CLAMP's Shin Shun Kaden

(Sorry, forgot to publish this) CLAMP has a history of using mythology or popular tales from other countries to form their basis of writing, including RG Veda (which is from Hindu scriptures), Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (which is pulled from Alice in Wonderland). They did write about a domestic legend, which was called Shirahime-Syo (Snow Goddess Tales).

After reading the Legend of Chun Hyang manga, I was left with a “plot-what-plot” feeling. It was only when I wiki-ed it that CLAMP actually did not finish this project, although they said they might finish this later on. If they truly wanted to, they should have finished this long ago since this manga was first published back in 1992. You can also tell from the art that it is a dated manga because CLAMP’s artwork style has changed and looks vastly different since the mid- to late-1990s.

When the wiki-article describes this manga having a storyline that is loosely based on the Korean legend, it really means loosely. In here, Chun Hyang is a very typical CLAMP heroine. She is around 14 years old and is headstrong, innocent, and short who loves to defy the authorities (the yangban). Mong Ryong appears as the other main character and some Korean terms were used. That is about as far CLAMP went with the legend. Since the manga was probably for a younger audience, the development of the characters was not emphasized but more on the action scenes fantasy elements. However, the KBS drama remained a bit more faithful, although their heroine also has most of the same qualities as well, probably due to adaptation for the modern audience. They focused more on the sappy love story between the two.