Reviews

Cheese in the Trap, Season 4 by Soonkki

Only show reviews with written explanations

darlingbudsofrae's review

How this season got me is beyond words! I had been attached to this series to the hip for a whole lot of time and its ending is both to my happiness and tears.
Can I just say for a moment that Seol is one well-developed female protagonist? To the very end, she stood her ground and stick to her principles, and that's really something we don't see in manga often. I love how getting in a relationship with Jung or being friends with someone like In Ho didn't make her compromise and instead, helped her grow further.
Everything in this season is also well-done. We got a whole lot more perspective on In Ho and Jung, which gives a whole lot of spice to the story. In Ho is an unfortunate tale of a person who wasn't really able to chase his dreams because of immaturity and the circumstances he couldn't control, and how he decided to pick himself up again and chase his dreams is really beautiful.
What I was more surprised in this season is the final reveal on Jung's personality and surprise surprise, he's really just a misunderstood person who's terrible at expressing his feelings. I got to admit, as the series progressed I naturally turned to like In Ho more than Jung, but I think Jung is much more of a fit to Seol in the long run. I love how the author could have played the apathy card but chose to just portray Jung as this person whose naturally calculative nature was overplayed by adults. Despite his way of solving things and him being Jung, after the reveal, I personally don't think there's something wrong with Jung. Everyone has monsters inside of them, and Jung's was just easily dismissed just because he is who he is.
At the end, all the characters were given a smooth and deserving finish (I love how Sangcheol (?) got's what coming for him for not taking his college life seriously and always using the senior card). CITT ending is honestly so sad, not because of the way it ended but just because, well, it actually ended. This series has been so amazing- the art, the story, the characters and all- and although it is a little more on the drmatic side and the psychological way this plays with the readers' minds really gets you sometime, it had a good run. The series had seriously been a treat.

hana15's review

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5.0

Story: 10 out of 10
Art: 9.4 out of 10
Overall rating: 10 out of 10

This was my first webtoon. I started this back in 2016 but then didn't continue after chapter 20.
I am glad that I went back and read, even though it is late. Because it is one of the best webtoons I ever had the opportunity to read. There is not a single panel in this webtoon that isn't relevant.
This is a story that you have to binge read to fully understand the amount of planning the author has done. everything is relevant, everything comes back, in the end, to make the story complete.
When I got to season 4 and suddenly everything starts to make sense, you have that big brain moment and it is one of the best feelings in n the world.
I really really enjoyed it.

nin275's review

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4.0

To anyone wondering like I was, yes, this has a different ending than the Kdrama, a way more satisfying one actually

lucka's review

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5.0

Honestly? I didn't think I would find a 300 episode webtoon that stays good throughout, but Soon Kki did it. She's honestly a master of visual storytelling. I cannot underline how good this webtoon is. It is such a shame that after season 2 the translation gets really spotty - even when it's grammatically correct, I often get the sense that it's not really semantically correct, or that something is getting lost in translation. It's such a damn shame because the writing in CITT is so good, and every sentence is charged with multiple meanings and challenges you to make your own interpretations about the characters and their intentions. Soon Kki said unreliable narrators and did it to perfection.

Another thing that I adore about CITT is that Soon KKi managed to serve us the best enemies to lovers I've seen in a long time by giving us two complex and flawed characters - yes, the MC actually has character and even *gasp* has flaws!!! Honestly, it's sad that this is such a revolutionary concept to me, but I almost never see an enemies to lovers dynamic where both people are kind of shitty to each other; in hetero pairings, it's usually just the guy being abusive. The atmosphere between them also manages to remain tense through 300 WHOPPING EPISODES, whereas other enemies to lovers pairings tend to lose steam once they resolve whatever issues they had; it's because Jung and Seol, and their relationship, have so many layers, just like onions (thank you Shrek).

Also, the characters all go through their distinct arcs and change throughout. I am completely in love with Baek, even though

Spoiler

he did not end up getting the girl

, and sobbed my ass off at the ending of his plot/character arc. I love love love his relationship with Seol, it's very much not the usual push-and-pull that you see with love triangles, but something like friendship that

Spoiler

could have been more, in another life

.

Overall, I am so satisfied with the way things concluded, and although I did not always root for

Spoiler

Hong and Jung

, I love their journey and the way it concluded. The epilogue was also a huge ass GOOP!!! Made me sob even harder! Thank you Soon Kki!!

Of course, I could find fault with the plot, and it's the kind of overblown and exaggerated drama that happens to Seol that is the worst thing about the webtoon. But the character development, their reactions to the drama and the way that their relationships evolve because of external events is all top notch, and that's why Cheese in the Trap will always be IT for me. You can tell the author really had a vision with this webtoon, and she delivered it so well. I'm so glad I managed to read it to the end this time.

Now the only thing left to do is to manifest a really good English translation AND have it in print, so I can cherish this webtoon forever.

aemilova's review

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5.0

I'm up to date and I just found out that there are about 7-8 episodes for the webtoon to be finished and now I'm sad. I loved seeing all these character grow up and change and how their relationships changed...ufff I'm gonna wait for it to finish and try and collect all my thoughts and write them down then, aka in about a month and a half?