Sind zwei Menschen durch den roten Ring des Schicksals miteinander verbunden, können sie nur in direkter Nähe zueinander einschlafen. Als eines Tages besagter Ring an Shin Wooseos Finger auftaucht, ist er geschockt: Denn der Ring verbindet ihn nicht mit seinem besten Freund und heimlichen Schwarm Kang Jiseok, sondern mit dessen älterem Bruder Kang Jigeon. Und so beginnt die Tragödie, den einen Bruder zu lieben, doch mit dem anderen das Bett teilen zu müssen. Doch Kang Jigeon scheint sich nicht daran zu stören, dass der beste Freund seines jüngeren Bruders sich als sein Seelenverwandter entpuppt hat...
Is it melodramatic as all get-out? Yes. Is the love triangle a little uncomfortable? Also yes. Does it make both of things not matter until you've finished the book and stopped to think? Heck yes. And that's why I will continue to read this bizarre story of supernatural red strings and the poor communicators who manifest them.
This made my heart stop a bit. Two brothers that are obsessed with one guy, but one has the red string of fate to connect them. I really hope Wooseo realize just how much Jigeon loves him. They both deserve to be happy after so much heartbreak.
dnf @ 42% that twink is a sensitive ass bitch and he’s getting on my nerves. also, do they not understand the value of friendship? ofc your best friend is gonna be worried sick when you’re drunk at night in public and you disappear from the friendship group and you’re unable to get a hold of.
Jigeon I don’t know why I expected to even like you since I’m pretty sure you were crushing on him when that idiot was in high school and you’re 7 years older 🫥
maybe I’ll pick this up later on but as of now, I’m too annoyed to read this.
Wooow, both Jiseok and Jigeon are so diabolical. I really feel for Wooseo but he's stuck in the middle...willingly. I know I shouldn't be rooting for Jigeon but I'm lowkey here for his villain era as long as he doesn't physically hurt Wooseo.
Kind of messy pacing in this one. It jumped between past and present or basic scene transitions in confusing/jarring ways, so I had to slow down and flip back a lot to figure out what was going on. For instance, during the scene where Jigeon and Wooseo were in bed together after the attack, I turned the page, and suddenly Jiseok was bursting into the room to shout at Wooseo, who was alone in bed. You don't have to show every single moment, but you need to put some clear separation in place to show that time's been passing. Even the industry standard of blacking out the page margins to show flashbacks wasn't used properly in this volume. It was almost more like mood lighting. Weird.
Plus, it's genuinely hard to tell the brothers apart sometimes. I know that's a plot point, since Jigeon is "pretending to be Jiseok" to soothe Wooseo's unrequited feelings, but they should have some more distinct differences in their character designs.
Otherwise, I did mostly enjoy this. It's nice to see Wooseo genuinely leaning on Jigeon for comfort and affection, and increasingly pushing Jiseok away because he feels safer with Jigeon. I still have reservations about the way the brothers are being portrayed, though - Jigeon's manipulation is softened a little bit more in this volume, but he's continuing to be kind of a jerk to his brother, who also isn't coming across too great at this point. Is he actually interested in Wooseo, or is he just battling his brother for control over him? They both need to actually talk to Wooseo and let him genuinely decide at some point.
Then there's Jigeon's psychotic ex, who stalks and attacks Wooseo to try to sever the Ring connection that he thinks took Jigeon away from him. I don't know why the violent stalker ex is present in so much manhwa, but it does get a little tiring. Isn't there enough going on without throwing that guy into the mix...
The late volume introduction of the Connector, who can take away Rings at will, is an interesting twist. Since it requires taking away both Ring partners' memories of everything to do with each other, there's no chance Wooseo would choose that...his connection with Jigeon aside, wouldn't that impact his relationship with Jiseok? Or at least I really hope they won't go that route. I'm not the kind of reader who likes the angst of having to start over from the beginning in a relationship, and watching them falling in love afresh, etc.
With that said, I fully understand Wooseo's objections to the Ring; it's pretty awful, actually, to have your literal health and ability to sleep tied to being physically in contact with someone, no matter how much you genuinely care about them. But free will is something I always tend to struggle with in soulmate stories.
I appreciated that while Jigeon read Wooseo's private messages and met up with the Connector on his own, it doesn't seem like he would actually stop Wooseo from severing their connection if, after hearing all the side effects, he chose to go through with it. That's some promising character growth; Jigeon is being patient and waiting for Wooseo to fall in love with him instead of his brother, but he won't actually force anything if Wooseo outright rejects him. Or at least that's how it seems at this point.
Interesting story, still...whether it'll be a favorite remains to be seen. They all have a lot of growing and talking to each other to do.
I was on the fence of picking this up but the premise with the read thread of fate being a ring of fate and doesn't let you sleep without your destined one was interesting enough for me to pick it up. Additionally, it's been over a decade since I've last picked up a Korean work and, while I prefer black and white, it's nice to read a full colour work from time to time.
I will say that the premise lived up to its promise and was interesting, well thought out and left no loopholes. My issue largely lies with the characters. This was painfully obvious set up to be a love triangle and, unlike many, I don't even mind those. But it does become an issue if all three involved aren't particularly engaging characters. First and foremost, we have Woosea as the main character who finds himself between two brothers are as much unalike as they are alike. The problem is that Wooseo is the most bland character I have read about in a long time. Ask me to describe his personality to him and I would utterly fail. Just the blandest of bland that makes me wonder all the more why not only one but two brothers are fighting over him.
Jiseok is Wooseo's long term best friend - while Jiseok is entirely oblivious to it, Wooseo has been in love with him for years (and he was too bland for me to care). On the other hand, there is Jiseok's older brother Jigeon who has also had am unrequited crush on Wooseo for years. Things become complicated when Jigeon and Wooseo turn out to be connected by fate rings and can now no longer sleep unless they are near each other. Lots of drama follows and especially manipulation: that's the main character trait of both brothers. Now Jigeon is meant to be the manipulative and toxic one in this scenario but Jiseok fell somewhere in between: he was another brand of bland with a sprinkle of manipulativeness that must have rubbed off from his brother. At the end of the day, despite his underhand methods, Jigeon was just about the only character I found interesting in this whole scenario.
Although it was nice to read a full colour series for a change, I didn't love the art. The faces were largely nicely drawn although I wasn't a huge fan of the chibi variations. I wouldn't say the proportions were off but the author wrapped them in such baggy and stiff clothes that left the body very undefined which just made the whole art feel very stilted and lifeless.
I could have really enjoyed this premise had the characters been more interesting. As it is, it just felt terribly boring and I felt nothing towards any of the characters.
It's hard to not read this and constantly compare it to other red string of fate stories -- especially Akira Yoshio's Red Thread series now that the ability to remove rings has been introduced. And, unfortunately, whenever I'm thinking about Akira Yoshio's series, I just wish I was reading that instead.
I don't dislike Tied to You, but it is a bit exhausting to read a story where it seems like every character (aside from Wooseo) is acting selfishly or manipulatively, and it's hard for me to completely, or at all really, root for Jigeon and Wooseo given that Jigeon is downright manipulative and controlling.
I'm not usually one to dislike more "toxic" concepts in fiction (my BL manga reviews speak for themselves), and I can't even fully understand, myself, why this one is hitting different, but if I had to take a guess I think it would be that Jigeon is just fixated on winning Wooseo at any cost, without taking the time to actually try to build an authentic relationship with him, which doesn't seem like it would be to hard to do, all thing considered. We do get moments of Wooseo and Jigeon interacting and seemingly growing closer, but those moments end up being undercut by the moments where Jigeon is actively plotting, trying to be a Jiseok stand in, going behind Wooseo's back to control him (like with installing the tracking app), and ignoring Wooseo's wants, agencies, and emotions.
This is all to say... idk, the jury's still out for me. I am interested enough to keep reading because, even though all of that is happening, I want to see how their relationship evolves. I really hope Wooseo catches on to what is happening and Jigeon has to change his ways, but even if he doesn't... I hope their relationship resolves in a satisfying way.
The art is still kind of meh to me, but it does feel better than the first volume, with a bit more movement and body to each scene. And this was a small thing, but I really loved how in this paperback copy, non-dialogue text had a color fade on the text -- like the sentence would fade from a dark purple to a lighter shade, or visa versa. I don't know if it was just a stylistic choice, but text that is styled like that is pretty helpful to people with various reading disabilities, so that was really cool to see.
In the second volume, Wooseo moves in with brothers Jigeon and Jiseok, to be closer to his ring partner, Jigeon. But they still don’t tell Jiseok about the ring, making the younger brother suspicious of the older brother’s intentions. The brothers play tug-of-war about Wooseo, neither asking the latter what he wants. Not that he knows.
Wooseo’s crush on Jiseok is getting mixed with his confusion about Jigeon. But he’s not talking about it to Jigeon either. Instead, he contacts a person who claims he can remove the ring. But there are consequences.
Meanwhile, the only one who knows who he wants is Jigeon. Wooseo is his, and old boyfriends and ring removers had better stay away.
This was a good volume, but frustrating. A bit of communication would go far. Art is good, but the brothers look too much alike, which is part of the story, but confusing for the reader. As a note about translation, it’s always annoying when the Korean name order is changed to western and respectful forms of address are removed. Webcomics manage just fine with a translation note here and there, and the reader both learns about a different culture and don’t feel like they’re being treated like an idiot.
Also, the publisher should really offer an ebook too. I read the first volume as an e-ARC and the colours were much better, not to mention it would give an easier access to it.
I was hoping Mina would be a good addition to the group so everyone would be happy, but it seems she's not exactly what she seems either when it comes to her relationship with the brothers. Jigeon slowly seems to be gaining ground with Wooseo as Jiseok panics about their relationship and his own feelings. This ex of Jigeon's is more than a little problematic as well between his obsession over Jigeon, stalking behavior, the search to remove the rings, etc. Despite earlier convictions, the more that we see, the clearer it is that there have been feelings of some kind all along, they were just stuffed in a box when Jigeon distanced himself convinced that it was for the best due to Wooseo's previous feelings. We end on a rather large cliff hanger here, especially when it's clear Jigeon would rather keep their rings but still ensures Wooseo has access to the full information possible and time to decide rather than rushing in.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This manhwa presents an interesting take on the soulmates dynamic by adding a twist! You can only fall asleep if your soulmate is nearby. So, which would you choose? Your pride, or insomnia?
The plot has been picking up and it is JUICY. Jiseok… shoo. Given the worldbuilding, I think it would be common between unrequited soulmates. I think Wooseo’s demeanor might put some readers off, but I still think this is a very good story.
Who is this manga for Tied to You is perfect for lovers of love triangles with an indecisive protagonist. This is also a soulmates trope with a twist, so fans of the trope will likely enjoy this!
O.M.G. What a volume! Cliffhangers, shock revelations, mysterious people and poor Wooseo being pulled from pillar to post by the two people he trusts most. Though, I won't lie - despite Jigeon being a walking truck of red flags, I genuinely believe his feelings for Wooseo, while Jiseok feels more possessive of Wooseo, as though he doesn't want him but doesn't want anyone else to have him either. Oh, and can Dojin please get his own book? I've only seen literally a few pages of him, but I'm intrigued and would love him to get a full story!
This continues to be a sweet and fun story about soulmates with some interesting twists and turns in this volume. The cover worried me a little, as it looks like it could turn into a "sharing" romance, which...two in the love triangle are brothers so...no thanks. But it did not go that direction at all, though the triangle did ramp up a little more. I'm excited to read more in this series!
Now Jiseok Kang also realizes his feeling for Wooseo. He thought of him as a best friend but he came to understand that it is more then that. Now it is a cold battle between the 2 brothers to win over Wooseo.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This volume was full of drama and I can't wait to see where the story goes. I love the art style and can't wait to see how the relationship progresses since both brothers are giving off some red flag energy.
The first half of the book was a whole lot of nothing and didn’t really add to the plot, with that being said, a crap ton of stuff happened in the second half.
Jiseok and Jigeon are both kind of terrible to poor Wooseo. Basically, all the relationships in this are wildly unhealthy, for various reasons. But I will still probably read more.