Turning the Mad Dog into a Genteel Lord
by V_An, Yepbee, zuisha
published by Tappytoon (28 chapters, ongoing)
2024 – present
This is another comedy that makes me laugh out loud (so I read it when I’m alone, as I don’t want people to fear me on BART), and one I eagerly await new episodes for.
Diarin is a priestess who always gets the worst assignments. Her new project is to take a magically-brainwashed, berserker veteran soldier from a notoriously murderous military unit, and spruce him up so he can be a regional noble.
It’s… an impossible task, and one that puts her own life at risk – she is dealing with a man who can hear a heart beating from a great distance away, and then seek that heart out to kill – but Diarin will try with a smile! Especially since she gets to live in a mansion with her charge who, despite is formidable size and strength, she protectively comes to think of as an unruly puppy.
As with other manhwa, I want to point out the effort that went into the background art:
Diarin is extremely expressive, and I laugh at her reactions to being blinded by someone attractive (illustration below), her eyes bulging at her first sight of Ceres’ attempts to write, or her mental process after attractively-built Ceres stands naked in front of her (pieces of fruit on a table have never been funnier). The use of exaggeration is well executed.
Before reading manhwa, I hadn’t realized how I also want cartoon letters to float around me for emphasis, though I admit they would create problems for me professionally.
This is a light, fun, well-executed comedy about an ambitious, optimistic clergy member trying to re-train a dangerous man-puppy whose head has been magically reprogrammed in what might be some kind of trap. It’s fun! I recommend it.