Jae-ho Youn

I have the same problem with manhwa as I do in movies and real life, with the bonus of not being used to the genre yet: I have a really hard time telling people apart. I did okay with this one for a while (albeit occasionally having to go back a page, upon realising I'd got it wrong, to reread) until the whole girls' futsal team (five girls) got together in one place. In uniform, only their hairstyles distinguish them and by the time we handily got a picture of the five on them in a row, I'd lost track of who was who anyway. I'll have to reread.

Anyway, basic plot: So-Jin used to play soccer but got discouraged when her rival Shin-Bi beat her once too often. But she's moving to a new school and gets lured in by it again, if only to teach the boys a lesson. At the same time, Shin-Bi (who's given up soccer herself for mysterious reasons) has moved to the same school to coach the boys. And some rich guy's will calls for donating 50% of his assets to girls' soccer, so the school wants to get in on the cash. So-Jin spends a chunk of this volume pulling together a team (unfortunately Shin-Bi refuses to join, claiming conflict of interest as the boys' coach) for a futsal game against the boys.

I'm not normally into sports, but got infected by World Cup fever when it was hosted in Korea (I was teaching there at the time). And futsal, a kind of mini-soccer, has the great virtue of not having any offside rules. But especially I liked that this book is just full of girls and women. It does have a bit of angst about short skirts versus the "beefy" thighs girls apparently inevitably get when they play soccer, but they're teenagers and I get the feeling soccer's going to win out here.… (meer)