The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life and apparently back at the office. I got a review copy of the forthcoming print edition of “Office Gods” from Andrews McMeel and I have to say, I’m very happy with the way they adapted it for print. A far cry from the nearly empty pages and hard to read text of previous webtoon-to-print books. What about the story itself? Let’s see if we can’t figure it out.
Office Gods
Book 1 (Chapters 1-16)
Updates: Completed
Written by Demonicblackcat (Catharina Octorina)
Art by Hiikariin w/ Mea
Coloring by Fsalmon & Bonob Beneb Studio
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
The hardest part of this review is resisting the urge to compare “Office Gods” to “Lore Olympus” so let me get that out of the way now. While the two share some DNA – Olympus reimagined in a modern context, a corporate setting, Romance rather than Fantasy as primary genre – the rest is so dissimilar it’s fair to say “Office Gods” is not simply a rip-off. However, it is clearly built to capitalize on the popularity of “Lore Olympus,” a recommendation for those itching to get a new chapter, hence the urge to compare. While I’d say “Lore Olympus” is superior in every regard, that doesn’t mean “Office Gods” isn’t worth a read if you like these kinds of stories.
I, sadly, do not.
Let me clarify. I like Romance as a genre, the heightened melodrama of many a shojo series in particular. I just have a very low tolerance for the kind of office rom-com antics that “Office Gods” partakes in and the archetypes it utilizes. You need a great hook to get me to invest and thus far, I’ve only found a fine one.
In fact, everything about “Office Gods” is just fine. The art is fine, the writing is fine, the plot is fine, the characters are fine and their designs are also fine (and fine). Dante and Orion make for fine romantic foils (the hot-head and the shy boy) and the romantic tension between them and Iris, complicated by their stations and their respective beefs, is fine. Iris is a fine lead – plucky, naive, self-motivated, with a knack for getting drunk and ruining the two romantic leads’ nights – the gods are fine over-the-top, colorful characters and the use of gods, demi-gods, and humans as a discrimination analog is, you guessed it, fine.
It’s all so fine there’s nothing to grab onto.
I couldn’t help thinking if they pushed the absurdity, the comedy a little farther, developed the characters a little deeper, added in (a lot) more body & facial diversity (at least,) “Office Gods” could be good and well worth getting through the early chapters to the bits of the narrative with more meat to them. Sure, I didn’t like the first chapter much – too much exposition for too thin an intro – but terrible first chapters for great series are common.
Still, I didn’t dislike the rest of what I read, there were very few instances of narrative or artistic confusion. and found myself getting a little more into it as the chapters progressed. It’s a fine popcorn read but likely won’t be grabbing anyone not already into, or predisposed to, the genre. You’ll know by chapter three if this is for you or not.
