Let's start with my criticism in this section.
Although I appreciated Mari's realistic flaws and personality, I felt sometimes her character was inconsistent in some parts. I won't pinpoint the exact moments where I felt as if she changed a bit too drastically, but those moments didn't sit well with me.

Now I have a few complaints for the secondary characters. Just a few. First, I feel like we haven't gotten much closure for them, especially the male love rival, Si Hoo (a character I was really interested in). Si Hoo wasn't utilized as well as he could have, despite all the amazing moments he had and how much he did for Mari. Honestly, I found him way more interesting than any other character in the series. Yet, we don't get to see his ending, whether it was a happy ending or not.

Mari's friends Suri and Woomi had good roles, and there isn't anything wrong with them. They had some mistakes, drama, and own backstories (Suri specifically), which blended well with Mari's development. I just wished Suri wasn't written out in the final act (slight spoilers but not really).

Now, there are two female love rivals or I could even say the antagonists of the series that I shall not name cause of spoilers. One was written really well. She had a full character transformation from the most cliche love rival one could ever be to a better, developed character. I have a few problems with her, but I won't address them now. The biggest I problem I had was with the other female love rival. We don't get any closure from this one at all, even though she may as well be the final villain of the story. It's as almost as if she had been forgotten, which by the way she shouldn't be cause of what she did. Also, she did a full 360 in her character; I'm not sure if that was a good move or not. It's a hit or miss.


Overall and enjoyment (8/10). Overall, this was a good work. This series can get very emotional and touching at times, so prepare to tear up (i certainly did). The author didn't just deliver us romance. In the midst of this drama, there were messages of self-love, discrimination, forgiveness, and acceptance. It is a wholesome webtoon, and for those who are looking for a romance filled with drama and a touch of the supernatural, this is the story for you.

Lets get straight to the point here,
The story is a cliche', that anyone would enjoy.
Personally I like manga that give me feels, this manga Orange Marmalade.
It made me cry,laugh, and feel sorrow for characters that are fictional.
And trying to put their places, in real life.
Since a vampire and human romance, is a great classic that doesn't have many about.
I really liked it because the art was also outstanding, and it was in color.
I gave characters a 9, because even though the characters were nicely done.
They didn't have a chance to really explain the other characters, and only focused on the mains.
And 2 words to describe this manga is, "MORE" & "WOW"
This is one of my favorite manga, and personally i'm really picky about my character development and plot, etc.
But even though it was a cliche' story, with not that good of a development.
I enjoyed it, and I think you can too!

***This is a somewhat spoiler free review***

What do you get when you have a decent cast that do decent things but then get a rushed ending? Orange Marmalade.

Story: 5/10

I'll say that the whole vampire hiding in society thing was actually pretty well done. The basic premise of this Manhwa is that we follow the main protagonist as she fights her way through having a somewhat normal high school experience. Too bad she has some really hot guy all over her and has many friends that care for her. But noooooo she doesn't want any of that; well not at first. One thing I really liked about how the plot moved was that the main character did start to mature and open up to the rest of the cast. There was a very clear development of her character that had many milestones hit. Unfortunately what dragged it down was the other main character Jae-Min who in my honest opinion ruined the whole story. He is your typical single minded male lead that just loves to fuck everything up.

The worst offence however is the rushed ending. It was tied up so god damn fast that I was flabbergasted at the closer we received for some characters. You have a complete breakdown of one of the supporting casts...and she ends up with the man that was just using her for her blood...? Blaaa one of the worst endings I have ever seen and it unfortunately drags down the entire Manhwa.

Art: 7/10

Most Manhwa's are done with photoshop and lack really detailed colors. The Manhwa Tower of God was the same way for awhile but it soon developed its own sense of style that made it look unique. It would be a stretch to say that Orange Marmalade has its own style but some of the scenes do look pretty good. I did like most of the character models and background shots.

Characters: 6.3/10

This really made me grind my teeth because while most of the characters had their great moments, it was all ruined by the ending. Jae-Min just came off as a horrible horrible lead. Some of the supporting cast were pretty interesting but when they needed to stick up for Ma-Ri when she really needed it, most of them dropped the ball. To make things worse the ONE character that I felt actually cared about Ma-Ri throughout the entire story f$#ks up big time in the end.

A HUGE letdown.

Overall: 6.1/10

I won't go as far as reviewer Bradalee and say this is a complete waste of time due to the ending but I will say to prepare to lose all respect for the characters that you have grown attached to. The rushed ending leaves a lot to be desired but the moments before the climax were pretty enjoyable to watch.

Enjoyment: 5.2/10

Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page!

Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer

The funny (or interresting) thing about this manwa is that you can just replace the word "vampire" with "black", "asian", "caucasian", "gay", "muslim", "catholic", "jewish" or any other kind of minority in the place where you live and it still does makes sense. The author didn't intent that kind of thing but sadly it does work.

It's a boring read most of the time especially the first 30 chapters could be tuned down in ~3-5 chapters, because everything just repeats again and again. If this was cut down to a ~ 40-50 chapter manwa it would certainly be for the better.

The main characters are both nothing special but will never get annoying they both have their issues and unlike many other characters of this genre you understand why they do act the way they do.

The art really drops badly later on and you'll see a lot of chibbi drawings, sometimes even 50% of a chapter consinsts of chibbi. I am not against that per se but if it's so obvious that those drawings are only used to save time it's another thing.

So in the end it could've really been a good picture on society(even if not intended) but it did fail at many points, on the other hand as a serious romance it just fails horrible with repeating scenes and trophes all over again till the end.

Right so this is my first review on this site so go easy on me, Ok so Orange Marmalade where should I begin... This is one of those extremely rare instances where I found a Manga I enjoyed so much it got me emotional.

So heres why.

The reason this particular Manga was so great in my opinion is due to multiple factors first I would like to mention the story, the story in this is so unique its surprising what I mean by this is that Orange Marmalade focuses heavily on its world building which is weird for a romance Manga but wow does it pull it off brilliantly you can really tell that the author put real thought into this. From the world to the way the characters interact with the world they're in it all fits so well.

My second reason would be the characters and how they develop as the plot progresses they're what really drive this story (which is to be expected of a romance Manga) from their interactions with one another to how they act given certain circumstances they feel real and you really grow an attachment to them.

Another positive about Orange Marmalade is its amazing artwork this is one of those small percentage of Manga that takes real pictures and re animates them which I personally adore as it makes the scenery look so much nicer.

Overall I don't want to spoil to much I had an emotional roller coaster with this one and would recommend it to anybody who has a like for Romance or drama Manga (Or Anime doesn't matter) this is most defiantly my favorite Manga to date and I doubt I'll find another like it which is why I'm writing this review as I believe that it deserves some praise.

Hope you give this one a try you wont regret it.

Nothing about this is fun, meaningful, sweet, or tragic.

The main plot setting is that humans are irrationally, wildly racist against vampires to an extent that is unfathomably unrealistic. The "love interest" is a pushy stalker. The main character is a gutless, bland loser. Since the art is average, it leaves the work with no redeeming factors.

This could have been an interesting work despite the flawed premise if any of the characters were particularly fun or unique, but nobody offers anything. Instead it is nothing but a slow paced abomination. "OMG being vampire is suffering" is not an interesting story.

This is my first review and I'm only compelled to write this out of pure disgust for this manhwa. This won't be a very long write-up since I dropped this trash pretty early on but if you want to save yourself a read here's the TLDR: Stay away from the supposed "romance" manhwa unless you really enjoy abusive men.

This story starts out well enough; aloof girl, stuck-up guy - you know, the standard fare for a lot of romance stories in this medium, but after just a few chapters things take a turn for the infuriating. The male lead seems to have no comprehension of consent and disregards the female lead's very clear and concise refusal of his advances on multiple occasions, even going so far as to physically grab her and refuse to let her go even as she pleads with him to leave her alone; at one point she literally has to BITE him in order to get him off of her so she can flee! I want to be clear here - this was in no way one of those situations in manga/manhwa where a person says "no" in an ambiguous or coy way - this was pure abuse / harassment, and I don't know how anyone could read this without feeling immediately revolted.

In any case, this is the end of my rant. If you're anything like me you'll want to stay far away from this story.

ok,this is my first review here so yay congratulations for me :) and it's probably gonna be weird but whatever let's get back to the review i really like the plot put i wish things have gone different because it's really really boring when the girl ends up with the guy she is supposed to end up with right from the first chapter it was really easy to guess what was gonna happen next and my guessing was always right which made it really boring i wish that the manga was a little more unpredictable a lot actually and i totally hate the ending it's really awful maybe because i hate the hero of the manga i really wished i would have ended differently well i hope i helped.guess not :p

One of the best romance manhwa I've read. Plot progression is just right- there are occasional chapters that SEEM like fillers but end up contributing to the plot, and the pacing is great.

Character: Just about all the cast develop some way or another. No spoilers but by all the cast I mean ALL, even Basic Bitch #1 and Deliberately Antagonistic Antagonist change throughout the manhwa. Only reason I gave it a 9 is because from start to finish there's 2 characters who are added for seemingly no purpose but for one joke somewhere in the middle then kept on for the sake of it, never really getting fleshed out. Lets call them Supporting Friend #4 and #5.

I enjoyed this IMMENSELY. I came across this yesterday night and binged it till daybreak, it was so much fun. The drama never feels stifling or melodramatic, the romance doesn't get piled on so as to become sappy. Violence(when it does occur) is MEANINGFUL, and the whole manhwa is just well-done.

10/10 would recommend, 10/10 would read again a year later to reminsce.

This is my first time writing a review so..... yep

This manga is about a girl who is a vampire and attends school and trys to live a "normal" life. She has no friends and no boyfriend. It is know that there are vampires and they all called "monsters" because they have to drink blood to live. This manga was really good and i think everyone who enjoys romance mangas should read it. EVERY1 SHOULD READ THIS MANGA

This is not your typical high school, romance, drama, slice of life...this webtoon is all over the place.
It is fabulously intriguing hooking us in with an interesting look upon the vampiric condition.

It continues to keep us there with solid well rounded characters, that make us simply want to break down and hug them. These characters are so human, that it makes it almost possible to reach out and touch them.

The art is fabulous, and like many webtoons, is in full colour!

It brings out so many emotions, happy and sad, laughing and tears, heartbreak, and that warm fuzzy feeling that can only be brought out by the best webtoons.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy Orange Marmalade, not only because of the story, but also for its intriguing name!

Story:

Vampire romances are from rare, so what makes Orange Marmalade so good? The execution. In vampire shoujos, more often than not, the vampires are perceived as cool or alluring by the humans. Orange Marmalade, on the other hand, decides to take a realistic shot at the relationship between vampires and humans. When reality is suddenly invaded by the supernatural, you shouldn't be thinking along the lines of "Oh, he's so cool" or "Dude, I wanna be the friend of that vampire/werewolf/ghost." The characters of Orange Marmalade act just like how we would; we follow stereotypes and don't take action when others are ostracized due to the fear of also being ostracized.

Furthermore, the main source of conflict aren't the cheesy & angsty love triangles. Instead, it revolves around the relationship between vampires and humans, not boys and girls.

The manhwa has its fair share of heartwarming romantic moments. The romance starts somewhat early, so you won't just be left with 1 confession a chapter before the last chapter. You get your hugs, kisses, and what not.

Like all stories though, Orange Marmalade has its flaws.

I, for one, think the drama is a bit too excessive and sometimes over the top. There appears to be more drama and rage moments than happy ones. Most of the problems could be resolved through being rational and talking it out, but hey, if you wanna get technical, I guess the exaggerated drama contributes to the story's realism. Humans aren't exactly the most rational species.

Secondly, while the story ends on a happy note, you are left wanting more. The conflict itself was wrapped up quite nicely, but within that lies a problem. Now that the main female lead doesn't have to hide her identity anymore. You want to see her take advantage of that. Anyone would want a really cute moment or a final kiss after all that's happened. Also, the final line is one of those "I can't wait for the future" kind of lines, which I think is a bad way to end a story. This is one of those times, where you should definitely "show, not tell."

In short, Orange Marmalade is a vampire romance with a different and realistic take on the view of vampires which in turn, results in quite a big amount of drama. There are plenty of nice romantic scenes for romance lovers, but the ending could've been better in that regard.

Art:

It's pretty hard to find a manhwa these days that doesn't have good art. Luckily for us, Orange Marmalade is in the majority. The characters and the scenery are appealing. I have no complaints in the art department.

Characters:

The characters feel like actual people. None of them are perfect or crazy altruistic. They're mindset is just like ours. For example, in order to fit in, people are willing to whatever it takes even if it means joining the others in bullying someone. No one likes that kind of person, but you have to admit that it's a real thing. The characters take similar if not the same action as just described. They all do redeem themselves at one point or another. They took some time to reflect and realized what they did was wrong. If you don't end up forgiving them though, well your loss. You can't completely blame them for their actions considering reality took a dive into the supernatural, something which people would definitely be wary of. I'll go a little bit more in-depth, but only with the 2 main protagonists.

Our first character is Ma Ri Baek, the female protagonist as well as the vampire of the story. She's initially cold at first, but that's just because she's afraid of being hated. She'd rather have them think of her as an ice queen than get close to them, just for them to call her a monster when they find out. However, because of Jae-Min and other new found friends, she slowly starts to open up. At that point, you find out deep down, she's a sweet and caring girl. You just can't help, but feel bad for her when things take a turn for the worst.

The male protagonist of the story is Jae-Min, a human. He's a good-looking guy who in the beginning, had absolutely no interest in women. Right in the first few chapters, he develops feelings for Ma Ri Baek. He may come off as annoying sometimes, but he's certainly different than the male protagonists we have today. He's not a perfect prince nor is he a complete jerk. He simply has good qualities and bad qualities, which we all have. Also again, considering the circumstances of the story, certain actions aren't completely unjustifiable. In the end, he becomes someone mature and understanding.

Overall:

Orange Marmalade is a unique story that manages to perfectly utilize a mainstream topic, vampire romance. Rather than being a generic story about which vampire guy the girl will end up with, it explores the idea of how human societies treat vampires and vice versa. Of course, it also breaks it down to the relationship between a vampire girl and a human boy, which results in a nice romance.

While the ending could've certainly been better in the romance department, the story did have romantic moments, a good realistic environment, and a happy ending.

A near perfect comic to read. I'm not going to talk about why the manga is so good, instead I will talk about why it is not a perfect manga. In my time while reading this comic I started to focus on the character of the entire comic. There were a few characters that of had a bit more character development. The blonde girl at the end of the novel that still hates her for being a vampire, The teacher, and the love interest father. Though it is a pretty awesome manga recommended by me.

The truth is, I'm extremely conflicted on this one. In execution, this manhwa is so close to perfect, but where it counts, it misses the mark. Let me elaborate.

First of all, if you're looking for a cute romance, I highly recommend you look somewhere else. While their relationship is a huge part of the story, it's less the Ma Ri and Jae Min story, more the Ma Ri story. Less a love story, more a story about a teenage girl doing her best to cope in a highly discriminatory world.

And this is done extraordinarily well. In theory it sounds stupid, a world where vampires are an oppressed minority group, but it's done so genuinely that I would advise you to stay away from this if you've experienced bullying because of race, religion, or sexual orientation and it's scarred you. As someone who hasn't dealt with that sort of thing at all, reading this hurt, so I can't imagine what it must be like for someone who has been through this.

Because you move with Ma Ri. You feel her pain when one of the first friends she's made in a long time talks about how she wishes all vampires would just die, or when the boy who professes to be in love with her invites her to go with him to see a movie about vampire-slaying. And when people prove that she matters more to them than some dangerous stereotype taught to them by bigots, you learn to trust just as she does.

Ha Ri is a fantastic character, fleshed out in every important way, and that goes for this world, too. Often stories about discrimination are preachy or unrealistic, especially for fictional discrimination (see: Dragon Age), but this one is too real. We see every side of every character, and can see just as easily how people like this can be people we know. It's not black and white; we see unreasonable people on both sides, vampire and human, and the people who were just caught in the crossfire.

And maybe that's this story's downfall, too, setting the bar that high. Right until the final arc, it cultivates this incredibly realistic world, with flawed but likable characters and great relationships, and then it changes gears completely.

I'm not going to mince words. The climax arc is absolutely terrible. The ending is a cop-out, completely unearned, with sudden unrealistic drama leading to an neat unrealistic conclusion. The problem is, in a story like this, with obvious real-life allegories, the message is central, and the one it leaves us with is easy and unrealistic. You can't make a world this real and then base your message on obvious fiction. It sucks to see this becomes just another one of those bad, preachy discrimination stories with shoehorned morals.

Because of the easy ending, characters who were well-developed and real (my own opinion of them notwithstanding) like Jae Min and Ma Ri herself weren't allowed organic growth. Real dilemmas and real experiences with difficult and multifaceted answers were lost to spontaneous drama with easy solutions. That kind of potential is rare, and seeing it thrown away really hurts.

So that's why I'm conflicted; in a way, this manhwa deserves much higher than seven, and in another way, it deserves much less. To its credit, though, these characters are amazing and you should still read it; Soo Ri, one of Ma Ri's friends, is a real Ensemble Darkhorse, and I would honestly read this series just for her. Just - don't get your hopes up too high, and even while it's good, prepare yourself for pain.

tl;dr Orange Marmalade is brilliantly executed - with a hauntingly realistic world and realistic characters - right until the climax, where it throws away a lot of its potential in favor of an unearned neat ending and a shoehorned, overdone moral. Also, don't read this if you've been bullied about your race, sexual orientation, or religion to the point where it's triggering, because it really, really hurts.

(Also, if you want me to elaborate or want to discuss this with me, since I skimmed around some stuff in the interest of avoiding spoilers, feel free to.)

I really enjoyed this work especially in its somewhat nuanced portrayal of vampires and their interaction with human society. The art felt plain but enhanced by the style in key moments. For the most part the characters felt realistic and their growth seemed natural except for one problem which I blame on the story structure and not the writing of the characters.

My biggest problem with this story is the sheer irrationality that is displayed in the context of the humans hatred of vampires. It doesn't feel in any way justifies especially when we learn later in the story that no vampire has killed a human in the several hundred years since the war. This story works well as a vampire romance story but its other focuses in regards to hatred of vampires fall short. Below will contain some spoilers to show some of my grievances with the story.

SPOILERS
The key conflicts in the final act are caused by an exterior action in which a vampire kills a human. However this is again solved in an exterior manner when it is revealed that it was in fact a human that committed the murder. In my opinion this murder should have occurred at the start of the story to give humans a legitimate reason to hate vampires as their hatred seems irrational and I cannot empathise with many of the characters until they see the irrationality of their hatred. However, this change doesn't feel like major character growth but merely starting to actually think rationally. I think another improvement would have been to have the investigation into the murder an constant throughout the story with the possibility raised that it could be a human that committed the murder. This then would have allowed some more interesting interactions in the context of hatred towards vampires within the school.
END OF SPOILERS

For what it's worth Orange Marmalade is a refreshingly original take on vampires and vampire romance with some mild problems in the story but an enjoyable read nonetheless and definitely something I recommend.

On the surface this seems like your typical high school vampire romance—and make no mistake, it is true to its shoujo nature, but the execution of the plot is utterly flawless. Orange Marmalade plays out like a simple but effective allegory, dealing with the unfair treatment and oppression of vampires, who have now turned to pig blood rather than human blood to try to acclimate and adjust to modern human society. Despite their efforts and a three-hundred year peace treaty, vampires have been forced to hide their true nature lest they face discrimination and harassment by their human neighbors.

What is so exceptional about this series is the characters and how much development they receive. In the beginning, Ma-Ri is jaded and cynical. She is accustomed to her family's constant moving as a result of their nature being discovered, so moving schools is nothing new to her—and having friends is almost a foreign notion given her past experiences. Yet throughout the series she not only makes friends, but comes to trust and rely upon them as well. Soon, rather than doubting the humans and wondering if they can ever live peacefully together, she starts to desperately believe and want that to be the case—contrary to her initial apathetic and apprehensive nature.

Jae-Min and the supporting cast receive their own measure of fleshed out back stories and development through the course of the series. Even the antagonists are given a dose of humanism, wavering from completely incapable of inducing sympathy to relatable characters with legitimate motives for their actions.

Their realism comes through the fact that they all make mistakes and poor decisions that result in severe repercussions. It is their own actions that produce their suffering—and it gives the impression that everyone has some measure of control over their own misery.

The plot itself does a good job of keeping some suspense, introducing new supporting characters, new obstacles, and culminating to an exciting final climax that is satisfactorily resolved by the end. It's simplistic in its premise and the introduction of it, but the way the story moves through each arc is at just the right pacing to let everything sink in before introducing something novel to reel you back in.

The color palette for the art, the shading, the expressions, everything is rich with the appropriate emotion and tone for the characters and the story. Each panel is clean and clear, a unique experience especially for most people reading shoujo as its in webtoon format and flows perfectly.

Despite being conventional with many of its elements, Orange Marmalade manages to pull everything together in a way that most of its peers are unable to. In every category possible it exceeds expectations, and while it may not be a masterpiece, it comes awfully close.

I agree. I agree with both the reviews that give it a 2 and the reviews that give it a 9, as I hated the manhwa as much as I loved it. Therefore, I have never ever had such time reviewing a manga/manhwa/manhua, and I would suggest that you stop reading the reviews even my one and just read it because it's worth it.
If you are curious though bare with me while I explain what is so good and bad with this manhwa.

The best thing about the manga are the characters combined with good storytelling. It is rare to have such 3D in depth characters, and this is the reason you stop perceiving them just as characters, but begin to really invest in their fates. This is also the reason why the drama works, and when I say drama I mean real drama. The drama you feel deep inside your heart as if it was you that was in the story and not the MC. The pain, the happiness, all of it all real.

Now for the bad side... How should I put it? It left too much unanswered, but in a bad way. It got us to invest too much in a side character, just so that the story could throw him out later. Some issues remained unsolved, and all the build up just lead to nothing. On the bright side; however, this does not include the characters. All of their actions were consistent and even when they left you wondering why the hell they did something, you could easily understand their viewpoint.

Just a side note, when I say that you should read it for the characters, I am not saying they are likable. Actually most of them are quiet the opposite, and that is what makes them interesting. They are human beings (or vampires) that have emotions, desires, flaws, and their quirks (or are outright crazy - don't say I didn't warn you).

Anyways, please read it. It is something else and this is hard to find these days :).

I can really only say one thing about this manhwa and that is; "wow".
It's not that the idea behind the plot is particularly original or anything, in fact I tend to avoid vamp-human-love-stories ever since the Twilight-fever, but somehow this story just swept me of my feet. Two chapters into Orange Marmalade and I was completely sold.
The characters are really believable, the female lead, Baek Mari struggling with loneliness and her distrust for humans after being shunned by them, and Jae min, the former Misogynist with an unexpectedly dark past and a Mother complex, trying to win her over. The whole thing is just so expertly put together; the conflict between vampires and Humans, the more personal struggles and the occasional goofy moments (that had me laughing all over the place).
Oh and then there's the art! It’s absolutely gorgeous! The art alone had me falling in love with Orange Marmalade all over again.
All that said, it's a romance, and a slow paced one at that. So if you don't enjoy really emotional mushy love stories you might want to find something else to read, but if you like this kind of thing, even just a little bit, I can honestly recommend Orange Marmalade with all my heart!

Picking manga at random is interesting as you can stumble upon some very interesting reading material. Reading through the short summary I did not think this was going to be any good as reading a romance manga involving vampires seemed like a chore but after reading a few chapters I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at just how good of a read this was.

In contemporary Korean society vampires are living among normal people having found pig’s blood is a adequate replacement for human blood, but the people are still harbouring hatred towards them, so they have to hide their identity. We are introduced to Ma Ri Baek a cute high school girl who has just moved to a new environment with her family, after the people in the town where they lived before, found out they were vampires and had to run away. Because of her painful memories of rejection she is afraid to make friends and so she quietly sits by herself trying not throw any attention onto herself. One day while being hungry on her way back from school she completely zones-out and starts sucking on the neck of a boy from her school.

The premise itself is nothing special in itself, but the way the story unravels is just great. The way she wants to avoid him at first, to her slowly acquiring feelings for him but not willing to open up for the sake of not getting hurt, it is all put into writing perfectly. It is not all about love we can also see her slowly getting friendlier with her surroundings and slowly breaking down the wall she has built around herself. The execution is the thing that makes this manga stand out from the crowd as it manages to create this unbelievably calming atmosphere that was able to transfer me to this “happy place” while reading it and that in itself is something few other manga have accomplished. The story itself includes all the characteristics associated with the shoujo genre but the storytelling is done so well it rarely bothered me.

The characters are all great a bit stereotypical and are still believable if not overly realistic, but that is expected from a manga like this. Our main character is really withdrawn because of the rejection she faced after some of her friends found out she is a vampire. She keeps to herself longing for time to pass so she could leave this school and the people in it. After she is made to join the music club she slowly starts opening up and start making friends. What is a shoujo manga without a male protagonist, in our case that is Jung Jae Min, the boy whose neck Ma Ri sucks on. He has some serious issues with women and tries to avoid contact with them, but after the incident he completely falls for Ma Ri, but she, afraid of him finding out her secret, rejects him, but for us to have a story, he is very persistent and does not try to quit his endeavours of conquering her heart. We also have two female friends Ma Ri manages to make in the music club, another boy who falls for Ma Ri and a few less important classmates, but all of them manage to fit into the story seamlessly an each of them brings something unique to the table.

The art is the thing that drew me in and I have to say that it is exceptional and manages to stand out even among the Korean webtoon crowd. The characters look amazing, the background are detailed, the colours pop and all of this just pulls you in and doesn’t let you go. The presentation is beautiful as well, if not as breathtaking as Annarasumanara, and makes Orange Marmalade an easy read.

All in all Orange Marmalade is very good piece of work, that has decent characters, exquisite storytelling and beautiful art, it also manages to avoid many of the pitfalls of the genre. It still is has its fair share of problems and so it deserves the score of a high eight. I would recommend this manga to anyone interested in a bit of romance and to all of those who can just admire the art.
This is actually my first manga review (more of them are coming soon) and so would appreciate some feedback so that later reviews can be improved.