new recruitsa Korean BL Novels are a symbol of the changing landscape of the publishing industry. I mean, by the fall of 2024, it will be available in English in three different formats: this original novel digitally published by Mullebooks, an all-ages version of the book. comicsavailable digitally from Manta (on their app and e-book), as well as the mature version comics Print from seven seas. It’s a fun exercise that means readers have the opportunity to experience Moscaretto’s story in the form that best suits them, or all three at the same time if you like comparing and contrasting. But the place in the novel is franchise Initially, this made it part of a small but growing number of Korean works published in English in both book and manga formats.
Luckily for us, it’s also a good story. It begins as a relationship between two men working for the same advertising agency, and it’s at least more realistic than many office romances in pop culture. We follow Seunghyun, a twenty-nine-year-old man who recently completed his master’s degree and is trying to figure out what to do with his life. Part of the problem was that he spent most of his time at school having a crush on an older student, and he let that crush drag him down without fully considering what he wanted to do after graduation. Turns out he had a degree from a prestigious university but nothing else. This makes it difficult to stand out among job applicants. When his college friend Jiyeon mentioned that they were looking for an intern at her workplace, he jumped at the chance and ended up working under a 35-year-old man named Jongchan Kim.
One of the most interesting aspects of this story, especially for those used to Japanese norms BL Moscareto incorporates a slightly more realistic element of what it means to be queer in Korea. This should by no means be taken as a faithful depiction of this aspect, as it is still a romance novel, but Seunghyun (and Jiyeon) are both members of their university’s LGBTQIA+ club, and the impact of queer identity on Seunghyun and Jiyeon is mentioned . Both men came out publicly but did not mention their fear of being outed; giving the impression that their sexual orientation was their own business and no one else’s. That said, there’s still a level of caution that’s hinted at, with Seunghyun being very keen to keep his school LGBTQIA+ club a secret, and mentioning that the club’s reputation isn’t the best. Still, the book is largely devoid of some of the more disturbing elements of the genre, especially the “you’re gay” trope—two people know their preferences and are comfortable with them, and they start The relationship is very mutual.
Or at least as mutually as Seunghyun can manage – one of the defining features of his character is that he’s spent about ten years of his life harboring the same futile infatuation with an upperclassman. He’s never been able to tell anyone about it except Ji-hyun, and he realizes that he’s letting his attraction essentially stop him in his tracks. His inability to tell the other person how he felt was entirely his own problem, and he knew it; he knew it. There was no real reason why he couldn’t say anything, especially considering the other man was also gay. Seunghyun seems to realize that he’s using his obsession as a way to avoid having to think about taking action in any area of his life. If this holds him back, it’s because he’s at least partially conscious of letting it do so, and his tentative approach to Jongchan in the first volume suggests there’s a level of anxiety preventing him from taking action. He and Zhong Can started falling in love because of Zhong Can no Being plagued by the same anxieties, his willingness to do something also helped Seung-hyun take action.
It’s not that Zhong Can is a virtuous super prince. His reputation in the company was well deserved, he was a stubborn person who refused promotions because, surprisingly, he loved what he did. He is a hardworking man who will not tolerate fools. He’s so taken aback when he realizes that Seung-hyun is far superior to a typical intern, both in age and drive, that he almost unconsciously starts mentoring him. Does this give their romance a flavor of dangerous power dynamics? Yes, absolutely, but Moscaretto seems to be aware of this and works to change things so that power politics becomes Jong-chan, helping to empower Seung-hyun and protect him from inter-office bullying. Despite their different job positions, by the middle of the novel, Seung-hyun has become the person Jong-chan can talk to about anything, and one of his low-key frustrations is that his boyfriend doesn’t seem comfortable with him in that regard .
Issues of power come to the fore in the second volume, which covers the end of Seung-hyun’s internship and his application for a full-time job at the company. Jongchan and almost everyone else believed he was a sure winner, not just because he was an intern but because of the quality of his work. But what no one is looking forward to is Jong-chan’s reputation and how his mentorship of Seung-hyun will appear in the eyes of his enemies. They don’t want to see Seung-hyun succeed because it’s good for the company, but they want to see him unable to take revenge on Jong-chan. This is an interesting use of power dynamics in offices and relationships, as it forces Jongchan to consider other people’s careers. If he wants to continue working with his boyfriend, he has to find a way to protect him watching As he does, it puts the old man way out of his comfort zone in several ways. The result is rather low-key, which is an interesting choice but still in keeping with the way Moscaretto tried to keep things on a more realistic level rather than cranking up the drama all the time.
as a full age and mature being comics Shows that this is the more intense side. Although there is no penetrative sex in the first volume, there are still several explicit scenes. There’s also some unintentionally funny discussion about Jong-chan’s penis size, per genre norms, but overall the scenes are among the less awkward I’ve come across and are middle-of-the-road descriptively . Volume Two, however, begins with a bang – an eighteen-page sex scene, and the accompanying story is essentially a fifty-page sex scene. To call these (especially the latter) rewritten might be the understatement of the decade, and there are some anatomically questionable elements. The bigger problem is that they are too descriptive. In this case, “less is more” will be the writing rule to follow. The translation also falters a bit in the raunchy parts, with one line in the first volume sounding like two men sharing a penis. My only other complaint is the consistent use of the word “gay” to describe queer people, which in my experience is not typically done in American English today.
new recruits It’s a great treat for office romance lovers and a good choice BL The novel series (the second book mentions a third book coming soon) is for anyone looking for something. It’s closer to general romance tropes than we associate with Japanese queer light novels, and we get a good sense of who Jong-chan and Seung-hyun are as people. Book lovers should be happy that we’re getting more English translations of popular Korean novels, because if there’s one thing we should all agree on, it’s that having more reading options is always a good thing.
