About: So I think the only webcomic I could compare this to is Lackadaisy. And the only thing they have in common is that they use animals as stand-ins for human! Bittersweet Candy Bowl is about the daily lives of dogs and cats in high school. Now as soon as you hear the subject "high school" a cringe might be felt! The obvious criteria for any high school theme is normally drama. And Bittersweet Candy Bowl is an oil mine of drama; it's plot revolves around many characters (Mike, Lucy, and Paulo may be the big three as of currently) that go through the many dramatic challenges the high school offers. Most of it, so far, seems to be more of the romance genre but there are also the pains of growing up on the side. Now this series is still ongoing so there is no telling how it will end up, however it does have a very interesting storyline so far.
Review:
Pros: This comic seems to revolve around one pretty cat, Lucy, and all the drama that follows in her wake. Now there are other plots in the storyline, seeing as there are about twenty three plus characters that make up the cast of this comic, but I find Lucy's to be the biggest craze. Her character actually made me feel a bit of a connection. I very rarely get that with characters, but I found that she was so unique as an individual that I understood her easily. Perhaps this is due to a likeliness in personalities, but with the way the comic is illustrated and written, I don't see how it would be hard for anyone else to understand her. The other thing I found surprising in this web comic was that the subject was high school drama and I was actually interested in reading it. I came across Bittersweet Candy Bowl in an advertisement on the side of a web page for another web comic. The art was, dare I say it, adorable and I felt that this web comic was worth a read. But as I stated before, there's that little cringe you get when you see something themed "high school" so I was a little apprehensive about even continuing on this strange journey. You're looking at a girl who couldn't even watch Glee without thinking it was way too over the top on what high school life is really like. Despite having cats and dogs as stand-ins, this comic is representing what it's like to be in high school. And I have to say that while some of it was over the top, to an extent, it did touch on some actual teenage issues: examples would include, teenage pregnancy, drinking, sex, and who could forget love/suicide? It's the horrifying growing pains that we all go through at some point or another. And I felt that the authors really did a good job of grasping some different perspectives on said subjects. I found myself actually wondering what was going to happen next. Then, of course, we have some of the external positives outside of just the storyline. The art is one thing I found to be very interesting. It has that Scott Pilgrim style that I'm personally attracted to; maybe the rest of you see it? Now while it may be a bit of a more simplistic and soft style, what I really admire is that it's all hand-drawn. As I talked about in my little introduction, the small team of authors and artists really only use photoshop to color correct and to correct mistakes. Unlike previous web comics I've reviewed before, there isn't any computerized art whatsoever! Taking that into consideration, they also update every weekday! Even I struggle with updating on specific days in the week, the fact that this team can do it almost everyday is something to really look at with admiration.
Cons: Now one of the biggest flaws I find with this web comic is simply that it's about high school. As I said before, it did do somethings I felt were a little too over the top when trying to depict high school life. Now of course there needs to be some drama when you're doing something entertaining, such as a comic, book, or even show, but sometimes it goes a little too far. Of course this comic isn't supposed to be completely realistic, I'm pretty sure the cats and dogs already suggest that, but as I talked about previously in the Pros section, this comic is themed high school and therefore is representing what high school life is supposed to be like. I found myself on the edge of my seat sometimes but at other times I just felt very annoyed by certain situations. And I find that if you have a theme like high school for a web comic, you might have a tough time finding viewers who want to stick with the comic. Web comics are all about loyal viewers, without them there's nothing left to be considered an audience. I don't feel that this web comic will ever really have an issue with that, seeing as they've done fairly well on their own, and also considering that they've predicted the comic will end sometime in the upcoming year of 2014, but for future references or for simple advice for anyone else who's trying to start a web comic of their own, it can become a dilemma. The other thing is that with so many plots and points of view going on at the same time, it's very easy for a reader to get confused or understand exactly what's going on. As of currently, despite their very fast updates, I feel as that with the number of pages they've set between very dramatic climaxes and then their explanations is too far apart. So for a few weeks, or even a month or two, readers can be lost. It kind of feels like the characters move a little too fast and there isn't enough of a clean rise and fall when it comes to action and reaction. Now this site is interactive with their viewers via Tumblr. Fans can go onto their Tumblr and ask questions about the comic or even ask questions to specific characters. I went ahead and tried it out in order to, hopefully, clean up my confusion. But what I found was a little upsetting. Now of course the authors can't get to all questions, but I'm sure I wasn't the first to ask this specific question on what was going on at the time in the comic (I won't tell since I don't want to ruin it). However, they seem to spend time answering more trivial questions rather than questions that can help their views to an extent. Of course Tumblr questions are supposed to be fun, but at the same time I feel that there should have been some sort of recognition about the confusion. Of course I wouldn't want them to give away a great ending but I felt the writing was just a little too confusing and since this web comic is also in print, it's probably important to help out your readers a little. I think it mostly has to do with the timing. All of those issues could have been fixed if the actions and emotions blended a bit better together. 
Nuclear
Bittersweet Candy Bowl: http://www.bittersweetcandybowl.com/
All rights to the photos go to their original artists and might I add they do a fantastic job! I do not own ANY of the photos!
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Thanks for stopping by again you guys and thank you for supporting me! I hope you like the review and happy belated holidays! :D
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