At the end of my review of Volume 4 of this series I wrote:I can't *quite* stop reading this series until Heewon gives up Joonha for good and then everyone will be tucked neatly in proper little heterosexual boxes, except for the Jinhoo x Joonha thing, which will be strung along as a fake BL story as long as the author can manage.
I cannot even begin to express to you how vexed I am that Volume 5 of Click! was not when everyone was tucked neatly into proper heterosexual boxes. Joke, joke! It's pretty apparent that this series *will* have neatly arranged heterosexual pairings at the end, just not yet.
We've got all the ingredients we're going to get now, in this Rice Krispie Treat of a gender switch manhwa. We're just in the phase where it's all mixed up and slowly we'll watch it pour out into the pan to become an enjoyable snack. This is not as random an analogy as you might think, btw. Rice cereal - marshmallow treats are harder to mix together than you'd expect and not all that pliable. And the characters in Click are much the same.
In the not-quite-really Yuri dept, Heewon is still stomping around, pissed because Joonha is a girl. She's pissed about it, because she's still obsessed with Joonha and when asked flat out, says she still likes her. For her part Joonha actually shows a moment of humanity when she tells Jinhoo that Heewon can't be blamed for her erratic and hurtful behavior, because she, Joonha, was the one at fault. And she admits to still liking Heewon. So, two halves make about three-quarters of a whole. I like how Joonha is starting to just accept being female, so while it remains *the* plot complication, it's being used less for cheap laughs and more as a dramatic point.
Heewon has a heterosexual escape valve, Taehyun's lackey Jihan, so I'll be shocked if she doesn't end up having a satisfyingly contentious relationship with him by the end.
In the fakey-BL love story between Jinhoo and Joonha, there's a interestingly complicating factor of Taehyun looking less and less like a raging asshole and more and more like a ridiculously appealing, adventurous guy with smarts, money and balls. I'm actually really pulling for a love triangle with Joonha torn between Jinhoo and Taehyun. It could add a fun extra layer of uneeded complexity to the series. I vote for Joonha and Taehyun, because they'd actually work as a couple, where Jinhoo would just disappear into Joonha or vice versa.
The only character I actually feel bad for is Jinhoo's girlfriend, Hyejin, who is getting trampled on from every direction and really, really doesn't deserve it.
The amazing thing about all this is, for all that it's a story with so many layers of relationships, if Joonha ever told Jinhoo the truth, the entire story would come to a screeching halt. The End. Like so many other gender-switch manga and manhwa, this particular plot complication appears to be maintainable over a longish story line in a way that works.
I still don't *like* any of the characters, but I'm disliking most of them less. And at this point, as long as most of the relationships resolve one way or another, I'm fine with whoever ends up with whoever.
Ratings:
Art - 6
Story - 6
Characters - 6
Yuri - 2
Loser FanBoy - 1
Overall - 6
Thanks very much to the sponsor of today's review, Okazu Superhero Dan P!