돼지우리

DWAEJIURI

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
June 13, 2020
CHAPTERS
68

DESCRIPTION

A relaxing getaway in paradise, or a death trap? A young man wakes up on a breathtaking beach, but he has no idea who he is or how he got there. Try as he might to piece it all together, untangling this mind-bending mystery won’t be easy when every clue leads to more maddening questions... and the family that welcomes him into their home is not what they seem.

(Source: WEBTOONS)

Note: Includes the prologue.

CAST

Jin-Hyeok Song
Ro-Mi
Mi-Nu
Yu-Mi
Ajeossi
Ajumma
Tae-Hui Jin

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO DWAEJIURI

MANGA DramaHurejasik

MANGA DramaSweet Home

REVIEWS

Cocko

85/100

By the creator of 'Bastard' : Fascinating story with an unpredictable plot & amazing psychological elements

# **This review does not contain untagged spoilers.**

<img width='500' src='https://i.imgur.com/pgNuzRZ.jpg'>

Now, to be honest, choosing to make this review as spoiler-free as possible really limits my possibilities. However, I wanted to bring more attention to this great manhwa and motivate people to give it a try, so I hope I can convince you! 
Why is it so hard to talk about Pigpen without spoiling? The reason for that lies in the way the story is arranged.

The narrative structure of this webtoon is simply incredible. It starts off as a rather underwhelming horror story,  however as it feeds you small bits of information here and there it keeps you wondering about the grand schemes behind everything. As the story progresses, the truth only gets unveiled very slowly, bit by bit. Whenever you think you finally grasp what’s going on, yet another turn will make you fall from your chair and ruin all your theories. Alone, those little pieces won’t lead you to the bigger picture, they will deceive you, giving you a false sense of finally understanding what’s going - just so yet another surprising twist changes everything. You might get answers to some of your questions… though ultimately, you’ll be left completely shocked and even more confused than before. 
 There's always at least one piece missing in the puzzle, something that doesn’t make sense no matter how you turn it. As a result, you’re very involved in the story as you’re dying to finally find out what the truth is. 
In a way, it’s similar to the narrative design of Attack on Titan, where one also never holds all information and keeps wondering about the central mysteries. The crucial difference here is: In AoT it usually is clear questions “What’s outside the walls?” or “What are Titans?” etc. However, in Pigpen it’s not always something one can point fingers at, but rather something that just seems off, that you can’t figure out no matter how hard you try. 

The indistinguishability of reality and illusion is a very common motive in Pigpen.  The way this complex element was handled really showcases the author’s exceptional talent.

#### *Actual Spoiler!*
<span class='markdown_spoiler'><span>
Jin-Hyeok’s hallucinations which lead him to commit murder, the reality that it was all just in his mind, the perception of his victims and of the two families (and how they overlap in his mind, as he is trying to cope with his guilt) are some examples for this. This motive doesn’t just apply to the characters inside the webtoon, but also to the reader – even for us, or especially for us, it’s very hard to tell what actually did happen in the real world and what was “just” in Jin-Hyeok’s mind. While it might get confusing at times, I very much enjoyed this uncertainty as another part of the unknown, the open questions. 
</span></span>

Now, I can imagine that this type of experience might not be for everyone, but personally I love a story that can keep me wondering all throughout. Additionally, this makes it incredibly rewarding when eventually all those little pieces of information methodically come together to form the bigger picture, allowing one to discover enlightenment. Finally, everything makes sense - one will notice the insane foreshadowing and understand why everything happened the way it did. 
<br>
The extraordinary narrative isn’t the only thing Pigpen has going for it – in the later stages, as a result of the twists and developments of the story, this manhwa has a highly psychological focus. I can’t go into detail without spoiling, however this aspect is at least on par with, if not even better than the one I discussed in the first part of this review.
The perplexing mental struggles of Pigpen’s characters are portrayed in a superb manner. It feels like you are inside their mind, as if you are experiencing everything from their point of view. Memory loss and hallucinations are common occurrences that make the manhwa feel more realistic – the reader doesn’t know more than the characters themselves.

Pigpen also touches upon interesting topics such as identity crisis, guilt, revenge, and atonement which are mostly relevant in the final stages. These themes are well-executed, adequately handled, and lead to a satisfactory, thematically fitting conclusion that sends out a great message. 
While some questions are left open – and intentionally so, corresponding to the ending’s message – all the mysteries mentioned earlier are lifted, and finally, one can see the bigger picture in full clarity, making one appreciate this amazing work. 

What also deserves mentioning is the wonderful art of Pigpen. It really helps create a sinister, mysterious atmosphere and portrays psychological struggles magnificently. Facial expressions are drawn skillfully and often add an element of visual horror. The art also features visual metaphors and symbolism.
<img width='120' src='https://i.imgur.com/aSl5Jio.jpeg'> <img width='120' src='https://i.imgur.com/HDQte4c.jpeg'> <img width='120' src='https://i.imgur.com/jaDBhdC.jpeg'> <img width='120' src='https://i.postimg.cc/28yJVhf2/ezgif-com-gif-maker.gif'>
<br>
Overall, I highly recommend Pigpen if you enjoy Thriller/Horror stories featuring a psychological element . As you might guess from the summary: the reason why I started this webtoon in first place is because of the author, [Carnby Kim](https://anilist.co/staff/119718/Carnby-Kim), the creator of [“Bastard”](https://anilist.co/manga/86964/Bastard/). So, if you enjoyed that manhwa, it’d be your best bet to give this work a try. And having read both pieces, in my opinion, Pigpen blows Bastard out of the water. 

---

#### *Thanks to my man <a target='_blank' href='https://anilist.co/user/Jaekoi'>@Jaekoi</a> for proofreading and providing some tips, you were a great help <3*

## **This is my first review, so any feedback is appreciated!** <br>

I’m also more than happy to discuss this great manhwa, so feel free to leave me a message :)

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Aphroditv
100/100
Captivating narrative which thrills and perplexes the mind.
This will be a spoiler-free review, which is challenging considering the number of twists the thriller takes - I am not that familiar with the genre, but Carnby Kim knows how to build a story. Other works by Kim that I have read are Sweet Home and Bastard, both stories that I would also strongly recommend if you are looking for psychological horrors, or if you are new to manwha.

But this review is about PIGPEN, which follows an un-linear narrative through Jinhyeok, a man who washes up on the shore of an island with a bad case of amnesia. The island is uninhabited, with the exception of one terrifying family who do not leave the island - Jinhyeok finds himself trapped into their life, with no memory, no direction and so many questions. As he begins to regain his memories, the perplexing clues dropped along the way unravel a larger plot.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The art is well-suited to the story, I mean it is terrifying. The examples above show its eeriness, with muted colours, malicious facial expressions and the composition of each image. Any other examples that truly would evidence the story's thrill are either spoilers or would ruin the aesthetic of the review - so I will leave that to the imagination. A content warning to keep in mind when reading would be its violence, it's not for the squeamish!

The family in the story are compromised of five members: The parents and their three children, my favourite characters were the sisters. The younger sister Yumi is characterised as a psychotic brat who likes to experiment on bugs and taunts the main character with un-childlike language. The older sister is Romi, a young adult with a femme-fatale air about her. Their sisterly dynamic and interactions with Jinhyeok were the most thrilling to me.

Thematically, the common question is trying to distinguish what is reality and what is illusion. Along with constant pieces of the puzzle being dragged into the mode of making sense out of the story, some supernatural elements further perplex the mind. The story follows family values, morals, isolation and survival.

I would highly recommend this to anyone, despite its confusing plotline, it is quite a digestible story. Reading the mystery being unraveled through the perspective of an amnesiac is rewarding with the story constantly keeping you on edge and its final denouement.
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