Model is a 7 volume Manhwa of the romance and supernatural variety by Lee So Young.
Jae is a Korean art student who has been settling in Europe for four years. She’s struggling to pursue a dream career as a painter with a lack of creativity to get her going. One evening her room-mate brings back a drunk man to their flat and his mysterious handsomeness catches Jae’s eyes. She soon realises this man named Michael is clearly not human when she dreams of him biting into her neck to drink her blood. Michael discovers Jae is an artist and is surprised with how unafraid she is of him for his true vampire nature. Sensing her artistic potential, he permits her to paint a portrait of him – in exchange for her blood.
The Good
* Scenes where Michael intimidates Jae, Eva and Ken can unleash unintentional goosebumps. He has a way of showing his “love” to everyone.
* Michael is amusingly narcissistic but coolly calculating. His physical appearance reminds me a great deal of Nanjo Koji from Zetsuai. I like my demented guys with long, silver hair. But the more you get to know him, the more you understand how his character came to be.
* The weird, magical effect that Michael has when he tries to paint portraits.
* I wish I could have long, silky hair like everyone.
* Ken’s way of trying to make Jae remember their very first encounter.
* Jae’s “super deformed” faces. It seems she’s often the one who can do that in the entire Manhwa.
* How Jae dealt with the racist remark from Rachel Dubon. Being called an Oriental and counter attacking. I should’ve done that in school.
* The ending surprised me. Don’t expect a fluffy happily ever after though.
The Bad
* Vampires like to loom over you when you sleep. It’s marmite.
* Androgynous men might turn you off if you don’t like it, as will the drawing style and scenes of homo-eroticism. Everyone is tall and very skinny. The lips are darkened and emphasised. OTOH once you get used to the art style and focus on the story you’ll be fine.
* Ken is very messed up psychologically. I don’t blame him though. In fact everyone except Jae is messed up. We don’t get much background on Jae at all aside from her ethnicity, her general personality and how she wants to make it as an artist.
* Cultural stereotypes/cliches – “exotic Asian woman” being mentioned. Or feisty Asian woman falling for a composed and handsome European.
* The font used for Michael’s dialogue is painful to read.
Overall: Re-reading this after a long absence surprised me a lot. My reflection on specific aspects has clearly altered as I got “older” but I definitely still find this story a page-turner in terms of wanting to find out what happens next for the characters. Model is far from a sugary story. It’s dark and confusing, especially when you’re trying to work out who is who because they almost look alike. It also gets very depressing with the connecting backstory between Michael, Eva and Ken once the new visitors to Michael’s mansion arrive in later volumes.
Jae is the POV character that a lot of people may relate to because she is being lured in by the seductive darkness. All she wanted to do was get a muse in a Western country and paint a portrait of a vampire. She didn’t expect to be caught up in a web of mystery and romance. However don’t dismiss Model as a typical teen vampire/supernatural story or cheesy romance short fiction. It’s more mind-boggling than you think.
