조개소년

JOGAESONYEON

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

Du-Sik is in a bind. After making off with the takings from the gay bar where he worked, he seeks refuge in a small, coastal town. As his funds dwindle, he desperately needs a way to make ends meet. Still, a boy’s gotta eat! So he dives into a clam house to satisfy his cravings. But with no money to pay, he dashes off leaving Ju-Ha, the server, to foot the bill. Later on, when Du-Sik returns to pay his debt, he’s greeted by a sordid scene that offers a tantalizing glimpse of the solution to his money problems. For within Ju-Ha's beautiful shell lies a secret treasure waiting to be drawn out. And Du-Sik is just the man to do it.

(Source: Lezhin, edited)

CAST

Du-Sik Kang
Ju-Ha Jin
Ho-Seong Lee
Pil-Won Choi

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Julyfire
14/100
This Asinine BL is the Creative Product of Not One, But Two Sterile Minds.
CAUTION: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Originally, I was not planning on writing any sort of in-depth comment about this BL webtoon (but here I am, due to circumstances discussed later), as its ludicrous premise already speaks for itself. It's also the main selling point of the story, for all the BL fans out there who want to read something new, something that they haven't seen before. What could be more exciting and shocking than a protagonist who makes pearls whenever he ejaculates? Yes, you read that right. Don't ask me what the author was tripping on when they came up with this ridiculous idea, but I highly doubt that this is an original concept in itself. I'm sure plenty of people have imagined all sorts of weird things being produced from a human body's orifices throughout history.

For me, the first story that comes to mind is "Diamonds and Toads," a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, which was written back in the 17th century. It involved a kind-hearted girl who helped a fairy, and in return, whenever the girl spoke, either a jewel, a precious metal, or a beautiful flower will fall out of her mouth. Naturally, this gift was quickly used to the advantage of wicked people, who sought to have the girl produce as many valuable materials as possible, out of insatiable human greed. As such, the boon soon became a wretched curse, and the girl was forced to speak continuously even as her throat began to bleed from overuse. Her mean-spirited sister was jealous of the attention that the girl received from the villagers, so she sought out the fairy as well, but it backfired horribly. For the sister didn't have an ounce of goodness in her, she was cruel to the fairy, and as punishment, she was forced to produce poisonous vipers and slimy toads each time she opened her mouth. Both sisters fled to separate remote locations to escape the unwanted consequences of their unique abilities, the kind one ends up marrying a prince, while the odious one dies a pitiful death, all alone and unloved, even by her own mother.

Naturally, when I saw the description of "Pearl Boy," I immediately thought of this old French fairy tale, and how it made perfect sense for a BL. Perhaps the idea of pearl cum seems innovative at first glance, but I assure you, it's not. Simply because it's the first work to actually attempt it on a global platform doesn't mean it hasn't already been done in some other form or variation. So I see the premise, and I'm nodding and thinking to myself, "Ahhh. So there's going to be some sort of story about guys being in debt, and they're going to have lots of sex so that the main character will make a ton of pearls every time he orgasms. Then they'll sell them to pay off their financial dues, have more sex, rinse and repeat until they fall in love or something." Boy, I nailed the plotline before I even read the actual story. That is not a good sign. Then I see the creator's note at the end of Season 1, and I nearly spat out the water I was drinking in disbelief. I'm never one to look at the credits page, so I didn't realize it until now, but it took TWO people to come up with this underwhelming mediocrity. That is just mind-boggling. It doesn't even make sense. And so, it has forced my hand, and I've awakened my angry keyboard warrior mode to write this review.

According to the creator's note, the artist of this webtoon, Inking, came up with this bizarre pearl ejaculate idea eight years ago, all by themselves, and much to the chagrin of their friends. After graduating from art school, they were unable to pitch any of their original series successfully, until they dug out this precious sketch from their pile of old illustrations, and this helped their career finally take off, as they quickly located an author, Zoy, for this new work project. Lezhin Comics reached out to the duo, and the rest is history, resulting in this now-popular BL webtoon before you. But this begs the question, why did Inking even need an author for this in the first place? They came up with the idea originally, they can draw, so I have no clue why Zoy had to be recruited on board, quite honestly. Is this really a work that needs two people to execute? I think not. Perhaps I'm missing something here, but does BL need such a specialization of roles in its creation? Of course, I'm aware there are quite a few BLs out there with more than one person involved in its execution, but this is the first time I've read the creators telling the readers how the work itself was divided, as well as how it was conceptualized, though admittedly, not in great detail.

There might be more going on behind the scenes, but "Pearl Boy" just doesn't scream two people's input in it at all, now that we know Inking did most of the initial work, and who knows what or how much Zoy contributed after it became a series. Personally, I feel that Inking could have done this as a solo operation, because having a writer on board just for the sake of writing doesn't seem to have any discernable advantages here. There's nothing new in "Pearl Boy" in terms of storytelling or character development, nothing complex about the plot itself, and it's not a groundbreaking work by any means. Then you have the main drawing point of this series being conjured up by the artist themselves, which just leaves me scratching my head about why Zoy was even necessary at all for a substandard BL story. Let's be honest here, when most people see BL, plot is not the thing that comes in at first place on the list of priorities. In fact, it might not even be on the list at all.

When I think of writer & artist creator duos, I think of Ohba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi of "Death Note" fame, as well as Kim Carnby and Hwang Youngchan, who brought us "Bastard" and "Sweet Home". Each member of the duo greatly complements the other, helping these rich stories come to life in the best ways their individual talents cannot accomplish on their own. In fact, you can read "Bakuman" by Ohba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi to see how much mutual understanding and cooperation is needed between two people so that an artist can capture what a writer wants to depict in their minds through their illustrations. Some people are good at storytelling, but cannot draw it out for others to see, while some are good at drawing, but don't have the ability to come up with an engaging tale to captivate an audience. Then we have "Pearl Boy," something which seems to have been written on autopilot or by AI, because it's banal, dull, and utterly unoriginal, besides the already discussed not-so-original, although superficially unusual, concept of foreign object production from a human body.

I'll suspend my disbelief at the incongruous fantastical element at play here, seeing how it's such a major story thread, and accounting for how 90% of BLs have zero semblance of plot to begin with, but it's just straight up odd for the main character Jooha to have this unique ability without an explanation of any kind. Not a single character questions it, not even the afflicted person himself. Was he born with it? Did he swallow a magic oyster? Did he receive a blessing from the ocean god? It's the small details that matter. Even BL should have worldbuilding to some extent, so readers can get immersed into the story and understand what the characters are going through, especially if the work is going to have more than ten chapters. If it's less than ten chapters, it can be straight up porn for all I care, but past that point, I expect at least some facade of a plot, even just the bare bones minimum of one, like one person likes another person but... [insert conflict]. Otherwise, it's not going to hold my attention, even as I'm reading it.

For a crucial characteristic of a key character to be left unexplained and hand-waved away whenever it's convenient is not a good practice in storytelling. It takes no effort to come up with some exposition, and it can just be one line even, depending on what the backstory of the character is. Here, multiple people know about the pearl cumming speciality of Jooha, yet not a single one of them asks him about it, if it hurts, or tries to help him with his "condition". I can't tell if Jooha likes his gift or not, as he seems rather ambivalent about it most of the time. He hates having sex with random people in the scheduled orgies, but he can't say no, because of his enormous debts. Yet he gets to profit off them when he has made enough pearls to sell them off, allowing him to pay his debtors, which include his boss Pilwon, the owner of the restaurant he works at. It's not clear how much debt Jooha is in, and it's also a bit vague about how much the pearls he produces are valued at. On average, an average pearl's value ranges from $300-$1500. The value of a pearl can vary dramatically depending on many factors, such as its type, size, color, surface quality, etc., and a wild pearl will be worth much more than a cultured pearl.

While Jooha's lover Dooshik, the other main character, brought one of the pearls to an appraiser, it's doubtful that every pearl Jooha ejaculated is of the same quality and value. And would his pearls be considered wild pearls or cultured pearls? The pearls he makes are all white in color, when pearls actually come in many colors, with gold and pink pearls being the most rare and thus, the most precious. The larger the pearls, and the more lustrous they are, the more they cost on the market. All of Jooha's pearls roughly seem to be of the same size and they're all gleaming, glowing in the dark at night. This leads me to believe that his pearls sell for a good amount of money, even if it's not at the maximum possible a pearl can go for, which would be that of a South Sea pearl, the most luxurious of pearls. And let's just pointedly ignore the fact that Jooha's pearls are covered with the seminal fluids of possibly multiple men, and will wind up on some poor, unsuspecting, rich woman's neck later on. There's no strict guidelines or restrictions laid down about Jooha's ability within the story, so I'm led to believe that he has no production limit, meaning if he just had sex all day and all night long with Dooshik, he'll quickly be able to pay off both of their outstanding debts and they can go live happily ever after together in one week's time at best. Seriously, there was a plateful of pearls gleaming on their nightstand after just one night together, so what can't they accomplish if they just kept it up, instead of working for minimum wage at a seafood restaurant frequented by gangsters, thugs, and perverts? Ah, but then there wouldn't be enough story to tell, and that's not good for the Inking and Zoy duo, is it? We can't kill the cash cow when it's only just started to gain traction! Egads!

Again, we see that two minds are clearly not better than one in this case. Perhaps if Zoy actually did their job as a writer, we could see a more reasonable explanation of how and why the events of the story unfold as they subsequently do here. In fact, if either of the creative duo bothered to do something about the pearl ejaculate aspect of the plot beyond simply thinking it up and drawing many bland, unvaried smut scenes involving luminous balls coming out of a man's genitals, we would be getting somewhere. No, instead, we have some slapped on perfunctory "conflict" via Pilwon, the nasty man who keeps whoring out Jooha for no apparent reason besides that he's a big bad guy, when by simple math and applying the faulty logic of this world, Jooha and Dooshik should have nothing more to do with him, and made enough money to move to another country, if they so wanted. We don't even get much ways of a proper romance between the two male leads, and Jooha only likes Dooshik because his junk is the biggest that he's ever had, I guess. And there's no explanation as to why Dooshik likes Jooha, other than he likes the easy pearls (free money) and maybe Jooha's face. No depth whatsoever in any of these characters. When Pilwon tells Jooha that Dooshik is only using him for his own selfish needs, and Dooshik's abandoned him because he got what he wanted from him, there's no reason to believe otherwise, as the two men have barely even bonded properly. They haven't even gone out on a date together, and you expect me to believe they're madly in love with each other? Not much "love" in this BL. But then again, I think that's becoming the norm nowadays. Perhaps we should change the abbreviation to be "Boys' Lust" instead, as this is just another porn-without-plot type of story, and honestly should not even be 30 chapters long, let alone have more than one season. Shudders Barely anything of significance happens between the first five chapters to the last chapter of this arc, so you're not missing much. Again, what story is the writer being hired to write?

As for the art, it is decent. Inking did a good job with the coloring and linework, but the characters are drawn so unattractively, with big glossy lips, psychotically large open grins, and dead fish eyes. The best-looking character would be Jooha, while Dooshik is the worst of the main cast. The character designs are distinctive enough to tell only the main ones apart, everyone else is of no important consequence. There's only 4 characters you need to pay attention to, and I say that with some reserve, as there's barely anything to focus on here, storywise. Everyone might as well have been sexily drawn stick figures, and my enjoyment (or lack thereof, really) would have been about the same. The panels are laid out in a relatively easy-to-read manner, the smut scenes get repetitive after a while, as the angles barely change, and the backgrounds are better and more detailed than that of most standard webtoons. The art alone doesn't save the webtoon, because ONE of the creator duo didn't pick up the slack, and you know who it is.

It's been clear from the beginning that "Pearl Boy" has nothing going for it, besides that initial funky premise. Of course, BL fans will gobble up whatever slightly refreshing thing you throw at them, so there's that, I suppose. As for me, I expect some level of basic quality, no matter what the genre. Just because something has never traditionally fulfilled the standards of a niche category like BL, other than a select few works, doesn't mean it should be carried on this way. I believe that the most tired and beaten-down tropes can be revived, if it's put in the right hands. People who create content should strive to break new ground and shatter people's expectations in unexpected new ways. An interesting premise is not enough to carry a series that spans 10+ chapters, it's the execution from start to finish that is truly the most important. A single idea can give rise to a blossoming bud of a story, but whether this nascent flower lives or dies will depend on how you nuture it, and see if it can reach its full potential. "Pearl Boy" has already withered away within its first few chapters, and I'm doubtful that Season 2 will be any better, but we shall see, won't we?

Overall Breakdown:
Characters: 0/10
Story: 0/10
Art: 7/10
Lore/Worldbuilding: 0/10
Enjoyment: 0/10
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