징크스

JINX

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

Physical therapist Kim Dan has been down on his luck for as long as he can remember. Between an ailing grandmother, menacing loansharks, and an old boss making it almost impossible for him to find work, Dan is truly running out of options. Naturally, it feels like a dream come true when he’s finally hired to treat top-paid MMA fighter Joo Jae-kyung, especially when the man then calls him out for a treatment the night before a match with an oh-so-tantalizing offer of five thousand dollars. He claims to have a “jinx” in need of a particular type of “treatment," but it's one that Dan isn't quite prepared to offer… You see, Jae-kyung may be a beast in the ring, but he’s even rougher in the bedroom, and Dan’s not sure he can survive Jae-kyung at his most primal. Nevertheless, the promise of much-needed cash has Dan agreeing to this ill-fated deal... Could a night together be the thing to help Jae-kyung break this jinx once and for all?

(Source: Lezhin US)

CAST

Jae-Gyeong Ju
Dan Kim
Yoon-gu Hwang
Yosep Jeong
Dan's Grandmother
Namwook Park
Heo Manwook
Oh Daehyun
Randy Booker
Dong-Gyun Nam

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO JINX

MANGA RomanceBJ Alex

REVIEWS

Florence143
10/100
For those of you wondering, this is why Jinx gets a bad rating. (An in-depth look at Mingwa's latest work.)
For those who read this, please note that I have no hateful feelings toward the author and that all the opinions stated are my own.

This will contain spoilers for the manwha.

Certain comments from different sites regarding this series shall be taken into account as time passes, keeping the negative and positive points in line.

With this being said, let us take a dive into "Jinx."

To start us off, Jinx is a manwha published by Mingwa. Mingwa has created one other successful work, BJ Alex, which was published to Lezhin on Nov 24, 2017, and ended on Jul 5, 2019. The manwha gained immense popularity following its release, getting its own physical printing soon afterward (nine volumes). It was everywhere-keychains, fanart, and a Lezhin interview with the author herself. However, three years slowly passed, and every BJ Alex fan patiently awaited the arrival of her next work (Please know that I will not be going into the problems associated with BJ Alex, as plenty of others have covered this topic already.) Then, on November 24th 2022, "Jinx" was placed into our hands.

Lesson I:
Overued Boys Love Tropes

For those of you who are not sure of the premise, the story follows Kim Dan, a physical therapist working odd jobs in order to help fund his Grandmothers' hospital bills. Because of this, he is quite poor. However the protagonist being poor is, (unfortunately), a common trope in Boys Love manwha and manga. To top this off, the antagonist is a rich boxer with a hot temper (also a trope.)

"The story is nothing new- it's same thing you see now a days in almost every bl...seme (top) is rich big jerk.... uke (bottom) is the poor guy with debt."

"The same old disgusting ML x some poor unfortunate guy."

Said boxer has fired every physical therapist he has come across, his anger issues playing a major part in this. However, Kim Dan is hired by Jaekyung (the antagonist's) manager to help him. Dan is quite nervous, as ever since he was sexually assaulted by his manager

_it's been impossible to find a job. __(But we do not know why, this seems to be an ongoing question presented throughout the manwha.)

He feels as though Jaekyung could beat him up at any moment, but agrees out of desperation.

(Bringing the topic back to the sexual assault, it is crucial to note this is how it was displayed in the manwha.)

When Kim's trauma is displayed, the tone of the manwha gives the reader a feeling of melancholy. (Keep this in mind, I will touch on it later.)

With the "plot summary" and a small nit-pick being pushed aside, we need to discuss the underlying issues with this manhwa.

Lesson II:
The rape plot.

If you remember BJ Alex, I'm quite certain you would recall how Mingwa used this plot before. (However I will not get into this as I previously mentioned.)
Three years have passed, and it seems she still hasn't let it go.

"I’m disappointed… I read the raw there’s legit rape in chapter 3… I see the author didn’t change with the rape plots, sigh what a shame it’s good art too."

"Barely started and already has rape and everyone is just like "omg he is a walkign red flag so hot". This is disgusting with a generic plot
Barely started and I'm already about to drop because this is just disgusting and I can arleady see the them ending up happy toegtehr and the bad guy changing for his love. If its not like that and Jaekyung gets a bad ending I'll be plesently surprised.
This is just sick and gross for now and I don't know how people can see this as hot."

"Garbage. Read ahead and Omg. I’m so tired of this horseshit with BLs. It’s so homophobic. Like I want to throw up. I’m so sick and tired of it."

"The boxer dude is a rapist self-centered piece of shit who thinks the world revolves around him. He seriously doesn't deserve any redemption arc nor a happy ending.
This story is just so awfully overhyped probably because it's the same artist as bj alex."

"I don't know what I expected to see when it's the same author of the dumpster fire of BJ Alex but I didn't expect this.
So far all the author has done is made out a self centered man-slut, Joo Jaekyung, as a rapist to fulfil some sort of predictable "redemption arc"
you can see coming a mile a way.
If BJ Alex wasn't already a cash-grab for teen girls with a fetish for gay men, this takes the cake."

There are plenty more comments shrouding Jinx if you know where to look, and I have been fortunate to find them and bring it to light.

During chapter three of Jinx, Kim Dan is

raped

by Jaekyung.

Why?

Because Jaekyung feels the need to have sex with a male every night before a match.

The author not being shy about showing how fetishized it is. The worst part? It's somewhat romanticized.
Before jumping to conclusions however, please take note of some comments under the manwha from her fans.

"Bj alex has to be one of my favorites so I'm excited for this (EDIT : ML already a red flag...but I'm color blind ?)"

"I look forward to a new story from BJ Aley author Mingwa.
The art design is so beautiful and the story seems to be great, I love dramas.
So I don't know where others see a rapist if they both agree. It's more likely that Kim Dan prostitutes himself for his debts and for his grandmother's medicine. And let's be honest, this is not an isolated case worldwide."

"Omg stop complaining about everything people. it’s literally fake, just read it and stop giving it a bad rating."

The panels? They are not any better.

(Please go look up the panels for yourself for more proof, I don't want to bring that onto a site like this. Thank you.)

(Keep in mind the tone as well. When Kim got assaulted by his manager, the manwha felt melancholy, yet as Dan got raped by Jaekyung, this aura was not put into effect.)

(However, Jinx does display Kim's opinions of distaste and his anxiety throughout the whole ordeal.)

Kim sits in the shower for an hour debating on whether to have sex with Jaekyung in exchange for money. (Which makes it tremendously clear he is struggling mentally and is in need of professional help.) Unfortunately, Jaekyung grabs him out of the shower and then the shitshow begins.

(I should mention that before this, Jaekyung had revealed his Jinx. This "Jinx" of his is the JUSTIFYING FACTOR for why he raped Kim.)

Yes, that is pathetic. Very pathetic indeed.

(The panel directly after, showing Jaekyung's ghastly anger issues after his "partner" rightfully called him out.)

After slamming his head into the wall, Jaekyung threatens to kill the boy he had done it with, his anger taking over. You can see Jaekyung's issues will lead to an abusive relationship with Kim from a mile away, and this is going to be romanticized by Mingwa's fans immediately.

As you all know, the kind of behavior presented in this manwha is not to be taken lightly or romanticized in any way. Fortunately, Kim Dan is depicted as being emotionally removed from the situation-resembling some sense of accuracy in the series.

I'll be keeping an eye on his mentality to see if it changes. I hope it does, as that would mean Kim won't be a static protagonist.

Lesson III:
The use of saturation and color

Please keep in mind the tone throughout those couple of panels. Did you notice how it gave a sense of sorrow and misery? Yet, during the panels where Kim was being raped, the same emotions simply are not prevalent. Instead, it is replaced with bright colors.

Color brings forth emotion, and the emotion can strengthen depending on its saturation. For example, what do you think of when you look at this?

Normally, you would feel either love, anger, or passion. On top of this, the emotion you just displayed would be intense, because the color is saturated. However, when you look at something such as this...

Maybe you feel the same emotion for this color, or-something entirely different. Regardless, if these two colors were placed into an art piece, the aura of said work would change. My point arises in this manwha as they was the colors are used can be a bit off at times.

The biggest example of this is when Kim is assultated by his manager. During these panels, the colors are desaturated and dark, which installs a feeling of melancholy, sorrow, and misery.

Yet when Dan is raped by Jaekyung, the colors are more saturated.

(Again, I do not want to show the panels, but I belive you understand my point.)

While it doesn't seem like much (especially since this is the general style the manwha is colored this way), it's noticeable when compared with the scenes from before. These types of colors used throughout the manwha (in that specific scene), bring on feelings of lust from the readers (hence why some of her fans believe it is "hot" or "sexy"), which is problematic because they may accidentally romanticize rape.

While I have made this point, I would like to add in how the sex is portrayed. It seems to be presented with accuracy, granting the scenes a level of realism. There is nothing wrong with this except for the use of color and light for the reasons I mentioned previously.

Yet the art will not be the type of thing to change, and I assume the "issue" will be persistent throughout her work. Thus, it would be unfair to everyone if I try to critique it any longer.

At this point I've given up on Jinx. Thank you for reading this, I hope it gave you an insight into some of the prominent issues in BL today.
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