Angel Diary is a manhwa

Manhwa

Manhwa is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons . Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics. The term, along with manga, is a cognate of the Chinese manhua...

written by Lee Yoon-hee and drawn by Kara. It is based around the errant Princess of Heaven who is hiding on Earth as a boy, and the four guardians of heaven who watch over her.

Synopsis

The Princess of Heaven, Chun-yoo, runs away from her betrothed fiance, the King of Hell, and finds refuge on Earth disguised as a high school boy, Dong-young. "He" has a perverted best friend Bi-wal who likes to grope "him" in front of everyone. The Four Guardians of Heaven are sent to find her in the mortal world. But on Earth, there is also hidden dangers and evil beings trying to capture the now vulnerable princess.

Kara has noted that Angel Diary takes place in the same universe as a previous work, Demon Diary, though any characters from the first series have yet to be seen, except as similarities in appearance. In volume 5, however, Ah-hin can be seen reading a Demon Diary volume.

Characters

Whang Chun-yoo/Dong-young

The Princess of Heaven and the main character of Angel Diary, she does not wish to be married to the King of Hell, to whom she is betrothed, assuming he is some kind of perverted old man, and so runs away, taking refuge as a school boy. Her school boy alter-ego is named Dong-young. She dresses like a boy and attends a high school where many of the other students are not normal. She also begins to have feelings for her mysterious friend Bi-Wal, who acts as though they are a couple. Doung-Young is watched over by two of the Four Guardians of Heaven, Ah-Hin (The White Tiger and her closest friend) and Ah-Hin's brother; Ee-Jung (Red Phoenix). Later in the manga it is revealed that the royal children of heaven are genderless until a certain age, that then can the child can choose its gender. Dong-Young was raised as a boy during this period and was born with the power to be the General Winter. He trained with the Ice Snow Sword up until a certain age, when it was declared he would become a she for the Peace treaty between Heaven and Hell to work. Dong-Young's main goal was to have a lazy life just like her brothers, who had all grown up and moved away, sitting lazily around in palaces and slowly inheriting money. It is said by Doh-Hyun that Dong-Young could have been a great and powerful King, if not for the need of a Princess and Her being the youngest. Dong-Young's first screen time appearance in the manga with the Ice Snow Sword was in volume 6. In volume 7 Dong-Young confesses to Bi-Wal that she loves him saying "I think I love you... No thats not true I know I love you."

Also in volume 7, it is revealed by Queen Hong that Bi-Wal is actually the King of Hell. Sadly for Dong-Young, she was told this after she confessed. This leads to a rather comical series of scenes, where She freaks out, Bi-Wal grows feathers and Dong-Young pins Bi-wal to a desk and whispers in his ear in front of the class.

Jin Bi-wal

Bi-wal is the friend of Dong-young and attends the same high school. They are very close and are often confused by other students to be homosexual or "boy-lovers". He is the only character who suspects Dong-young to be the Princess. He sometimes likes to grope Dong-young even after "finding out" that she was a girl (he had already known that she was a girl before he accidentally saw her bound chest). Bi-wal is also shown to be something more than a human (as he seems to have a great deal of power by killing a nymph to save Dong-young and is also a fiancé of a noble from Hell) and has a hidden agenda regarding Dong-young. Later in the series, Bi-wal is said to be the real king of hell. Bi-wal and Doung-young knew each other since their childhood, but Dong-young doesn't remember it and the promise they made. He also shows love for Dong-Young. In volume 7, when asked by Wal-Hyang (Queen Hong) what he desires the thing that he thinks of is Dong-Young.

He has many personalities, and is rather funny and laid back in the beginning. During the rescue of Dong-Young's kidnapping, he tells his brother that he stayed with her because he knew that Ryung-Jin would some time approach the Princess, and it would make it easier for him to find Ryung. He goes on to say that he thinks Dong-Young to be nothing more than a tool to manipulate. However, he says this to try and get closer to his brother and actually loves the princess.

Some fans note that Bi-wal resembles a younger version of Eclipse, the dour tutor from Demon Diary, an earlier Kara work.

Ah-Hin

One of the Four Guardians of Heaven, the "White Tiger

White Tiger (Chinese constellation)

The White Tiger is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West , and is known as Baihu in Chinese, Byakko in Japanese, Baekho in Korean and Bạch Hổ in Vietnamese...

", and was mistaken as Ee-jung by Woo-hyun, who had bullied her when they were little because of his crush on her. She is the friend of Dong-young and is also a student at Dong-young's school in order to protect her and to prevent her identity from being discovered by the other two Guardians of Heaven who were sent to capture the angel princess. Ee-jung's older sister, she cares for her brother dearly and tries to make him enjoy himself more. Despite having been bullied by Woo-hyun and saying she'd never talk to him again, Ah-hin seems to have some feelings for him, and later goes out with him.

Ee-jung

Another of the Four Guardians of Heaven, the "Red Phoenix". Because he is the Red Phoenix, it is traditional that he wore female clothing as a child and as a result, he was mistaken as Ah-hin by Woo-hyun. He is very protective of Ah-hin because she was bullied and is very cold toward Woo-hyun because he blames him for changing Ah-hin's personality. Ee-jung is close to his elder sister and will do almost whatever she asks of him. He is also a student at Dong-young's school.

Ee-jung has a startling similarity in appearance to the Demon Lord Raenef V from Demon Diary, though both are near polar opposites in personality.

Woo-Hyun

One of the Four Guardians of Heaven, the "Blue Dragon". He is also one of the two Guardians ordered to capture the angel princess. When they were all little, Woo-hyun teased Ah-hin while thinking that she was Ee-jung because he had a crush on her. Even after a few years, Woo-hyun still likes Ah-hin and tries to make it up to her even with her bitter rejections and Ee-jung's cold warnings. He is also one of the students at Dong-young's school and hunts down evil spirits with Doh-hyun, his cousin.

Doh-hyun

One of the Four Guardians of Heaven and perhaps the strongest of them all, the "Black Turtle". He is the second of the two Guardians ordered to capture the angel princess. Despite his observative nature, Doh-hyun finds out that Dong-young is a girl but still does not make the connection that she is, in fact, the angel princess that he was ordered to capture. He has a crush on the princess(Chun-yoo/Dong-young).In later volumes of the manga, it was found out that since they were still little kids, Doh-hyun has liked the princess and wanted to protect her until the end. He has great feelings for Dong-young and even thought that marrying her in the end will be a good idea. After Doh-Hyun found out Dong-Young was the princess, Doh-Hyun became more protective of her and he threatens that if he finds her in a bad situation once he will be taking her back to Heaven. Later he begins to develop feelings for MI-Hyang So-Wal and they become a couple.

Cho-Ryun

This tree spirit appears in volume 2, at first he appears to Doh-hyun and Woo-hyun, looking for his friend. He is from the Princess's Garden in Heaven and has come to Earth to look for his friend (who is Ah-Hin) He looks like a girl, and so at first Doh-Hyun and Woo-Hyun think he is a 'she', but they found out that 'she' is a 'he' by when Woo-hyun told him "You can stay with us for a while, Miss Cho-Ryun" and he responds "I'm not a 'miss', but a 'mister' (a male tree with flowers) and he is also involved in an idea to find out who the real princess is by recognizing her with Woo-Hyun and Doh-Hyun.

Mi-Hyang So-Wal

Bi-Wal's fiance from hell or so she says. She comes from a noble family in hell and has a crush on Bi-Wal. Mi-Hyang runs away from home comes to earth to find the princess. She doesn't like the idea of the Princess of Heaven marrying the King of Hell because she was in love with Bi-Wal and wanted to end the engagement. She is later seen in a relationship with Doh-Hyun as they bond over both being rejected by their "first loves".

The Ghost

The unnamed ghost of a suicide victim who possesses Dong-Young in order to terrorize the school where he was tormented by other students in life. Dong-young was saved by Woo-Hyun and Doh-Hyun although they did not know they had actually saved Chun-yoo Nim. This caused Dong-young to make remarks that nearly betrayed her true identity such as, "A male ghost was inside me!"

Water Nymph

A water nymph appearing in volumes one and two that lives in the pond near Dong-Young's school vacation spot. A legend surrounds the pond, saying that a beautiful nymph lived there. One rainy day, a young man came to the pond and kept crying out a girls name. The nymph fell in love with the man and came to him, telling him "You are handsome and kindhearted. You deserve to be loved.". Happy, he stayed with her for some days, bringing her a hair clip and talking to her, thinking them friends. However, one day he came by and said he was going to marry the girl he loved, while running away. The nymph panicked and called his name, reaching out to him and saying she could not leave her pond. Not knowing that humans cannot live underwater,she took him in her arms and accidentally drowned her lover in an attempt to live with him forever in her submerged palace. Thinking he was only ill, she called on the advice of a mysterious Bi-Wal look-a-like (revealed later to be Bi-Wal's brother) who told her to call an angel from Heaven to her pond and use its sacrificed blood to "cure" her lover. The water nymph seizes the opportunity to lure Dong-Young into her home for the sacrifice. However, upon finding his love interest kidnapped, Bi-Wal enters the underwater lair to rescue Dong-Young. Before killing the nymph, he reveals to her that she in fact, killed her lover and that no sacrifice would bring him back. Bi-Wal summons a sword during the battle, which Dong-young sees. Bi-wal then deletes her memory of the events and takes her back to the resort.

(it seems as though the water nymph has a tail in water, but can give herself legs when needed, as when she first lures Dong-young, she walks to her room in the resort, but when she has her walk into the pond and Doh-Hyun interrupts her, they show a tail retreating into the water.)

Queen Hong

She is the Queen of Heaven and in volume 7 she is revealed to be the Red Princess, or the Princess of Hell. Her true name being Wal-Hyang Jin. We also discover Bi-wal is Queen Hong's younger brother. She was behind Doung Young's escapade to earth and ordering White tiger and Red Phoenix to guard her. She is the eldest child of the royal family of Hell, and Ryung-Jin and Bi-Wal are her twin younger brothers (younger by 100 years, I should note.)

Jin Ryung

He is Bi-wal's older twin brother by 3 hours, he did not become the king of hell because he was not supposedly blessed by the moon, which is why his hair is white, but because he is not blessed by the moon that makes him more powerful and many fear him because of that. He feels responsible because of Queen Hong's marriage to the king of heaven and wants to take Dong-Young away from Bi-wal to spare him from the marriage.

Se-In

Se-In is a high-level demon that looks very human. He can hide his black wings. He loves Ryung and will do anything for him. When he was young Ryung Num found him beaten and helped him. He discovered Se-In was next in line to rule the demons. It is discovered that one demon is born with immense power each generation and eventually kills the current leader. The current leader tried to get rid of Se-In before he matured so he wouldn't be a threat. Se-In is severely injured when Dong-Young pierces him with her ice snow sword. He tried to kill Dong-Young for Ryung, but was killed by Doh-hyun and was turned into dust. Dong-Young seeing Ryung's true feelings realizes that he needs Se-In and regenerates him in a seed because he was given her blood she is able to. Ryung raised him as his son after that.

Chun Jae

He is The King of Heaven and Doung young's Father, he met the princess of hell while he was patrolling the borders of hell and heaven, in order to marry her he betrothed Dong-Young to the King of Hell. He became King of Heaven due to the fact he pulled the shortest stick.

Dong-young 2nd brother

He was originally going to be the next King of Heaven since he lost at rock paper scissors. He tried killing himself many times and he, and Dong-young's other brothers, automatically agreed to support her for being the next King.

Comic

Ice Kunion had published volumes 1-5 and very small number of volume 6. Yen Press has published volumes 7, 8, and 9 and will publish 10 November 2009. Volumes 11 and 12 were also released by Yen Press in 2010.