Low Tide In Twilight: Love it or Hate it, Unhinged is the Goal for This Mafia Manhwa
Debt collectors, financial manipulation, prostitution and a sprinkle of Stockholm Syndrome, Low Tide in Twilight is undeniably the most unhinged omegaverse I’ve read to date. After seeing it all over my instagram timeline for three solid days I knew I had to give it a try. Here’s my initial thoughts after binge reading all available chapters in a single day.
Kim Euihyun has decided he doesn’t want to live. He feels nothing anymore. He has no future to look forward to. Now, he’s looking into the abyss, holding in his arms the only thing that was keeping him alive. It’ll all be over soon. But someone grabs him from the water’s edge, and pulls him from the darkness. Euihyun, whose sole possession is a mountain of debt, has been rescued by Taeju. Now Taeju has offered Euihyun money, a house, and a job to help him out of his mess. But what will Taeju, who is intoxicated by Euihyun’s smell, ask for in return? Could Taeju be the person that finally brings Euihyun out of his eternal twilight…?
Table of Contents
Low Tide in Twilight Review
Warning; The following review contains spoilers.
Omegaverse
This is something you need to be familiar with if you’re not already. I will give a brief (yes this is brief!) explanation here, but if you want a full run down of the omegaverse, terms and what it’s all about sign up to our mailing list at the bottom of this post to be notified for next week’s article. If you are already familiar with the omegaverse, feel free to skip this section and head straight to the story review.
What is the Omegaverse?
Omegaverse is used to describe an alternate universe where people have secondary genders on top of their typical male/female genders. These genders are: Alpha, Beta and Omega. Both make and females can be any of the three secondary genders and their physiological make up can change depending on which mix of genders you are.
Example; female alphas are typically described as being intersex, having both sets of genitals whereas male omegas can grow a womb during a period each month typically referred to as estrus or ‘heat’.
What Makes Omegaverse Special and Why is it Relevant?
The omegaverse can be used as a narrative and critique on modern society. Either by the use of class divide or gender/racial discrimination commentary. This can be seen in manga like Tadaima Okaeri and Define the Relationship where it’s seen as ‘taboo’ to get into a relationship with someone of your own secondary gender (Define the Relationship) or someone of a different secondary gender (Tadaima Okaeri).
In most cases, however, it’s used mostly as a backdrop of sexual gratification and fantasy. This is the case in Low Tide in Twilight. Whilst. there is somewhat of a running commentary about omegas and prostitution and being valuable in human trafficking (yes we will get there in the story review section), it’s mostly used to gratify a sexual fantasy of a tiny twink and a big burly, well endowed man breaking him in two.
Physiology Matters
Remember when I said physiology matters? Alphas tend to be large and muscular, overpowering and well endowed. Omegas, on the other hand, are typically small, thin and dainty and not so blessed in the package department, if they even have a package at all. In western circles of fandom, especially, it has become somewhat of a trend for all omegas to have female genitalia. This is not common, if used at all, in Asian media. I have not personally come across it in Asian depictions of omegaverse.
Whilst these rules can be broken, it is quite typical for this to be the case within omegaverse and is used as a way to gratify sexual fantasy. Heats and ruts also matter because they are a period where the omega (in heat) or the alpha (in rut) will lose their minds and go down to their basal instincts of wanting to procreate. In other words, they become sex machines for a few days.
These heats and ruts can be triggered by the scents of the other gender, which are also used to seek each other out. An alpha’s scent allows omegas to produce slick, akin to how a vagina is self lubricating. This negates the need for lube and allows the creator to proceed with sex scenes without taking you out of the story to either get lube or have you wondering where the lube is. A common problem I’ve noticed in various manhwa and fan works over the years.
Omegaverse in Low Tide in Twilight
Okay, now that you understand the basics of what the omegaverse is and the relevant points to Low Tide in Twilight, let’s talk about what the story does within this universe.
Characters
Yeo Taeju is your typical alpha in his physiology and personality. He’s very much at the top of society, his family is rich, he’s a gangster and he’s a good fighter. His personality is that of someone who is hot headed, manipulative and overall quite unpleasant… but still charming? He’s incredibly good looking and uses that to his advantage as much as possible.
Kim Euihyun is your not so typical omega. Whilst his physiology is that of an omega, he’s shorter and incredibly skinny, he’s also incredibly poor, living on the lowest rungs of society whilst keeping himself and his brother alive by any means necessary. However, he is anything but timid. He does experience a lot of anxiety and depression at times, but he is not timid, choosing to lash out either physically or verbally whenever provoked, and typically towards Taeju.
Story Relevance
Low Tide in Twilight does do a small amount of societal commentary in that it shows the class divide between alphas and omegas and it also shows how omegas are typically targeted for human trafficking and for prostitution. Much in the same way women are in various places in the real world. This is an integral part of the story and also goes a long way in understanding Euihyun.
Euihyun often is depicted inside of his own head, worrying about whether or not his brother would present as an omega and leading a life of misery like he has. Being an omega is what got him to this point in the first place as he was given to the gangsters by his father in exchange for some debt repayment. This is because omegas are incredibly valuable and can be sold to the highest bidder.
Being an omega doesn’t stop Euihyun from trying to live his life honestly, taking on his father’s debt is a struggle, but given the option of working in a restaurant or a host club he chooses the restaurant because he doesn’t want to sell his body in exchange for money. Even though that’s what he ends up doing in the end anyway because of a series of events involving his brother being home alone, getting hurt and needing to go to the hospital all because Euihyun wasn’t there to look after him due to working so much.
The backdrop of the omegaverse really propels this story forward and makes it more interesting and consuming compared to if this were just a mafia story. It enhances the emotions and provides situations that propel the story forward at an even pace, which wouldn’t be possible in traditional universe.
Story
Now, let’s talk about the non omegaverse aspects of this story. Low Tide in Twilight is a story that is absolutely not for the faint of heart. The list of trigger warnings at the top of this post should show you exactly how unhinged this story is. However, it does fit the story and the characters very well and give it a…charm?
Whilst this story is absolutely on my ‘top red flags’ list, I can’t help but feel like this story is also pretty fantastic. As previously mentioned, this story follows the lives of Kim Euihyun and Yeo Taeju and the web of misery that they find themselves in. Mostly due to Taeju’s doing, let’s be real.
Euihyun’s father owes money. A lot of money. After disappearing and leaving Euihyun to the loan sharks Euihyun tries to drown himself and his younger brother in the ocean. After getting pulled out by Taeju, Euihyun is ‘kidknapped’ and taken to an apartment where he is to live under the watchful eye of the gangsters whilst he pays off his debt. He is given three options; sell himself at a club, become a thug or work at a restaurant that caters to thugs.
With what little self pride he has, he decides that in order to pay the money back he will work himself to the bone in the restaurant as well as picking up a construction job elsewhere. He is adamant he will not sell himself, no matter how bad it gets. This is, until left at home alone all day as a seven year old, his brother almost sets the house on fire after putting foil in the microwave.
Overcome with fear Euihyun tells Taeju that he will work at the club. By this point, Taeju has become quite fond of Euihyun and hates the idea of sharing him with others. Another offer is put on the table, he can become Taeju’s exclusively, in return he will pay him well. At first, Euihyun refuses, saying he’d rather work in the club. Taeju isn’t an idiot though, he knows Euihyun can’t do it. He isn’t mentally strong enough and Taeju proves it by taking Euihyun to the club to show him what it would entail.
Euihyun breaks pretty fast and thus, their arrangement is solidified. As we move through the next few chapters Taeju is fairly absent due to work and Euihyun, with nothing to do but be left with his thoughts, starts spiralling and develops an unhealthy attachment to Taeju.
Stockholm syndrome is quite common in these types of stories, I feel. It wasn’t really a surprise to see it happen here. What I do like about this story is that it wasn’t fast. In Korean, at the time of writing, there are 93 chapters. If I remember correctly, they started their new arrangement around chapter 45 to 50. With Low Tide in Twilight chapter release being weekly, there was quite a bit of time for this story and relationship to develop.
Rating
Despite this story being pretty emotional and sometimes had me yelling ‘NO!’ at my screen, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. I actually really loved it and I almost cried when I realised I had hit the chapter limit. It’s been a long time since I was able to binge a manhwa like this.
Spiciness
Can someone open a window because it’s HOT in here! This is a very spicy manhwa and it’s uncensored at that (*_*). Full of steamy sex scenes that are made more interesting via omegaverse dynamics it’s easy to give this a 5 chillies on the spice-o-meter.
Red Flags
Is Yeo Taeju a red flag? 100% He proudly embodies the red flag, wrapping it around his shoulders and wearing it like a cape. Until he doesn’t. He does feel remorse and regret for what he put Euihyun through, and that maybe should offer him a little grace on the red flag scale. However, other characters and situations in this manhwa really bump it back up to full throttle. Again, heed the trigger warnings, it’s not a story for the faint of heart.
Fluffiness
Okay, here me out. Taeju does actually have some small redemption. I gave it one fluffiness because a) the little brother is adorable and b) Taeju does try to make things right. Albeit unsuccessfully.
Overall
Overall, I had to rate this manhwa highly. It’s just too interesting and well written to make it any lower than this. The art is amazing and the characters are really interesting. What knocked a point off for me was that some of the situations were just a little too unnecessarily graphic.
I will say, I’m rating this after reading Pearl Boy which incited some extremely strong feelings in me that just nudged it above this manhwa in terms of necessary stars. If I hadn’t read Pearl Boy, this probably would have been 4.5/5.
Final Thoughts
Low Tide in Twilight really made an impression on me. It’s the first manhwa I’ve read in a long time and I actually really enjoyed it. Despite the heavy topics and the amount of red flags, I can’t discredit the amazing crafting of the story and the web of deceit that has been crafted. I would recommend this, if you can handle the topics and I will be looking forward to upcoming chapters.
