“Sometimes these clichés may seem stale and corny.
However, clichés have been enjoyed by a lot of people for a long time.”
A Love Letter to Clichés
Love them or hate them, clichés are found in almost every story out there and each genre has its own rules they follow. Whether it’s an enemies to lovers trope in a romance story, or the power of friendship trope found in many action stories, clichés help progress a story along while setting the expectation for the reader. Typically, a story will have just a few tropes and clichés present, but the Manhwa Lethal Romance is full of them.
Combining two very different genres, this Manhwa focuses on characters belonging to the Martial Arts genre and the Romance genre navigating life together, while still having to follow their separate clichés rules.
It does read almost like an instruction book for how to efficiently write these clichés as each one is pointed out and explained. While done for comedy, it never feels that this Manhwa is dismissing or ridiculing clichés, just having fun with them.
The story is also complete with a little over 50 chapters, plus a short bonus chapter.
Meeting and Existing Together
Now, Lethal Romance is a comedy romance manhwa where everyone belongs to a genre, and two people from very different genres grow closer and navigate their feelings for one another.
This story takes many common tropes from the shoujo and martial arts genres and uses them to create a comedy story of these two different worlds existing together.
This story can be chaotic. It takes the craziest aspects of two completely different genres, but really mixes them together so well.
“Each Life Has Their Own Genre,
And They Always Live A Life That Fits Their Genre,
Even If Two Completely Different People Meet.”
Romance High School and Action High School
In this manhwa, we follow two primary schools:
Romance High School, where those who follow the shoujo genre go.
Action High School, where those who follow the martial arts genre go.
There is no deeper explanation or meaning as to how a character exists in their genre, they just are. Even though the characters are in a school setting, as with most stories, there is nothing really happening class related outside of the occasional class project to bring the characters together.
Something nice with Manhwa is that it’s not afraid to have older characters, and this series is no exception. The characters are in their senior year and are 18 years of age.
Spoilers Ahead for Characters
A Typical Romance Male Lead
One of the main characters, Kim Shin Woo the shoujo protagonist of Romance High School, is everything you expect from a male lead. He’s a handsome loner who receives love letters and confessions daily, flower petals fall all around him, and he has his own rules that allow him to survive any martial art attack.
He’s the perfect male lead, and even though the first meeting between him and the female lead start off rocky, his feelings develop first in true male lead fashion.
A Martial Arts Protagonist
As for the female lead, Cheon Yu-Bi the martial arts protagonist for Action High School, she has no time for romance as she is searching for the man who killed her father, and overcoming her tragic past.
As an action protagonist, she has her own set of skills such as the power of friendship, turning previous enemies to friends, and like a romance protagonist, a protective instinct for small animals.
Romance is not on her mind at all, only growing stronger and getting her revenge.
Genres Meshing Together
The main characters are not the only ones having their genre tropes and clichés mixed together.
Just the idea of anyone in a shoujo story fighting characters from a martial arts story immediately doesn’t make sense, but they hold their own.
Now, the male lead does have a few assassins come after him, but not only is his tropes capable of defending against the attackers, the rules of romance protect Romance High School students so they can fight back.
In addition, the supporting characters of course have their own roles to play in the story
A Satisfying Conclusion
Everyone is going to have a different opinion of whether the ending to a story is satisfying or not. This truly must be the hardest part for any creator as a bad ending can completely ruin the whole story for a reader. Is it right? No, as unfortunately, every reader has a different idea of how a story should end, and most times the ending the creator planned is not that.
What about Lethal Romance? How does the story conclude?
Well, it was quite beautiful, though the point of the story was more about love and appreciation for the clichés present in stories rather than the lead characters ending up together. While the male lead realized his feelings early on, the female lead really only acknowledged feelings of friendship for the majority of the series.
Overall the manhwa is very cute. It’s not something to read if you are looking for a more serious romance story, or even just a comedy romance. Even the story acknowledges it’s silly. This is a manhwa to read if you want more of a parody story that does not take itself seriously.