A Couple of Handsome Men (Manhua Initial Review)

A Couple of Handsome Men is a yaoi manhua (Chinese manga) released in 2017. It takes place in China where the main character- a talented basketball player- is offered to become a part of an M-Pop group and become an idol. He ends up being in the same group with 4 other rather interesting men from different backgrounds- with one of them being a foreigner. It also covers the struggles of being an idol, how they are seen in the media’s and industry’s eyes itself and even giving insight of how different times back then and presently deal with homophobia.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on reading this because the artstyle seems rather horrid at first and it did seem sloppy, but the author herself did comment in the first chapter that this is her first ever manga, so I decided to give it a shot. I’m glad I did though because it does get slightly better throughout the progression of it. At first it seemed like the author got inspiration from Love Stage yet at the same time tried to make their own version of the story. Also, when you read the first few chapters of the manhua, you feel a bit lost as to what the author’s goal with this is, but later on, it does get better which makes me glad that they have written over 100 chapters of this.

One thing I do have to comment on is that some of the panels do repeat themselves- I don’t know if it’s from the site that I was reading on, or if that was just overlooked by the author themself, but it doesn’t entirely ruin the story. It just happens in a few of the most recent chapters. Also, it is a bit of a cliché since there have been a lot of stories coming out the past decade on being an idol for a certain pop group and the romance between the characters, however, it’s always rather interesting how a certain author takes that narrative and twists it in order to make it unique. The title does seem a bit uncreative, but it still somehow works because it captures your attention.

I give A Couple of Handsome Men 3 paws out of 5.🐾🐾🐾 It isn’t the best thing I’ve read, but it definitely isn’t the worst. It is the author’s first ever manga but for it being the first, it isn’t that bad. I really want to know what happens in the next chapter since it is still ongoing. If you’re interested in reading it, I’d give it probably the first 15-20  chapters before coming to a conclusion on whether you should continue it or not. With that being said, I’ll see you guys next time. Until then, keep your paws and bowls of ramen up everyone! Nya! 🐾