MyAnimeList.net

Orange Marmalade
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Orange Marmalade

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Japanese: 오렌지 마말레이드

Information

Type: Manhwa

Volumes: 8

Chapters: 66

Status: Finished

Published: Feb 12, 2011 to Dec 29, 2013

Genres: Drama, Romance

Themes: School, Vampire

Demographic: Shoujo

Serialization: Naver Webtoon

Authors: Jung, Seok Woo (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.83¹ (scored by 21,000 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1261²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #404

Members: 41,795

Favorites: 862

Available At

Resources

Write a Review
Reviews

Filtered Results: 20 / 21

Sort

Suggested
Most voted
Newest
Oldest

Filter Preliminary Spoiler

Feb 9, 2015

Rampant

Not Recommended

Nothing about this is fun, meaningful, sweet, or tragic.

The main plot setting is that humans are irrationally, wildly racist against vampires to an extent that is unfathomably unrealistic. The "love interest" is a pushy stalker. The main character is a gutless, bland loser. Since the art is average, it leaves the work with no redeeming factors.

This could have been an interesting work despite the flawed premise if any of the characters were particularly fun or unique, but nobody offers anything. Instead it is nothing but a slow paced abomination. "OMG being vampire is suffering" is not an interesting story.

Jun 30, 2014

henyome

Recommended

On the surface this seems like your typical high school vampire romance—and make no mistake, it is true to its shoujo nature, but the execution of the plot is utterly flawless. Orange Marmalade plays out like a simple but effective allegory, dealing with the unfair treatment and oppression of vampires, who have now turned to pig blood rather than human blood to try to acclimate and adjust to modern human society. Despite their efforts and a three-hundred year peace treaty, vampires have been forced to hide their true nature lest they face discrimination and harassment by their human neighbors.

What is so exceptional about this series ... is the characters and how much development they receive. In the beginning, Ma-Ri is jaded and cynical. She is accustomed to her family's constant moving as a result of their nature being discovered, so moving schools is nothing new to her—and having friends is almost a foreign notion given her past experiences. Yet throughout the series she not only makes friends, but comes to trust and rely upon them as well. Soon, rather than doubting the humans and wondering if they can ever live peacefully together, she starts to desperately believe and want that to be the case—contrary to her initial apathetic and apprehensive nature.

Jae-Min and the supporting cast receive their own measure of fleshed out back stories and development through the course of the series. Even the antagonists are given a dose of humanism, wavering from completely incapable of inducing sympathy to relatable characters with legitimate motives for their actions.

Their realism comes through the fact that they all make mistakes and poor decisions that result in severe repercussions. It is their own actions that produce their suffering—and it gives the impression that everyone has some measure of control over their own misery.

The plot itself does a good job of keeping some suspense, introducing new supporting characters, new obstacles, and culminating to an exciting final climax that is satisfactorily resolved by the end. It's simplistic in its premise and the introduction of it, but the way the story moves through each arc is at just the right pacing to let everything sink in before introducing something novel to reel you back in.

The color palette for the art, the shading, the expressions, everything is rich with the appropriate emotion and tone for the characters and the story. Each panel is clean and clear, a unique experience especially for most people reading shoujo as its in webtoon format and flows perfectly.

Despite being conventional with many of its elements, Orange Marmalade manages to pull everything together in a way that most of its peers are unable to. In every category possible it exceeds expectations, and while it may not be a masterpiece, it comes awfully close.

Jul 12, 2013

DennaOrDianne

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/66 chp)

I can really only say one thing about this manhwa and that is; "wow".
It's not that the idea behind the plot is particularly original or anything, in fact I tend to avoid vamp-human-love-stories ever since the Twilight-fever, but somehow this story just swept me of my feet. Two chapters into Orange Marmalade and I was completely sold.
The characters are really believable, the female lead, Baek Mari struggling with loneliness and her distrust for humans after being shunned by them, and Jae min, the former Misogynist with an unexpectedly dark past and a Mother complex, trying to win her over. The whole thing is just ...

Dec 25, 2014

Zeroskye

Recommended

Story:

Vampire romances are from rare, so what makes Orange Marmalade so good? The execution. In vampire shoujos, more often than not, the vampires are perceived as cool or alluring by the humans. Orange Marmalade, on the other hand, decides to take a realistic shot at the relationship between vampires and humans. When reality is suddenly invaded by the supernatural, you shouldn't be thinking along the lines of "Oh, he's so cool" or "Dude, I wanna be the friend of that vampire/werewolf/ghost." The characters of Orange Marmalade act just like how we would; we follow stereotypes and don't take action when others are ostracized due ...

Sep 7, 2014

kathrine_peirce

Mixed Feelings

ok,this is my first review here so yay congratulations for me :) and it's probably gonna be weird but whatever let's get back to the review i really like the plot put i wish things have gone different because it's really really boring when the girl ends up with the guy she is supposed to end up with right from the first chapter it was really easy to guess what was gonna happen next and my guessing was always right which made it really boring i wish that the manga was a little more unpredictable a lot actually and i totally hate the ending it's ...

Jul 27, 2021

scenophile

Mixed Feelings

This is overall a pretty fun read; although there's a really interesting premise it doesn't feel like the manhwa completely convinced itself of its own world-building until the later chapters, which were the more interesting ones in my opinion.

There were also some really annoying character moments and the middle dragged out a bit because it was almost all just Mari being wishy-washy. I understand the reasoning for it, but it felt like not much moved forwards and even then there was a lot of questionable decision-making.

I also thought that side characters could have been fleshed out more; it really felt as though they were just ...

Jan 16, 2014

TheBizzarReview

Recommended

A near perfect comic to read. I'm not going to talk about why the manga is so good, instead I will talk about why it is not a perfect manga. In my time while reading this comic I started to focus on the character of the entire comic. There were a few characters that of had a bit more character development. The blonde girl at the end of the novel that still hates her for being a vampire, The teacher, and the love interest father. Though it is a pretty awesome manga recommended by me.

Feb 6, 2021

Zatopro

Not Recommended

Preliminary (16/66 chp)

This is my first review and I'm only compelled to write this out of pure disgust for this manhwa. This won't be a very long write-up since I dropped this trash pretty early on but if you want to save yourself a read here's the TLDR: Stay away from the supposed "romance" manhwa unless you really enjoy abusive men.

This story starts out well enough; aloof girl, stuck-up guy - you know, the standard fare for a lot of romance stories in this medium, but after just a few chapters things take a turn for the infuriating. The male lead seems to have no comprehension of ...

Feb 12, 2017

aguecheek

Recommended

The truth is, I'm extremely conflicted on this one. In execution, this manhwa is so close to perfect, but where it counts, it misses the mark. Let me elaborate.

First of all, if you're looking for a cute romance, I highly recommend you look somewhere else. While their relationship is a huge part of the story, it's less the Ma Ri and Jae Min story, more the Ma Ri story. Less a love story, more a story about a teenage girl doing her best to cope in a highly discriminatory world.

And this is done extraordinarily well. In theory it sounds stupid, a world where vampires ... are an oppressed minority group, but it's done so genuinely that I would advise you to stay away from this if you've experienced bullying because of race, religion, or sexual orientation and it's scarred you. As someone who hasn't dealt with that sort of thing at all, reading this hurt, so I can't imagine what it must be like for someone who has been through this.

Because you move with Ma Ri. You feel her pain when one of the first friends she's made in a long time talks about how she wishes all vampires would just die, or when the boy who professes to be in love with her invites her to go with him to see a movie about vampire-slaying. And when people prove that she matters more to them than some dangerous stereotype taught to them by bigots, you learn to trust just as she does.

Ha Ri is a fantastic character, fleshed out in every important way, and that goes for this world, too. Often stories about discrimination are preachy or unrealistic, especially for fictional discrimination (see: Dragon Age), but this one is too real. We see every side of every character, and can see just as easily how people like this can be people we know. It's not black and white; we see unreasonable people on both sides, vampire and human, and the people who were just caught in the crossfire.

And maybe that's this story's downfall, too, setting the bar that high. Right until the final arc, it cultivates this incredibly realistic world, with flawed but likable characters and great relationships, and then it changes gears completely.

I'm not going to mince words. The climax arc is absolutely terrible. The ending is a cop-out, completely unearned, with sudden unrealistic drama leading to an neat unrealistic conclusion. The problem is, in a story like this, with obvious real-life allegories, the message is central, and the one it leaves us with is easy and unrealistic. You can't make a world this real and then base your message on obvious fiction. It sucks to see this becomes just another one of those bad, preachy discrimination stories with shoehorned morals.

Because of the easy ending, characters who were well-developed and real (my own opinion of them notwithstanding) like Jae Min and Ma Ri herself weren't allowed organic growth. Real dilemmas and real experiences with difficult and multifaceted answers were lost to spontaneous drama with easy solutions. That kind of potential is rare, and seeing it thrown away really hurts.

So that's why I'm conflicted; in a way, this manhwa deserves much higher than seven, and in another way, it deserves much less. To its credit, though, these characters are amazing and you should still read it; Soo Ri, one of Ma Ri's friends, is a real Ensemble Darkhorse, and I would honestly read this series just for her. Just - don't get your hopes up too high, and even while it's good, prepare yourself for pain.

tl;dr Orange Marmalade is brilliantly executed - with a hauntingly realistic world and realistic characters - right until the climax, where it throws away a lot of its potential in favor of an unearned neat ending and a shoehorned, overdone moral. Also, don't read this if you've been bullied about your race, sexual orientation, or religion to the point where it's triggering, because it really, really hurts.

(Also, if you want me to elaborate or want to discuss this with me, since I skimmed around some stuff in the interest of avoiding spoilers, feel free to.)

May 11, 2015

A_inWonderland

Recommended

This is not your typical high school, romance, drama, slice of life...this webtoon is all over the place.
It is fabulously intriguing hooking us in with an interesting look upon the vampiric condition.

It continues to keep us there with solid well rounded characters, that make us simply want to break down and hug them. These characters are so human, that it makes it almost possible to reach out and touch them.

The art is fabulous, and like many webtoons, is in full colour!

It brings out so many emotions, happy and sad, laughing and tears, heartbreak, and that warm fuzzy feeling that can only be brought ...

Oct 25, 2020

lexie1

Recommended

I agree. I agree with both the reviews that give it a 2 and the reviews that give it a 9, as I hated the manhwa as much as I loved it. Therefore, I have never ever had such time reviewing a manga/manhwa/manhua, and I would suggest that you stop reading the reviews even my one and just read it because it's worth it.
If you are curious though bare with me while I explain what is so good and bad with this manhwa.

The best thing about the manga are the characters combined with good storytelling. It is rare to have such 3D in depth ...

May 29, 2017

ImRingo

Mixed Feelings

***This is a somewhat spoiler free review***

What do you get when you have a decent cast that do decent things but then get a rushed ending? Orange Marmalade.

Story: 5/10

I'll say that the whole vampire hiding in society thing was actually pretty well done. The basic premise of this Manhwa is that we follow the main protagonist as she fights her way through having a somewhat normal high school experience. Too bad she has some really hot guy all over her and has many friends that care for her. But noooooo she doesn't want any of that; well not at first. One thing I really liked ... about how the plot moved was that the main character did start to mature and open up to the rest of the cast. There was a very clear development of her character that had many milestones hit. Unfortunately what dragged it down was the other main character Jae-Min who in my honest opinion ruined the whole story. He is your typical single minded male lead that just loves to fuck everything up.

The worst offence however is the rushed ending. It was tied up so god damn fast that I was flabbergasted at the closer we received for some characters. You have a complete breakdown of one of the supporting casts...and she ends up with the man that was just using her for her blood...? Blaaa one of the worst endings I have ever seen and it unfortunately drags down the entire Manhwa.

Art: 7/10

Most Manhwa's are done with photoshop and lack really detailed colors. The Manhwa Tower of God was the same way for awhile but it soon developed its own sense of style that made it look unique. It would be a stretch to say that Orange Marmalade has its own style but some of the scenes do look pretty good. I did like most of the character models and background shots.

Characters: 6.3/10

This really made me grind my teeth because while most of the characters had their great moments, it was all ruined by the ending. Jae-Min just came off as a horrible horrible lead. Some of the supporting cast were pretty interesting but when they needed to stick up for Ma-Ri when she really needed it, most of them dropped the ball. To make things worse the ONE character that I felt actually cared about Ma-Ri throughout the entire story f$#ks up big time in the end.

A HUGE letdown.

Overall: 6.1/10

I won't go as far as reviewer Bradalee and say this is a complete waste of time due to the ending but I will say to prepare to lose all respect for the characters that you have grown attached to. The rushed ending leaves a lot to be desired but the moments before the climax were pretty enjoyable to watch.

Enjoyment: 5.2/10

Thanks for reading my review! If you liked my writing style, would like to see some other reviews, or just want to talk, please stop by my page!

Sincerely,
Awesome Drummer

Jul 28, 2019

Kelraz

Mixed Feelings

The funny (or interresting) thing about this manwa is that you can just replace the word "vampire" with "black", "asian", "caucasian", "gay", "muslim", "catholic", "jewish" or any other kind of minority in the place where you live and it still does makes sense. The author didn't intent that kind of thing but sadly it does work.

It's a boring read most of the time especially the first 30 chapters could be tuned down in ~3-5 chapters, because everything just repeats again and again. If this was cut down to a ~ 40-50 chapter manwa it would certainly be for the better.

The main characters are both nothing ...

Feb 1, 2022

SmolCrowBro

Recommended

To be honest, most of the manwha is hit or miss romance fare. But when the emotional beats of the story hit, most of them hit hard. There are certain highlights here and there in the overall story, but I've re-read the last 20 or so chapters more times than I can count. The climax and ending of this manwha is what elevates it for me above most other romance stories, and if you don't want to read the whole manwha, I recommend the beginning and end for anyone interested.

I would go into more detail, especially in regards to how well the main character's friendships ...

Oct 5, 2019

storylitlover6

Recommended

I've been into webtoons lately, and I think this is my very first one to complete from start to finish. This is also one of my first romance comic involving vampires. I am typically not a big fan of the whole vampire thing, but this one was quite a pleasant surprise in how they utilize the vampire drama.

Let's start with the first category: story (8/10)
The story focuses on the ice princess, Mari Baek. She is a beautiful, lonely girl who transferred into a different high school. Because vampires aren't accepted into the human society, she isolated herself from her classmates in order to ... avoid heartbreak and betrayal. But her life changes when she runs into the school's hottie, Jaemin.

This entire story is really about Mari struggling with love, friendship, and most of all, self-love and acceptance. The author did a fantastic job in building up the tension between humans and vampires, which complicates Mari and her relationship with the male lead, her classmates, and her new friends. The plot does go a bit off tangent at times because of the drama and romance, but the story follows Mari's conflict with her own identity and desire to be with the ones she loves.

Art (10/10): There's no doubt that the art is amazing and gorgeous. It's like a colored manga panel each page. I can't get over it.

Characters (7/10) : Mari is a breath of fresh air when in comes to female protagonists in romance genres. She's not the typical whiny, over dramatic, naive, or timid protagonist. She is certainly not a pushover either, which really helped my sanity. Even though Mari is usually calm, stoic, and cold, she has hilarious moments so it makes her somewhat balanced and quite enjoyable. There are times I can see where some may find her actions frustrating, but that highlights her biggest flaws that dictates the plot: her cowardice and insecurity. She kept her mask for years to avoid rejection and betrayal, causing her to become stone cold and pushing away those who want to be with her. This character flaw becomes apparent throughout, and the author executed Mari's conflict well until the very end. She's one of the dynamic main protagonists I've seen yet.

The main male lead was good for the most part. Jaemin's behavior during the times he tried to court Mari was dislikable (you'll see). He's quite rude to females (except for Mari), very persistent, and somewhat cocky. But don't worry, he has a reason for his off putting personality, and that also helped his characterization. It's better to have a character with flaws than a perfect prince charming (well, in my opinion of course).

So if I found the main leads well-written, how come I rated the character category low? Let's start with my criticism in this section.
Although I appreciated Mari's realistic flaws and personality, I felt sometimes her character was inconsistent in some parts. I won't pinpoint the exact moments where I felt as if she changed a bit too drastically, but those moments didn't sit well with me.

Now I have a few complaints for the secondary characters. Just a few. First, I feel like we haven't gotten much closure for them, especially the male love rival, Si Hoo (a character I was really interested in). Si Hoo wasn't utilized as well as he could have, despite all the amazing moments he had and how much he did for Mari. Honestly, I found him way more interesting than any other character in the series. Yet, we don't get to see his ending, whether it was a happy ending or not.

Mari's friends Suri and Woomi had good roles, and there isn't anything wrong with them. They had some mistakes, drama, and own backstories (Suri specifically), which blended well with Mari's development. I just wished Suri wasn't written out in the final act (slight spoilers but not really).

Now, there are two female love rivals or I could even say the antagonists of the series that I shall not name cause of spoilers. One was written really well. She had a full character transformation from the most cliche love rival one could ever be to a better, developed character. I have a few problems with her, but I won't address them now. The biggest I problem I had was with the other female love rival. We don't get any closure from this one at all, even though she may as well be the final villain of the story. It's as almost as if she had been forgotten, which by the way she shouldn't be cause of what she did. Also, she did a full 360 in her character; I'm not sure if that was a good move or not. It's a hit or miss.

Overall and enjoyment (8/10). Overall, this was a good work. This series can get very emotional and touching at times, so prepare to tear up (i certainly did). The author didn't just deliver us romance. In the midst of this drama, there were messages of self-love, discrimination, forgiveness, and acceptance. It is a wholesome webtoon, and for those who are looking for a romance filled with drama and a touch of the supernatural, this is the story for you.

Jan 9, 2018

Bobby_Jeans

Recommended

I really enjoyed this work especially in its somewhat nuanced portrayal of vampires and their interaction with human society. The art felt plain but enhanced by the style in key moments. For the most part the characters felt realistic and their growth seemed natural except for one problem which I blame on the story structure and not the writing of the characters.

My biggest problem with this story is the sheer irrationality that is displayed in the context of the humans hatred of vampires. It doesn't feel in any way justifies especially when we learn later in the story that no vampire has killed a human ...

Aug 29, 2016

TheEtruscan

Recommended

Right so this is my first review on this site so go easy on me, Ok so Orange Marmalade where should I begin... This is one of those extremely rare instances where I found a Manga I enjoyed so much it got me emotional.

So heres why.

The reason this particular Manga was so great in my opinion is due to multiple factors first I would like to mention the story, the story in this is so unique its surprising what I mean by this is that Orange Marmalade focuses heavily on its world building which is weird for a romance Manga but wow does ...

Mar 30, 2016

Banter

Recommended

One of the best romance manhwa I've read. Plot progression is just right- there are occasional chapters that SEEM like fillers but end up contributing to the plot, and the pacing is great.

Character: Just about all the cast develop some way or another. No spoilers but by all the cast I mean ALL, even Basic Bitch #1 and Deliberately Antagonistic Antagonist change throughout the manhwa. Only reason I gave it a 9 is because from start to finish there's 2 characters who are added for seemingly no purpose but for one joke somewhere in the middle then kept on for the sake of it, never ...

Oct 7, 2015

matic12345

Recommended

Picking manga at random is interesting as you can stumble upon some very interesting reading material. Reading through the short summary I did not think this was going to be any good as reading a romance manga involving vampires seemed like a chore but after reading a few chapters I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at just how good of a read this was.

In contemporary Korean society vampires are living among normal people having found pig’s blood is a adequate replacement for human blood, but the people are still harbouring hatred towards them, so they have to hide their identity. We are introduced ... to Ma Ri Baek a cute high school girl who has just moved to a new environment with her family, after the people in the town where they lived before, found out they were vampires and had to run away. Because of her painful memories of rejection she is afraid to make friends and so she quietly sits by herself trying not throw any attention onto herself. One day while being hungry on her way back from school she completely zones-out and starts sucking on the neck of a boy from her school.

The premise itself is nothing special in itself, but the way the story unravels is just great. The way she wants to avoid him at first, to her slowly acquiring feelings for him but not willing to open up for the sake of not getting hurt, it is all put into writing perfectly. It is not all about love we can also see her slowly getting friendlier with her surroundings and slowly breaking down the wall she has built around herself. The execution is the thing that makes this manga stand out from the crowd as it manages to create this unbelievably calming atmosphere that was able to transfer me to this “happy place” while reading it and that in itself is something few other manga have accomplished. The story itself includes all the characteristics associated with the shoujo genre but the storytelling is done so well it rarely bothered me.

The characters are all great a bit stereotypical and are still believable if not overly realistic, but that is expected from a manga like this. Our main character is really withdrawn because of the rejection she faced after some of her friends found out she is a vampire. She keeps to herself longing for time to pass so she could leave this school and the people in it. After she is made to join the music club she slowly starts opening up and start making friends. What is a shoujo manga without a male protagonist, in our case that is Jung Jae Min, the boy whose neck Ma Ri sucks on. He has some serious issues with women and tries to avoid contact with them, but after the incident he completely falls for Ma Ri, but she, afraid of him finding out her secret, rejects him, but for us to have a story, he is very persistent and does not try to quit his endeavours of conquering her heart. We also have two female friends Ma Ri manages to make in the music club, another boy who falls for Ma Ri and a few less important classmates, but all of them manage to fit into the story seamlessly an each of them brings something unique to the table.

The art is the thing that drew me in and I have to say that it is exceptional and manages to stand out even among the Korean webtoon crowd. The characters look amazing, the background are detailed, the colours pop and all of this just pulls you in and doesn’t let you go. The presentation is beautiful as well, if not as breathtaking as Annarasumanara, and makes Orange Marmalade an easy read.

All in all Orange Marmalade is very good piece of work, that has decent characters, exquisite storytelling and beautiful art, it also manages to avoid many of the pitfalls of the genre. It still is has its fair share of problems and so it deserves the score of a high eight. I would recommend this manga to anyone interested in a bit of romance and to all of those who can just admire the art.
This is actually my first manga review (more of them are coming soon) and so would appreciate some feedback so that later reviews can be improved.

May 12, 2014

kitykat288

Recommended

This is my first time writing a review so..... yep

This manga is about a girl who is a vampire and attends school and trys to live a "normal" life. She has no friends and no boyfriend. It is know that there are vampires and they all called "monsters" because they have to drink blood to live. This manga was really good and i think everyone who enjoys romance mangas should read it. EVERY1 SHOULD READ THIS MANGA