If you like your werewolves more on the adorable rather than the vicious side, then ‘Lumine’ is the Webtoon for you. By the way, that’s pronounced ‘Loo-mee-neh’, in case you, like most of the readers, were wondering.
LUMINE
This series by Emma Krogell tells the story of a young runaway werewolf called, you guessed it, Lumine. In this world we find many mystical creatures, werewolves, witches, and more living among the humans; their existence is known- there’s even special witch schools!
For his own safety, Lumine has to lie and pretend to be a weredog. Werewolves are very rare, and therefore highly valued on the black market.
Finding himself out of a job, he runs into witch-boy Kody who’s looking for directions. Unfortunately, they end up in a dark alley attacked by angry goons. Unable to completely control his transformation, his efforts to help fend off the aspiring kidnappers are not entirely successful; However, he stalls them just long enough for papa-witch to come and save them both. Soon after, he is hired to work as Kody’s bodyguard.
From that moment on, Lumine tries his best to become friends with Kody, but he keeps pushing Lumine away. It takes a while, but his clumsiness and earnestness seem to be getting through to the witch-boy.
Their lives are about to become much more complicated once the truth about Lumine is out and an unexpected tragedy strikes.
The verdict
Get ready to fall head over heels for Lumine, our cute little protagonist! He is the truest cinnamon roll, the cinnamon-iest roll of them all. Just look at this kid and tell me you wouldn’t raise an army to protect his pure heart; I’ll wait. *care reacts only*
The art is anime-styled, with beautifully distinct facial features for each character. The backgrounds tend to be plain, as the focus is usually on the character in each panel, but boy are they gorgeous when the focus is on them. I really love the character designs, and especially how the art can switch from cuteness overload (see Lumine puppy above), to kick-ass mystical creature action:
The same can be said for the story; it may appear fluffy for a second, but it also deals with some heavy topics, like losing a parent, and bullying in school. It moves carefully and seamlessly between those moments of lightness to the action and the darkness.
The budding friendship between Lumine and Kody is precious and those who aim to hurt it should suffer. There’s people that ‘ship’ this, but as both characters are around 11-12 years old, I say let’s maybe keep the shipping to pairings that are at least out of their tweens. #justsaying.
Season 2 is about to start, so you have plenty of time to get caught up with the current 114 episodes before it launches.
