SpiritOfCoffeeMug

Before the review I want to mention two things:

1. English isn't my native language, so there are bound to be typos in this review. I apologize those in advance and will fix them when I spot them.

2. I first started reading Killing Stalking in early 2017 and finished it in the same day when the last chapter was released. So I might've forgotten to mention a few things. 

I remember when I first started to read Killing Stalking. As a fan of psychological manga and anime the plot captivated me after the first few chapters. Sadly around the halfway point the plot of this manhwa came to a grinding halt before it picked it pace once again for the ending, that was disappointing.

If you've never heard of this series it's a mixture of psychological thriller and yaoi. Psychological aspect of the show mainly comes from the complexes that characters have and how they deal with them. Some of these are stockholm syndrome, lima syndrome and Oedipus complex just to name the few. Also themes of sexual, mental and physical abuse, mental illness and schizophrenia are a big part of the story and characters. I probably don't have to explain where the yaoi comes into play. This manhwa definitely isn't for those who can't handle these heavy subjects or for those who don't like yaoi or male x male sex.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

If you don't want to be spoiled just skip straight to the "overall" section. It's spoiler free.

Now that out of the way we can start with the actual review.

STORY:

When I review a story I usually first tell about the starting point first and then explain about the rest of the plot while telling about the things I like and things I don't like. With this series I will do things a bit differently. I first say the things I liked about this manhwa, and then the things I didn't like. Bear in mind that I started to read this almost immediately when it started. So I might miss some details.

First the good things:

1. Start of the manhwa.

The plot starts in a really interesting manner. It shows perfectly what kind of characters Yoon Bum and Oh Sangwoo are while also giving a subtle hints of Sangwoos background story. Thriller elements were probably in their strongest in the beginning when Sangwoo did most of his murders and police almost got him, but after Sangwoo was released from custody the plot became this series biggest downfall.

2. Portrayal of the complexes and heavy themes.

Portraying a psychopathic character who possibly has several mental illnesses and a few complexes thrown in top of them can be pretty tricky. However this show did it fairly well and interesting way. Same was did to the victim of our psychopath, who also had some serious stuff going on in the mahwa. These were portrayed really well and they never were on the nose, some even kept as a secret before revealing them later in the series. In that regard I respect this series.

Now the bad things:

1. Halfway point.

Midway point of the series, where the plot degreases to almost SoL-type of deal with little more oppressive atmosphere and a lot of sex. At this point I must say that I'm not the biggest yaoi-reader. I'm more yuri and shoujo-ai reader, but if the romance and plot are good I don't care about the sex of the characters, but when the thriller aspect of the show was almost completely left out for a while and replaced with sex scene in almost every chapter reading this manhwa felt like a drag and honestly a little bit frustrating. I get that Koogi tried to show how their relationship had gotten deeper and even mutual with this, but in my opinion it really killed the good pacing this manhwa had going on. This pacing problem is more apparent in my next point.

2. Ending.

Ending felt really rushed and underwhelming. The thriller aspect was gladly brought back after Bums uncle was killed and Yang started to investigate Sangwoo once more, but the ending climax fight felt kinda generic and needlessly "epic" finale for Sangwoo, maybe because the way it was portrayed reminded me of some 80's action movie more than a thriller, but still I wasn't a big fan of how it was handled.

The last chapter had a track composed for it which was actually kinda nice touch and fit with the atmosphere. But other than that the last chapter felt like the author wanted to just wrap it up quickly and end it with the most unsatisfying way as possible. I didn't need any good ending. I actually kinda appreciate that Koogi decided to go with a bad ending, but it came really fast in my opinion. Only plus side is that it was a definite ending and the series can't possibly continue. 

ART:

Art was actually really good in this one. Koogi has an unique style and some nice design choises going on. Character design was good. Backgrounds weren't groundbreaking, but they were done well. I don't actually have a lot to say about the art. It was consistently good throughout the manhwa and definitely one of the better aspects of this series.

CHARACTERS:

The main couple of this series. Oh Sangwoo and Yoon Bum were hands down the best characters in this series. Not that they had any competition, cause all the rest of them are left pretty one dimensional or were downplayed a lot in the story. Their relationship was interesting to follow and both characters handled pretty well. They both got an interesting background story and the series put them both go through a character arc, which both sadly abruptly ended. The series also gave these guys a lot of personality and you can see that Koogi wanted to make these characters as good she possibly could.

Rest of the cast wasn't as fortunate as these two. Only other one who had some kind of character arc and a little bit compelling story was the cop named Yang Seungbae. Sadly the manhwa forgets him for a long time and his character is left pretty one dimensional. Rest of the cast are just there to advance the plot, which I can kinda forgive since the series clearly wanted to focus on Bum and Sangwoo. Still kinda disappointing that Seungbae was downplayed.

OVERALL:

Killing Stalking does many things right, but sadly it drops the ball when the story progresses over the halfway point. Storywise I honestly can't recommend it, but if you're interested in seeing some darker yaoi-stuff with some kind of plot in between the smut or are just interested to see how well this series handles the heavy themes presented in it then you might want to give it a shot.