Pig Bride

Si-Joon Lee

Male protagonist. Only child, 16 years old, of a Korean Senator with Presidential aspirations. When he was much younger he got lost in the mountains. A woman asks if he has heard the legend of the Park bride. She tells him that he is the 36th son of Si-Baek Lee of the tale, her daughter wearing a pig mask is the reincarnation of the woman of the story, cursed, and that the curse is lifted if Si-Joon marries her. He gets roped into it, but does not have to consummate it until he turns 16.

Mu-Yeon Park

Female protagonist. The reincarnation of the female protagonist of 'The Tale of the Park Bride'. Is never clearly seen without a pig mask up through volume 4, appears without a mask in the last volume, volume 5.

Ji-Oh Yun

Si-Joon Lee's roommate, and his best friend. More sober and rational than Si-Joon. He too has rich parents.

Doe-Doe Eun

The leading girl at the school, and presumes to be Si-Joon Lee's girlfriend. He does not dispute that. Hence a rival to Mu-Yeon Park. She is the adopted daughter of a rich couple.

Princess Ki-Ryong

Thirty-six generations ago the antagonist in 'The Legend of the Park Bride', and in the current era the antagonist against Si-Joon Lee and Mu-Yeon Park. The climax of her story is in volume 4.

Mu-Hwa Park

Mu-Yeon Park's stony faced sister, a swords-woman.

Kuem-Ja Kim

The School Principal. She becomes important to the story starting in Volume 4.

Pres. Jung

A company president and very wealthy. Si-Joon's maternal grandfather and the root of Si-Joon's family's wealth. He becomes important to the story in Volume 5.

Rebellious and spoiled eight-year-old Si-Joon Lee is sent to a summer camp in the mountains by his senator father. He escapes and finds himself lost, but is saved when he finds a house in the middle of nowhere. A mysterious woman who lives there reveals to him that he is part of an ancient prophecy and must marry her daughter, Mu-Yeon, a descendant of the Park family of the 'Park Bride' folktale. The daughter is a small girl of Si-Joon's age who hides her face behind a smiling pig mask. Tempted by food, Si-Joon agrees to the marriage. That night, Mu-Yeon tells him she will meet him on his sixteenth birthday. True to her words, on his sixteenth birthday, she appears before Si-Joon with her sister and bodyguard, Mu-Hwa. A holy priest who serves Si-Joon's family reveals that the marriage must commence and the prophecy must be fulfilled or Si-Joon will die before the year ends. Si-Joon attempts to live his life normally, but begins to experience recurrences involving his past life and Mu-Yeon.

The last volume's last chapter reveals Si-Joon and Mu-Yeon going to the countryside for a year of getting the spoiled upbringing out of him. They encounter Doe-Doe Eun, whose adoptive parents gave away all their money and went abroad when the scandal involving Doe-Doe and her birth mother came out, and Doe-Doe had to change schools to one in this village. Si-Joon takes pity on Doe-Doe and sends her to live with Ji-Oh Yun in his parents' mansion. Ji-Oh is already hosting Mu-Hwa and he hopes that no conflicts occur. The last page indicates that Si-Joon's and Mu-Yeon's life together will not be smooth. The epilogue on the last page glimpses 25 years into the future to reveal that Mu-Yeon became South Korea's first female president, Si-Joon became a successful businessman who "works behind the scenes" to support Mu-Yeon, Ji-Oh became a doctor, Mu-Hwa became the head of Secret Service, and Doe-Doe became a banker.^[3]

Huh had difficulty in designing the Pig Girl's mask and attempted several different designs which were rejected before arriving at the chosen mask, but cannot imagine Mu-Yeon wearing any other mask now.^[4] Yen Press licensed Pig Bride for an English-language release in North America and began serializing it in the manga anthology Yen Plus.^[5] The final issue of Yen Plus in July 2010 contained the conclusion to Pig Bride.^[6] The English localization process included Korean onomatopoeia and sound effects with the anglicized word followed by the English translations. Signage and text is commonly written with English translations in or near the panel it appears instead of replacing the original text.^[4]