Jungle Juice Volumes 2 and 3 Review
After being introduced to the NEST—a hidden university for people whose DNA has been mixed with insect DNA—Suchan’s goal is to get Cinderella, the rare medicine that will allow him to turn back into a full human. However, to get it, he needs to become the top student in his class and with a bunch of villains ready to disrupt his daily life, it’s not that easy getting those top marks.
The more time Suchan spends at the NEST, the more he learns about his abilities and how he can use the dragonfly’s skills and instincts to fight. After all, most of his classes consist of team fights where injuries are encouraged and death is just an aftermath.
In addition to these almost deadly classes, Suchan has to deal with the Pet Shop, an organisation whose goal is to turn as many humans as possible into half-insects and change the world’s society. When Suchan and his school teammates are attacked by members of the organisation, Suchan develops his fighting skills, and he learns that dragonflies are more amazing that people give them credit for. His insect power plus his focus on getting the antidote to turn back into a human make Suchan a really powerful foe.
But this power attracts the attention of the Breeder, who seem to be the person in charge of the Pet Shop. The organisation has spies at NEST and will do anything to control powerful human-insects, which include quite a few of Suchan’s classmates. The Breeder has discovered that the way to get stronger and to control other human-insects is to make them eat other people like them, which he calls the feeding program.
Suchan doesn’t stand for it and when he comes face-to-face with the Breeder, he realises that he needs to become stronger to protect the people he’s started to care about. When the chance to find one of the Pet Shop’s many bases appears, he doesn’t hold back, and he and his teammates, Huijin, Dohwa and Hyeseong get ready for their first recon mission.
As with Volume 1, the story continues being full of action and fighting scenes. There is a clear distinction between who the villains and the heroes are, so readers don’t have to wonder about that. Even the ‘suspense’ of who is a spy for the Pet Shop doesn’t take long to be revealed. There is still a lot the readers don’t know about the Pet Shop or about who’s behind the insect-killing spray that blended humans with insects, but with every volume we find out a lot more.
Both Volumes 2 and 3 focus a lot on the teamwork between Suchan and the other members in his group at NEST. While some people hide what type of insect they have become, others make it clear. And now it’s time for Huijin’s, Dohwa’s and Hyeseong’s background stories. We find out how they acquired insect powers and what brings them to want, or for some to not want, Cinderella. They all have gone through some type of trauma even before becoming half insects, and this new life is way better, even if they are not humans anymore. Hyeseong’s story is still ongoing, but I’m pretty sure we’ll find out how he will overcome his trauma in the next volume as it seems he has finally reached a breakthrough in his growth.
While villains appear from the first volume, we get to find out who they are and what they are planning as the story moves along. Both the Breeder and Gayeon Sin, a woman who wants revenge against NEST, take centre stage and fight against Suchan and the rest of his team. We know what their goal is, as they both belong to the Pet Shop organisation, but we don’t know yet what brought them to become villains.
The fight scenes are gruesome and bloody. The author and illustrator are keeping the insect instincts as realistic as possible, even with the carnivore insects. Human-insects eating each other to become stronger, (and even as a way to gain control over someone else) is mentioned and shown multiple times .
Jungle Juice is written by Hyeong Eun and illustrated by Juder. It’s published as a digital comic on Webtoon, and it’s released in print format by Ize Press with an English translation by Ah Cho. Volume 4 is slated for release in June 2024.
Our review copies from Ize Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
