Category: The Third Party

“Let’s Be Lonely Together, Miss Gu!” – The Third Party by Enjelicious Review

DISCLAIMER:

The following images used in this article are selected (not whole pages of the webtoon/s) and will only be used for the sole purpose of this review. The Lily Cat does not claim ownership of the webtoon art and images featured. 
Official links to the author's webcomics are also included for the benefit of the readers and to support the creator's works. 
Thank you for your understanding.

It has been a while since my last review on something related to webcomics (for a very good reason, I will explain later).

This has been long overdue. I honestly wanted to talk about this series for a (very) long time and those who have known for me for years can prove that while this series was ongoing, I couldn’t stop talking about it. So finally, here it is! My review on The Third Party by Enjelicious.  Spoilers ahead!

The Basics

The Third Party was released in 2017 (during the hype of Lezhin Comics’ GL Renaissance) in the Lezhin Comics EN website. This was created by popular Filipino artist Enjelicious notable for doing cover arts for the physical release of the Diary ng Panget books as well as other local manga releases in the Philippines. Her ongoing work Age Matters can be read on LINE Webtoon and has earned a massive following to this day.

Going back to TTP, the webtoon won First Place in Lezhin US’ first webtoon competition. When the teaser of the series was released, yuri fans were excited and very much looking forward to it.

The Third Party is centered on the romance of two girls: Gu Jeong Hui and Moon Hae Jin. Gu Jeong Hui is the daughter of the CEO of a TV broadcasting company, GBS. Here’s the thing: Jeong Hui is in an arranged marriage with one of the TV anchors, Kang Sang Hun. She immediately obeyed her father’s wishes of marrying Sang Hun regardless if her life still feels empty. It took a different turn when she met Hae Jin, who is a Producer-Director of the company.

While Jeong Hui’s purpose in GBS was to obey her father and her husband’s wishes, Hae Jin had different agendas to why she was there: to get revenge and answers on the death of her father. She didn’t care if she had to manipulate people to do this. She did everything whatever it takes. However, her plans seemed to have slowed down when she met Jeong Hui. Eventually they fell in love with each other.

The webtoon is roller coaster of intense drama and romance. You are sure to be completely hooked.

Late Reaction to The Hype

Due to I was focused on another webtoon series What Does The Fox Say, I admit I never really got into the hype fully. It was when it reached to Chapter 10 when I finally decided to give The Third Party a read. And oh man, I regretted for not starting too soon.

My Undying Love for PD Moon

I am not ashamed to say that ever since her full appearance in the first chapter, I was completely in love with PD Moon (Moon Hae Jin). Just who wouldn’t? She works in a Media company (which is in my line of career), she’s very beautiful, and just whatever she does makes you wish that she’d noticed you. I always tend to joke that “I want PD Moon to step on me” because of how I greatly admire her from her character design to her constant change as the story progresses.

As The Third Party moves forward, you would probably notice that ever since Gu came into her life, PD Moon was torn of avenging her past or just embrace the present thing she has now. She had Gu, she didn’t need anything else. She was willing to let go of almost everything she worked for because of her. But on the other side of the coin, she was already at that peak where the answers that she always demanded and work FOR YEARS is still conflicting.

The Art, Drama, and Intensity

Reading this webtoon for the first time was really a ride. Almost 90% of the time, each chapter ends with a cliffhanger. But you really can’t ignore the art of this webtoon. This is probably the first webtoon series I’ve read in which 3/4 of each chapter has a background. Most of the time, webcomics are only filled with white background and not many details are added except the character. In The Third Party, however, every panel has a background and the artist really took a lot of effort to add in backgrounds to give the scene a bit more life.

Every Monday night was something to look forward to as the intensity of the story grew as each chapter moves forward.

The Ending

For the benefit of those who haven’t read The Third Party ending (or haven’t even started yet,) I won’t spoil much. When the last chapter was released, I was already expecting a lot of people to comment about the ending. How I wish I can elaborate more–but I have to say that that ending was definitely okay for me. It wasn’t sad or it was a happy ending. It was some that people didn’t expect. While people had a lot to say about it, it honestly gave me hope that there will be a continuation of Gu and PD Moon’s story. I don’t mind how long I will be able to wait for that happen. However, it was a good end for me. Let me know in the comments section what you think of the ending if you’ve read it already. I’m curious!

The Webtoon That Got Me Back to the Yuri Community

Yes, that’s PD Moon in a coffee shop. At the same time, it’s my laptop and me in a coffee shop.

Okay, this part may be a bit personal so incoming feels trip.

The time The Third Party was released, I was at that particular moment of my life when I wanted to leave the Yuri community. The story behind this is very long and I promised my friends to no longer talk about it. I honestly lost the energy and motivation to do the things that I wanted to do. So I made the decision to just quit. However, this webtoon got me back. I read this in one of the darkest periods of my life as a yuri fan. Until now, I am very thankful that this series was made. I think giving a hundred or even thousands of thank you’s to Enjelicious aren’t enough to express how this webtoon got me back to loving yuri and just do stuff for this fandom.

Also, I realized that I have such a connection to PD Moon especially when it comes to the topics of romance and life are concerned. We all make mistakes and we take the wrong risks along the way. However, a certain fragment of your past shouldn’t be a reason not to keep going. We keep going even if we have to keep that someone in our life or let go for the better.

Conclusion

No webtoon series is perfect and The Third Party is one of them. I do not want to go technical or critical on this because my overall conclusion is that this webtoon is a must-read. Some of you may be reading her current work Age Matters, but if you have extra webtoon coins to spare, please do read The Third Party. From art to story, and to the characters. I actually lost count to how many times I’ve read the series. I think you might say this is my go-to yuri webtoon to read, and I do hope it would be the same for you guys too.

You may read The Third Party on Lezhin Comics.

Note: The title for this review is inspired by Avicii’s song “Lonely Together”. The lyrics fam. (RIP Avicii)

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‘The Third Party’ Ends, Hits Number 1 on Lezhin Comics GL Rankings!

Enjelicious’ GL webtoon series The Third Party ended last April 9 with a total of 63 chapters. The artist is the First Place winner of the 1st Lezhin US Comic Contest.

Regardless of its end, it still made it to the number 1 spot in the last week of April’s GL rankings in Lezhin Comics (US). 
During its debut chapters back in 2017, it was at number 1 then remained at the Top 5 for a few consecutive weeks along with the then ongoing webtoon series hits What Does The Fox Say, Pulse, and The Love Doctor. 
Her new work Age Matters is currently ongoing and can be read for free here. 
Stay tuned for my full review of TTP (soon!)

The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

Is it the End of Lezhin Comics’ “GL Renaissance”?

The hype was so strong at first but now we are still filled with question marks on top of our heads. The biggest question being asked by many is “What Happened?”

Girl’s Love Revolution

2016 and 2017 were quite some hyped up years for Yuri and GL fans alike as Lezhin Comics opened a door to a variety of GL series. Due to this huge volume of webtoon series, it wasn’t long until the webcomic platform got a lot of attention not only in Korea but also in an international scale. From What Does The Fox Say?, Pulse, The Love Doctor, Maison de Maid and Vengeance, Lezhin was taking the webtoon industry by storm and putting artists and writers on the pedestals of great recognition.
The White Dog in Red Background

To those who are not aware, Lezhin Comics (also known as Lezhin Entertainment) is a premium webtoon service that started in April 2013. It was founded by Hee-sun “Lezhin” Han and Jung-hyuk Kwon, the company’s CEO and CTO respectively. Their website www.lezhin.comis available in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Although there are free chapters that users can browse in, further ones are required to be purchased via Lezhin coins in which you need to buy them with real money.
Aside from GL, the website is notable for other webtoons under Mature/Adult, Romance, Comedy, BL, and so on. It also served as a webnovel platform until they effectively closed down the service last year.
Lezhin was a powerhouse for webtoons catering not only original creations but also offering Japanese, Chinese, and Korean manga publications to be available for purchase on the site. Two popular examples are Saburouta’s Citrus and Ratana Satis’ Lily Love.
Everyday was Girl’s Love Day

The nice thing about Lezhin’s releases is the feeling that everyday was Girl’s Love day. There was a new chapter of a new series to look forward to. It was n Lezhin’s releases that got me to go home early before 8pm my time so that I can get to read the latest releases at 9pm. For a working person like me, I considered the releases as more of a stress reliever from the tiring day you had.

One of the most memorable days for me during this period was when the time Pulse chapters are released every Friday and then next day you get The Love Doctor chapters. There was never a dull weekend as you wait for these series. What Does The Fox Say’s releases were also highly anticipated as chapters were released every ten days of each month.
Slow Decline

2017 was both good and bad for those who follow the Lezhin GL series because this was also the time when a majority of the series were ending— and sadly, a lot of them are either ended suddenly or ended with a not-so-satisfying-cliffhanging ending. Everyday Lily, My Girlfriend’s Ex-Boyfriend, Maison de Maid, White Angels Have No Wings, The Love Doctor, and Chain of Youth are just some of those examples. It has become a notable pattern that the story gets so good at the beginning, a bit dragging half-way then give us a slap-to-the-face ending chapter that let you stay in your seat thinking, “Wait, wut now?”

BL Series Killing Stalking

When The Platform Plays Safe

I am pretty sure that I’m not the only one who noticed this that it seems that Lezhin is now putting more favor into its BL genre than the others. Seldom do you see coin sales for your favorite GL webtoons now and it has come to the point that it has become overshadowed by its counterpart genre. 
Ironically, it was What Does The Fox Say that got Lezhin into the radar of international yuri fans before it was taken over by popular BL works like Killing Stalking. The platform may have noticed that there are a lot of BL fans and decided to ride this hype rather than taking chances on their other genres. 
Although there are still other series being promoted in their social media pages like their Romance and Mature genres, it has become too rare now to see GL works being promoted. It’s quite sad.
Issues

News about Lezhin’s unfair payment policy surfaced in Twitter since last year and it has escalated more when its creators and readers organized protests in front of its corporate office in Seoul. While Lezhin defends itself by giving their readers answers with questionable loopholes, it’s already evident that these constant issues of the company have caused some of the creators to jump ship and leave.
There have been stories that artists and writers dealing with mental health-related problems and so much stress due to the company’s strict polices when it comes to deadline and delays. This has not only affected some of Lezhin’s GL artists, it has also affected other artists from other genres like the creator of the popular webtoon series Reversi.
Conclusion

As much as I want to delve in deeper into Lezhin’s issues and the other GL series, it might be getting a bit too long. So to answer the question “Is it the End of Lezhin Comics’ “GL Renaissance”?”, I would have to say “It’s a yes, for now.”
I am honestly sad that as I’m writing this now, the yuri fandom is no longer feeling the hype of Lezhin GL webcomics everyday due to the lack of new content. Some have already moved on to other webtoon platforms for enjoyment. So far, the only series that is left in this golden GL era is The Third Party by Enjelicious, the first winner of Lezhin US’ Comic Contest.
Although there are new GL series that are stepping up like Blooming Sequence by Leeul, On A Leash by Aji (which is currently on indefinite hiatus), Moonlight Garden by Kang Unnie and Miss PM, and Elixir by Sungwon, I just miss those days that almost every day is something to look forward to. This hype may still take a while to build, what I’m very thankful for is that I was able to support these artists and witnessed this renaissance together with a lot of yuri fans who loved these series the same way as I do.
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How about you? What your favorite Lezhin GL webtoon back then? Leave it in the comments! For now, it’s time to have a cup of coffee and just keep going.

The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

Top 5 Lezhin Comics GL Series Worth Spending Your Coins On

As I am writing this article, my Facebook page has reached more than a thousand likes. I haven’t really thought of anything to celebrate this achievement so perhaps this feature might do the trick.

Lezhin What?

Lezhin Comics is a premiere webcomics service providing readers a wide array of series to read– from Boy’s Love, Girl’s Love, Mature, and more. Since last year, I was so glued to their GL webcomics, that I almost shifted my fandom devotion to these particular series.

After reading a couple of series found in their website, I was so intrigued and began to loyally follow their releases not only in English but also their Korean titles. The reason why I do the latter is because eventually, these series will be given official English translations later on.

Of course, not everything you get is for free. For you to enjoy and be updated with the latest series of Lezhin, you need to purchase Lezhin Coins which can be bought using real cash. If you’re on a tight budget, Lezhin Comics usually holds coin sales that would really give you good deals on coin purchase.

The Glory of Lezhin GL




I would admit this that Lezhin Comics has provided some very good GL webcomics that it’s entirely impossible for you to be left behind. Although I follow almost all of the English and Korean releases, I will be listing down my top 5 Lezhin Comics GL series worth spending your coins on. I am going to make this spoiler-free so that I wouldn’t ruin the fun. 😉

5. The Love Doctor by Chamsae and Bansook

The Love Doctor centers on Jung Erae, an ordinary girl who has problems in dealing with men or even dealing with relationships as a whole. She seeks help to a “Love Doctor” named Cha Yoon. As days go by, Erae slowly realizes that she is starting to develop feelings for her.

The Lily Cat says: I followed Love Doctor because of how nice the art is and Erae is cute. The story gets pretty good but tends to slow down its pace midway. Regardless, it’s still one good read if you are looking for a GL series that is not really much about drama most of the time.

4. What Does The Fox Say by Team Gaji

What Does The Fox Say is a story of the intense love triangle of Sung Sumin, Ju Sungji, and Baek Seju. Sung Sumin is a Team Leader of Hello Studio, a company run by Baek Seju, her ex-girlfriend. Everything seemed to turn around for Sumin when the new recruit Ju Sungji came into the picture.

The Lily Cat says: Oh wow, how I start this? I cannot hide that this is my first webcomic I’ve read in Lezhin and pretty much the longest running GL series in the site. It has a huge international fanbase (which I can fully attest to this) and has published two volumes of their webcomic so far.

3. Pulse by Ratana Satis

The story of Pulse is centered on a surgeon named Mel who only sees sex as pleasure and love as a game. Everything seemed to have changed when she met a girl named Lynn who is fighting for her own life.

The Lily Cat says: When Pulse was released in Lezhin, I loved this more than WDTFS. The latter at that time wasn’t really going anywhere (not to mention so much sex), this webcomic will really take you away and the character development was just spot on. I have read Ratana’s works before and I know that this is definitely a series that is worth a read.

2. Moonlight Garden by Kang Unnie and MissPM

Moonlight Garden is set in a world where Flower Maidens in Moonlight Garden dominate and known to give sexual pleasures to those who desire them. In this series, a maiden named Dohwa is not yet “fully bloomed”. She crosses paths with Lady Hyewon, after she was found out stealing potions in order to get away from her sealed fate.

The Lily Cat says: I first encountered Moonlight Garden in its Korean release. The art and concept of this webcomic series instantly got me to follow it regardless if I don’t understand Korean much. The art has this unique traditional aesthetic which I really love and the characters are quite beautifully drawn and mysterious. I kept following the series and I was so happy that it finally had an official English translation and topped the GL series rankings in the Lezhin website.

Honorable Mentions

Now before I reveal my Number 1 Lezhin GL series, here are some honorable mentions (in no particular order)~

On a Leash by Aji



Serenade by Keum Kyesoo



Vengeance by Aji



Maison de Maid by Monnyang & Tarang


Lily Love by Ratana Satis


and my Top 1 best Lezhin GL Comic Series is….

1. The Third Party by Enjelicious 


The Third Party is a story of two different women with difficult situations. Moon Hae Jin is a Producer-Director of GBS Studios who has done all she can to get on top. While a new girl in the office Gu Jeong Hui also holds a secret that only her can deal with it. When the two girls met, they had not only had to deal with their developing feelings for each other but also their little secrets.

The Lily Cat says: Anybody who has been online friends with me for long know that I’m so hooked and obsessed with this webcomic! The art is nice, the characters are just hard to ignore (well except Sang Hun pfft), and it would just leave you at the end of your seats. You maybe killed by the numerous cliffhangers of every chapter, but you will definitely wait again for next Monday to see what’s going to happen next. PD Moon is bae, fam.

What’s also nice about it is that this webcomic is made by a Filipino and it was the first winner of Lezhin’s 1st US Comic Contest. 20/10 will highly recommend this.

So these are my Top 5. Have a similar list or you want to share your fave Lezhin yuri as well? Leave it in the comments. With a lot of these series coming along, I’m pretty sure I will still hooked into the Lezhin GL webcomics for a very long time!


Disclaimer: The following images are from the Lezhin Comics website and blog. All artwork in this post is owned by their respective owners.

The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.

This Week in Yuri – January 23-29



Happy Chinese New Year! 

This week has been pretty much good for the Yuri fandom. As a way to keep track on which series is getting most hype and all during the past week, I have created this simple segment called This Week in Yuri. Each post might contain some spoilers since I’ll be talking about each of the episodes and everything in between. I am basing this segment on the GL rankings from Lezhin Comics since majority of the GL series that people are following are from this popular premium webcomic service.

As of January 29 (4:00pm PH Standard Time), The Top 5 are:
1. What Does The Fox Say
2. Pulse
3. The Love Doctor
4. Everyday Lily
5. The Third Party


Great Ways To End the Month

I went back to my previous reviews on What Does The Fox Say and Pulse and I have to say the previous chapters were emotional roller-coasters. This week, I’m quite satisfied with the chapters due to right level of intensity that readers really want.

What Does The Fox Say this week was so intense (in a good way). Base on the current English chapter released, it seems that Team Blonde is sailing once again. In the Korean release, we finally got Seju again and slayed the chapter with her new look, fierce attitude, and her new car.

Pulse is going well in letting the readers be introduced with the new girl in the story, Sue. Sue for me is quite an interesting character since she holds some parts that would put together how Mel was in her past. With that said, I can’t wait how the next chapters will unfold and how Mel and Lynn will be able to conquer these obstacles together.

The Love Doctor is also one of the GL series that I didn’t have time to review on. With recent chapters getting good, I think I should also dedicate a bit of my time to write about this series as well. Erae and Cha Yoon are now canon and hope it goes well from here. But basing on the recent chapters released (Korean version), another drama roller coaster is unfolding.

I haven’t really talked about Everyday Lily here but this series is like a cooldown from all the intense ones that are out on Lezhin. The randomness is just right and that cliff-hanging recent chapter makes me want to know what’s next. If you are done with all your yuri and GL reading backlogs for the week, I highly recommend that you add this up to your reading list.

Okay now this would be the first time that I will be talking about The Third Party created by Filipino artist Enjelicious. First off, I’m so happy that someone from my homeland is having a weekly webcomic circulation on a popular webcomic service.

Aside from this, I’m quite impressed on how the story is going (although halfway of its first debut release chapters were draggy a bit) and I hope it continues to be interesting. During the past few days in this week, it was ranked at Number 1 but was replaced when recent chapters of Love Doctor, Pulse, and WDTFS were released. A great webcomic and I highly recommend it.

So that is my This Week in Yuri! Who knows what’s going to happen in the next one! 😀



The Lily Cat is your source for the latest updates and reviews on Yuri, GL, anime, manga, cosplay, and more.