Comic Thoughts: REVEAL OUT! & Daybreak
After I read a book, I generally email my thoughts or notes to a friend. I'm now copying these first emails to this blog since it's easier to revisit.
While writing up my app for WEBTOON (which I didn't get to submit because the listing disappeared right as I got everything in order kek and kills myself or whatever) I also took a look through what they had. I'm already reading a number of romance series of theirs, though I initially didn't realize that this was the company that translated them. But I decided to also take a look at the indie comics, of which there are a handful being updated on the regular. You can actually read their comics for free until the series is completed, at which point everything but the first season is locked and purchasable in their website/app.
I took a look at the queer, westernized comics to see what was up. Two of these I like enough, and they are: REVEAL OUT! by Treasure, Hinahina Gray, and Caribou; and Daybreak by Moosopp. They're lesbian and gay respectively, though both of them also feature trans characters and other gay relationships. Ultimately where these two comics excel is their diverse cast of characters. In fact, Daybreak even goes so far as to not have a single important white character, which kind of made me go, "Huh! They got away with that??" when one of the characters commented that they were all "ethnic" at their little food sharing arc.
REVEAL OUT! is about an artist who is failing to make ends meet, and she ends up going back in time to her college days after basically hitting her lowest point. This series commits to the "shitty parents" much in a way that Rainbow! did, and there were a lot of similarities in tone. Not that I think these artists and writers are necessarily talking to each other, just that I think there's this specific balance that they strike where there are bad things regarding family and the like, but the overall tone is extremely positive and characters are always doing the right thing. Honestly, I would like to see some slightly deeper mess but I get why they don't do that as these comics are fundamentally about presenting LGBTQ+ people in a better light. It definitely feels less "real" to me than something like How Do We Relationship? but that may be a personal taste.
Some notes about REVEAL OUT!:
I was initially sus about the premise since "going back in time to another part of my life and making it better" can come off like giant copium, especially when part of that goal is to get together with someone you didn't manage to date the first time. In fact, that plot point is something that is an immediate "No" for me. At least in villainess/isekai/regression comics the point is usually that someone falls in love with them that they weren't trying to catch the attention of at all. But luckily, REVEAL OUT! did the smarter thing and pointed out that the relationship Eeden was hoping to have with Bell was more about her own insecurities than rather that they were actually fated for each other. In fact, the two relationships of Eeden/Rose and Bell/Hayley make so much more sense and more mutually supportive.
That said, though, while I really like Eeden/Rose, I kind of wish Rose falling for Eeden hadn't been a "love at first sight" thing. On the other hand, though, it was nice to see "Second FL" syndrome actually win here (signaled really early on too). Okay it's funny typing "second fl" because it's usually "second ml" [male lead] in what I typically read. Anyway I LOVE IT WHEN LATER LOVE INTERESTS ARE THE CORRECT CHOICE especially after character dev.
In a similar pattern to Rainbow!, there's an older woman who is ready to adopt the main lead from her abusive family. It seems we all instinctively know that not providing a safety net like that for a character and actually having to contend with like navigating homeless shelters and friend couch surfing and the like would be too dark for these stories, even if that is an unfortunate fate some teenagers/young adults have to make if they cut off their family before they're financially stable themselves.
I honestly think Eeden kind of improved too fast? Like she's the best version of herself most of the time, I feel, when I expected it to be a lot rockier. I get why they do it but it's less interesting to me... I think I already basically said this though.
This and Daybreak's casual acceptance of trans (masculine) characters and having them in happy, sweet relationships is very nice. (In terms of trans fem characters, Mage & Demon Queen, another indie comic by WEBTOON, has a side character. That comic is also pretty good and I have thoughts about it but idk that could be another email if I don't get lazy.)
It's good that every character has their own little things they're worried about/arcs and whatnot, but I have to say that Bell is the least interesting character to me by far. Honestly, I think it's the fact that she's white, which adds a weird layer of privilege to her problems that make it harder for me sympathize with. For instance, there's this section in the comic where she's trying to come up with a mural idea that will appeal to the judges because she wants really bad to prove that she's good enough for her posh parents, and the idea she comes up with is of different landmarks from around the world (like the Great Wall of China and stuff) to represent their immigrant communities in their city. Eeden rightfully points out that it would be better if she actually drew monuments from their respective ethnic enclaves, like the gate in front of China Town (or was it Korea Town, my memory bad I read this a week ago) and the like. And okay. Man, sorry, when I read Bell's initial pitch I was like WHITEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! because of course a white person would think of immigrants in terms of their historical origin countries rather than what they've actually built here. And the thing is...this comic did not represent this as part of Bell's whiteness at all. At least given the kind way that Eeden reacted and the like and reading the comments under the chapter (also a good feature of WEBTOON), this element went completely over everyone's heads so I can only assume it wasn't intended. But it was really funny to me, goddamn. But then I also thought about it longer and was like, well, I guess this is indeed a mistake that any privileged person out of touch with the immigrant communities could make (such as a well-off Asian student for instance). And if it had indeed been an Asian student or something making this mistake, I would be like "okay class privilege" but not "WHY ARE YOU WHITE!!!" so. Idk I think it's just funny how different story beats land differently depending on the context of the character. Not saying that this was a bad writing decision and it made sense and all that I just. sympathy for white character took a major hit!
They try for symbolism but it's kinda heavy handed. Eeden as in the Garden of Eden, the fact that when Eeden first doubting her feelings about Bell she's wearing a Rose printed jacket... etc... It's not Bad but it's a little Obvious and I would like to be slightly less obvious than this.
Art wise not really my thing as is with western comics in general but it does what it needs to do.
Some notes about Daybreak:
This one started out Pixiv-comic style. The strips are all extremely short in length and in the beginning really only cover a single episodic interaction. However, it manages to basically deliver almost straight romantic fluff, which is pretty rare for MLM type of stories. It feels more shoujo-inspired in its pacing than anything.
The art style seems to be drawing some inspiration from stuff like My Roomie Is a Dino, as the characters (particularly Cog) make that face a lot. The little comical art flourishes are very cute, actually. Big fan.
Both of the leads are Black and trans, though I don't know all the in and outs of their identities since I'm too lazy to look up the artist and look at all the bonus material they published about the characters. I mostly just gleaned stuff from reading the top comments that said stuff helpfully like "Cog uses he/they!" and "Cog is autistic!" and whatnot. This is the first comic I've seen where they alternate pronouns for a character (Cog), and the fact that Marcus is a trans man just goes completely normalized is also a big bonus. I think Marcus actually might be something besides just Black but look at me not doing the information gathering. #NotAnOtaku Like I don't really know what's up with his little brother looking different from him but do I really care? No I just roll with it. If I ever read this with someone though besides just scrolling through with my romance-infested brain I would like to actually look up the foods they mentioned with someone and learn a thing or two. Anyway I really think WEBTOON should've just let them publish the character bios and whatever else is hiding on their other accounts directly to the website for people like me.
This is also the first comic I've seen an aromantic/allosexual character be represented in and I was honestly surprised given all of the discourse we grew up with about how that's "bad" and just "repressed" and whatever. The fact that it was an East Asian male character also was extremely big brained since it sidesteps stuff of other (darker-skinned) races being more sexualized.
I'm waiting to see if they'll do an eventual WLW side couple. There's a potential for one but unclear.
They have an indigenous character (Alaskan Indigenous... Inuit maybe) but I don't really his personality lol. Also don't like the personality of the character he kind of beefs with but maybe that's just me. So many of the comments were asking to ship them together and also as a polycule with another character but like I wasn't into it. I couldn't stop thinking that if these characters had been women they would've gotten shit for being so downright rude. But maybe that's my cynicism speaking.
The way Cog eats is sooooo cute and funny. Also the fact that this comic is extremely weight positive is really good. This comic is basically like beaming sunlight directly into your face with how good-willed it is (at the expense of maybe more fleshed out stuff but oh well).
Though this comic represents Autism and ADHD (& hints at sign language at some parts), there's yet to be a character that is actually disabled in the mobility department. I feel like they probably won't but yeah.
In summary: Queer POC representation is winning, but as usual, disability tends to be the lagging factor. When disability exists it typically focuses on people who are mobile and not intellectually disabled. That's a common pattern across cishet media too, with stuff like A Sign of Affection having a deaf protagonist but nothing in the mobility/intellectual disability/multiple disabilities area. I really hope this changes over time and that people are eventually able to normalize facial/body differences and intellectual disabilities... Much to work on.