Korea's most talked-about series in recent years!
Born into a shaman family, Sunbi has inherited the power to see and communicate with spirits just like her grandmother, a notable shaman and savior of their little fishing village in the South Sea. Early on, she sees things like an imposter shaman being thrashed by a dragon of the deep, and doesn't understand that none of her schoolmates can see such things. Her powers make her the amorous target of hedonistic demons even as a child. Long shielded from the reality of her power, she finally learns the secret of her mother's death, and why her grandmother was never able to leave their village. Enter Sunbi's world in this mind-boggling psychological chiller!
This series has been put on hold after volume 6. We will notify when it resumes.
This moody, beautiful tale follows the life story of Sunbi Shin, a teenage girl forced to leave her small Korean fishing village after her grandmother's death to live with her estranged father's new family in Seoul. Raised by the grandmother, Sunbi barely knows her father, who abandoned her long-dead mother years before. But Sunbi's colorful past is filled with Dokebis, mischieveous Korean spirits and demons. Like her mother and grandmother, Sunbi can see and communicate with these demons, an ability first manifested at a village ritual that calls forth a dragon to help bring the village a prosperous year. The dragon responds but can only be seen by Sunbi and her grandmother; there we begin to learn the story of a family of spiritual seers, simultaneously respected and feared for their supernatural abilities. Sunbi's spiritual gifts mark her as different, alienating her from adults and from classmates. Marley's b&w drawing of the dragon undulating across the page is breathtaking. Her drawings are crisp, natural and packed with the graphic details of Korean traditional dress and rich in the vivid emotions and mental states of her characters. As Sunbi comes to grips with her grandmother's death and her new family, we're introduced to the mystery surrounding her mother's life and death, clearly setting the scene for much more to come in subsequent volumes.
- Publishers Weekly
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One of the interesting things about this series is that each book, which contain
two chapters each, pretty much stand alone as a reading experience. It is clear
as you begin that the main character, Sunbi, can interact with the spirit world.
She can see and talk to ghosts and demons others cannot see. She is also being
threatened by evil beings that want to posses her. So this time she looks to
enlist the aid of friendlier Dokebi by tricking one into her servitude.
Meanwhile a classmate of hers is convinced there is something about Sunbi that
she is hiding and he plans to find out what it is.
The interaction of the characters in this drama is critical to understanding
them. There are friends, relatives that are forced together, flashbacks to other
times and the spirits take us to another whole world with their own habits and
rules. For example, the Dokebi don't even have names - the concept is new to
them. One particularly fine segment is Sunbi's attempt to help a displaced
spirit find its proper place in the restaurant of a friend. It is cleverly
plotted and executed. This all is wonderful exposure to the folklore and culture
so foreign to us in the west. Her bonding with this Dokebi helper is fascinating
on several levels. We see a somewhat adversarial beginning turn to friendship
and no doubt loyalty in the future. The story is sure to turn dark later but
this issue was pretty uplifting overall and a good choice to see if it deserves
your attention.
- David LeBlanc, Comic Book Network Electronic Magazine
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"Dokebi Bride" concerns a different breed of confused youth. This beautiful manwah (Korean manga) concerns Subi, a young girl who can't control the needy spirits who claw at her. Her shaman-mother is dead, and lacking guidance, the schoolgirl tricks a dokebi, a crude but clever forest god, into a magical marriage so that he will protect her. Between her own powers, and the antics of her mystic and ill-mannered husband, she helps those who have unresolved issues with the dead.
The shenanigans of the dokebi, who drink, belch, scratch and love strange foods, contrast nicely with the strict society in which Sunbi barely gets along. Subi's pathos is a long time building, so it's best to start with Volume 1.
Here, in Volume 5, she runs away after a rival shaman claims her grandmother's spirit tools. Leaving behind her magic wedding ring, Subi ends up working in the convenience store of a low-level gangster with a troubled conscience while her spirit-husband searches for her.
The adults around her have no patience for a young girl whose pain they can't understand. Yet "Dokebi Bride" is not simply a story of supernatural teen angst. Despite her anger, Subi uses her pain to gain wisdom and, slowly, compassion.
April 29, 2007 - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Sunbi returns home after reuniting a ghostly grandmother with her grandson to find that the heir to her grandmother's shaman artifacts has arrived to claim them. Furious and grief-stricken over their loss and at the betrayal of her family (who callously delivered them to the interloper), Sunbi uses her mystical sword to break the tie with her hated father's home. Sunbi is taken in by Jonghan, a young man who assists runaways to find work and shelter. His favoritism toward her, his emotional instability, and Sunbi's frigid reserve lead to jealousy in her new household. Meanwhile, Sunbi's dokebi protector, Gwangsoo, discovers that a young man has taken over Sunbi's place in her father's house. This mysterious stranger, with compelling eyes like Sunbi's, also claims that Sunbi is his bride, which ignites the ire of the powerful and violent Gwangsoo. Marley is adept at presenting various theories on spiritual and psychic phenomena, as well as creating grittily naturalistic characters who can perceive and be possessed by spirits. Sunbi's struggle to survive mundane societal demands while nurturing her spiritual power fuels the conflicts in the manhwa. Readers interested in folklore and spirit mediums, as found in Her Majesty's Dog and Yurara, will be interested in this more complex and realistic series. Appealing to both older teens and adults, Dokebi Bride is strongly recommended for public libraries.
Starred review
August 1, 2007 - Library Journal
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