VividBld's manga / #Romance(4)

Literally just put this here for the art. I could rant and rave for hours about this story, but I will not. Really, the manhua is just a watered down version of the novels. I do think the art is phenomenal though. Truly the only redeeming factor of this story.

Pretty art but not much else. Most of the characters are really annoying, but I like the apparitions.

Peak art and almost-tragedy in my opinion. It went a very different direction from what I expected, though I'm not complaining. I also thought the story was quite unique.

Warning - Contains spoilers and mentions of SA: One of this story's greatest strengths is the way it writes its characters as morally ambiguous and multifaceted. There was never a dull moment when reading, as the tension was always palpable, even during its happy moments. I found that aspect very enjoyable. It’s rare to find that in comics. One thing I didn’t like about Lost in the Cloud is that there was near constant drama, making it difficult to remain invested in the story with so much conflict happening all of the time. Despite being a psychological horror, I think there should have been more moments spent focusing on other aspects of the characters lives, to let the story breathe a little. Another thing I would like to mention is the way the story talks about sexual assault. It showed it in a realistic and disturbing manner (which is very refreshing considering most yaoi comics sexualize sexual assault), which I'm happy about. I also don't like toxic relationships but I think it works well in this story. Cirrus and Skylar's relationship is unhealthy yet realistic with their push-and-shove dynamic. And despite Cirrus being a deeply flawed character, he was honestly my favourite character. I'm so sad his character wasn't fully fleshed out in the end. The story failed to acknowledge one of his greatest problems: his fear of abandonment. This was shown multiple times in the story, one of the most obvious being him using manipulation tactics in order to keep Skylar close to him. By the end of the story, it instead put its focus on Cirrus leaving from Korea, which felt unnecessary given the fact Cirrus never went through with it. (It also just felt like a pointless way to create tension, in my opinion.) The only good thing to come from it was how it showed Skylar’s healing as a person, where he finally was able to let go of his painful past. But even then, that could’ve been done without teasing Cirrus’s departure. I also found the ending lackluster. The story felt rushed and unresolved, especially in regards to the main couple and side characters, who only had one meaningful interaction before a timeskip out of nowhere. (I.e. Chan-il and Ri-in getting sidelined despite the endless potential their characters could’ve had for the story.) The ending could've gone worse, but I would’ve been happier with a tragic/bad ending as opposed to an ambiguous open-ended ending, given the characters (mainly Cirrus’s) issues, which only got acknowledged off-screen. Lost in the Cloud is still probably the best toxic MLM story I've read since it has consequences for its perpetrators (mostly, Cirrus's situation is... messy), and it does show one of its characters getting better, like Skylar for example. Overall, I rate this manhwa 3 stars but it would've been a 4 with a better ending and more closure for its characters.