When What Does The Fox Say? hit Lezhin, it was an instant hit. (Which made it just that much weirder that the service terminated it in a purge of LGBTQ+ works.)  In some ways, I credit this series for the “toxic Yuri” phenomenon of the last few years. 

After many series set in schools, with apparently saccharine, immature romances, it makes sense that a generation of Yuri fandom, itself having graduated school and moved into the workplace, was looking for something more “adult.”

And where there are adults, there is “adult” content. Fans want their terrible people having sex. Every generation wants this. ^_^ Team Gaji had their finger on the pulse at the right time and place. 

In What Does The Fox Say?, Volume 1, Sungji, a young and attractive new worker at a company, is caught up in a very pointy three-way relationship. More accurately, Sunji’s boss, Sumin, has her eyes on Sunji, while also being the plaything of Seju, the company president. 

 The problem here for me is that everyone is passively just letting the situation become intolerable. Sungji is attracted to Sumin, who absolutely should not be encouraging that, but is, as an escape tor her own miserable relationship with Seju. No one’s particularly happy and absolutely nothing good can come out of anything as long as the pecking order stays intact. The other issue is that I prefer evil women over toxic. All that passive misery was setting my teeth on edge. Like, lean into it, do bad things with gusto! 

In terms of the technicals, the pages are a bit hard to read as they were transferred to a book format from online without adapting the layout. That leaves a number of pages with slow-paced empty panels, or the visual equivalent of mumbling, as words are squished on to a too-small page. 

All of this would have been fine if I could find interest in any of the characters. They may all be adults, but none of them were grown up enough to keep my attention. 

Ratings: 

Art – At the time it debuted, a beacon of adult women in a sea of children
Story – Pure 1970s soap opera
Characters – A bit flat
Service – There is sex. Some of it is quite uncomfortable-making
Yuri – 10

Overall – 7

This isn’t a bad manhwa, it’s just not the kind of adult content I’m looking for. Whether it wears well over time, will be very interesting to see. 

Thanks to Yen Press for the review copy, via ANN, where I am also reviewing this for the Summer manga guide.