REVIEW: A DeadbEAT’s Meal
This review is about an ongoing webcomic, currently at 59 episodes, with episodes 55 – 59 on Fast Pass, and contains spoilers.
A DeadbEAT’s Meal is an ongoing webcomic written and illustrated by CHEESE that is available to read on WEBTOON. The slice-of-life story follows Jaeho, a jobless young man who loves food. Jaeho is a happy-go-lucky guy who enjoys eating meals with Sujeong, his girlfriend of seven years. When she breaks up with him through chat, Jaeho finds himself devastated and lost.
Over the course of roughly five dozen episodes, Jaeho and Sujeong explore their individual thoughts and feelings through food despite being on divergent paths. Whether it’s Jaeho crying over their breakup while eating fried chicken (Episode 1) or Sujeong reminiscing on how Jaeho enjoyed eating mint chocolate chip ice cream (Episode 47), the duo find bits of each other in their daily lives.
Sujeong focuses on work, where she becomes friendly with a kind hubae (junior) who genuinely cares for her. Meanwhile, Jaeho, realizing that he doesn’t want to be an unemployed, or sometimes underemployed, loser, throws himself into job hunting, only to find himself feeling demoralized and downtrodden by the experience.
Thankfully, it’s not all bad news for Jaeho, who finds himself reconnecting with his estranged mother, who abandoned him as a child. His step-father, who initially comes off as self-centered, steps up and assists Jaeho, if for no other reason than out of love for his wife. While they aren’t yet a happy family, this development is significant for Jaeho, who struggled with feelings of worthlessness due to his childhood trauma.
The separation is good for Sujeong and Jaeho, both of whom realize they still have feelings for each other. In spite of their feelings, they refrain from contacting one another, partially out of pride but also due to the realization that a relationship takes two people to make it work. However, Sujeong’s hubae, who now realizes his own feelings for her, realizes that he’s friends with her ex and decides to bring the pair back together when Jaeho and Sujeong’s feelings for each other become apparent.
After being honest with one another, Jaeho and Sujeong decide to give their relationship another chance. Both have experienced enough personal growth to realize where they went wrong the first time and how they can avoid making the same mistakes, including fixing their communication and showing empathy and compassion for the other.
We always had this nervousness in the back of our minds because we were so unsure of the future… I think we ended up breaking up because it was just too difficult to try and lean on each other. But, that type of uncertainty doesn’t exist in our lives anymore. Now we both have the freedom to focus more on each other.
Jaeho
Because the comic is ongoing, I can’t speak to what will happen in the future. However, I loved seeing Jaeho and Sujeong’s growth so far and was delighted to see them reunited. I think the people they’ve chosen to surround themselves with are positive influences, and I’m hoping they’ll stay that way until the end. I’m sure they’ll face additional challenges, considering this comic has a total of 147 episodes (so far) in Korean.
As a huge fan of food comics, and A DeadbEAT’s Meal certainly lives up to expectations with a different dish featured in every episode. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys slice-of-life personal growth stories, with tasty meals thrown in as an added bonus. Despite my enjoyment and recommendation of the series, I, unfortunately, won’t continue reading A DeadbEAT’s Meal for personal reasons.
Source: WEBTOON
