Love Not Found
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WARNING: The creator of this webcomic is a giant douche, even by internet standards. Their behavior may include, but is not limited to: Rampant displays of racism, sexism, homophobia and/or other forms of bigotry and douchebaggery. May spew invective at critics and fans alike. Avoid real-life interaction as much as possible. |
| Original review author: | Azroverde |
| Webcomic name: | Love Not Found |
| Author: | Gina Biggs |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | Ongoing |
| Genre: | Romance, Sci/Fi |
| Defining Flaws: | Awful world building, contrived drama, and shallow, moronic characters |
Rating Summary
| Art: | 
The art is gorgeous. This is one of the best (if not THE best) things about the entire webcomic. And it's only gotten better over time. |
| Storyline: |
Inconsistencies, weird pacing, and a lack of conflict cripple the plot. It feels like the author is making things up as she goes, and not bothering to keep track of what she HAS written. |
| Characters: |
There are a handful of likable characters, but most lack anything that could make them interesting or believable. |
| Miscellaneous Details: |
The author makes promises to update on time, build buffers, fix broken websites, and adjust her workload. Guess what hasn't happened? But, if you drop $11/month on Patreon, you can see porn and naughty art! That's fair, right? |
| Overall: |
Stale, intellectual junk food trying to be chick-lit. Had more thought been put into everything, Love Not Found might have been a great webcomic. |
Background
I started reading Love Not Found after finishing Gina's previous works: Red String and Demon Aid. Red String was an amazing shoujo-style comic, but the final stretch ruined everything that made it great. Two months after Red String ended, Gina launched Demon Aid, claiming she'd been working on the idea for years. After the first chapter, she cancelled the comic due to low readership and hefty criticism from people close to her. She posted a large apology about the cancellation, stating it was for the best; she'd made far too many mistakes with the story, and really had no idea what she was doing with it. She assured fans she'd learned from these mistakes, though, and that Love Not Found would be more in line with her usual work. I believed this, and thought it would be a good read.
Well...here we are!
Synopsis
Love Not Found takes place in the distant future on the tropical planet, Monotropa. People have super fancy technology to make their lives easy. Despite this, humanity regressed and physical contact became outdated.
While heading home from work, Abeille crashes into a man named Miel. After getting home, she finds herself aroused by the encounter and tries to shake the feeling with her sex machine. Unsatisfied, she tries to figure out what was missing from her session with the machine. After thinking everything over, she decides to try exploring touch; however, most people are happy and comfortable with machines that replace it, so she struggles to find someone who shares her desire. After spending some time with her, Miel also finds himself wanting to know more about touch, and the two of them start experimenting with it.
Art Review
The art is the one thing in this webcomic I can't complain about. It's beautiful, from the first page to later pages. Even the title pages are nice to look at. The art style itself sits somewhere between shoujo and western-style art, and has a muted palette with softer colors. It might sound strange, but it works very well, especially with the focus on plants and flowers in the setting. Even better, there's no snoutface, lens flare abuse, or copy and pasted facial expressions. Anatomy is fairly consistent, and the minor details and backgrounds never look rushed or thrown together.
The author keeps improving her artwork, too. She's even redone entire pages in her previous comics when something didn't sit right with her readers, or just wasn't coming across to them. A+ for that!
Downfall
Unfortunately, the high quality art can't save this webcomic. Love Not Found claims to be a story, but I have yet to find a story in this mess. All I see is incompetent writing mixed with bits of cheesecake, and a romance as forced and shitty as Twilight's.
Yeah, it couldn't even manage to be better than Twilight.
Character Issues
Love Not Found doesn't bother having engaging or morally ambiguous characters. It settles for bland "representation" characters, nameless assholes, and author pets. Character personalities range from boring fluff to boring sandpaper.
Abeille:
The do nothing protagonist with nonsensical motives. She bumps into a guy once, then comes to the conclusion that sex and touch equate to true love. She moves to the "nature lover's paradise" of Monotropa to grow a garden to honor her sister's memory. Yet, she's not a nature person, can't even take care of houseplants, and never does any research into doing so. But, it's alright! She's handed everything she wants and needs, from a new job that benefits her, to her own personal mini garden. Any problems she faces are quickly resolved, either through her kindness melting someone's heart, or someone doing all the hard work for her, such as Clove recommending she make peace with the asshole coworkers (despite the fact that THEY should be atoning for their behavior, not the other way around) and Miel and Poppy wanting her to attend sports day when she declines. Readers are expected to empathize with her, even when she acts like an oblivious dipshit.
Miel:
The hot, super-nice man who goes out of his way for the girl he doesn't know he loves. He's very rarely bothered by Abeille's antics. Even when they knew each other for all of ten minutes, her forceful begging for a kiss didn't faze him, though it realistically should have. Because, you know, most guys really DO enjoy being sexually harassed by strong, empowered women! But, why does he love Abeille? Well, once they get past all the uncertainty and find out they have very little in common, it's obvious: he just does, okay? Now squee over their cuteness, damnit!
Nameless Assholes:
They show up to insult or take advantage of Abeille (who never sticks up for herself once), then disappear until she needs more reader sympathy. Quality characters you can find in most Mary Sue fanfics and the kind of cliché that anyone past early adolescence should have left in the trash.
Ivy:
The smart scientist friend of Abeille who can't keep her stories straight. She'll say one thing, but then we see the exact opposite later on. The quick and easy breakup she goes through? She calls it awkward next chapter, despite all evidence to the contrary. She's pretty pissed off when her ex tries to get back together with her, but later claims she didn't get angry about it. The emotional whiplash between chapters is proof enough that Gina doesn't look back to see what she wrote/established. At the very least, Ivy learns to appreciate touch without acting like a lust-crazed idiot.
Holly:
A smart, workaholic scientist who either doesn't know or is in denial about what he wants in a relationship. He's Ivy's ex FWB, but also her best friend. They're super best friends. They're best friends who will stick together, even when it leads to really awkward situations. In fact they're such best friends that he never knew that thunderstorms scared her because they were never that close. In a better story his behavior would be something that would push Ivy away and make her rethink having him in her life, but nah. He's now in a poly relationship with Ivy and Aster, since Ivy and Holly stick together and won't move the fuck on. The question remains how this will work, since Holly isn't keen on touching and is with two people who are.
Aster:
Ivy's new, non-binary datemate. Everyone knows Aster is non-binary and prefers gender-neutral pronouns, even complete strangers! How? I have no idea, because it's never shown. What has been shown, though, is that Aster is a counselor who researches touch and knows how important it is. Wow! A valid reason for exploring touch! And zir relationship with Ivy is actually interesting and believable! But, for some reason, zie doesn't get shit on nearly as much as Abeille and Miel, even when it could lead to interesting plot development. Then again, Aster isn't the author pet main character, so zie gets a pass...that zie honestly shouldn't.
Clove & Botan:
These two are introduced looking like they'll be super interesting characters. And they are...until they hook up. Then they're nigh constantly together, and their only mutual focus is their relationship. Never mind that they don't have much in common besides tea and sex. Clove worries his speech impediment will make him look stupid; Botan is worried that he's talking too much and killing their relationship. After overcoming that with a super mature discussion, the rest is sunshine and roses!
Verbena:
Ivy's jealous, womanchild sister. Acts like a spiteful brat one minute, then incredibly mature the next. She likes to annoy Ivy, and that's her sole purpose.
Poppy:
Abeille's pushy and demanding ex. She has emotional baggage and projects onto Abeille. She overcomes her problems with Abeille's help, after disclosing her tragic backstory which involved her father sneaking out to bang his mistress and Poppy getting hit by a car. This doesn't land him in jail, and he faces no consequences for child abandonment, child endangerment, or being an all around asshole. Nope! He gets 'punished' by having to go to parenting classes. Yay. She hands in her resignation so she can work on herself and then returns to shadow Abeille at the foster program.
Abeille's Parents:
Two smart scientists who didn't seem to understand that a tropical planet would be warm and humid. Mom's an uppity and manipulative snoot, and dad's a kind pushover who lets his wife run roughshod over everyone.
Plot Issues
The author doesn't have an actual plan here. Half-baked ideas and contrived drama are the backbone of this webcomic's plot, and conflicts (if you can call them that) never last more than a chapter. Seriously, here are the biggest moments in this webcomic:
Touch Is Obsolete Outdated:
Shortly after release, the author decided "outdated" was a better word than "obsolete," and made edits to the comic and site. And it was a glorious waste of time! The main characters end up accidentally colliding, then willingly touch each other while getting up. Then readers are told that touch is outdated. Later on, people are shown dancing with each other, standing in close quarters, and catching people who've fallen out of trees.
So, touching is only outdated when it needs to be. Beats having competent writing and a well-planned theme, I guess!
Planet Shock Citizen:
This guy could be dangerous, and has already hurt some people in his panic! And after hearing about him, Abeille is scared of running into him. Is this foreshadowing? No. The new character helps the PSC super easily with a comforting touch! Though when you get down to it, the comforting touch could have set the guy off even more and caused another accident.
The Bugs Attack:
Bugs get into a greenhouse and Ivy tries to get them off a valuable plant. Her eyes get burned by the bugs, leaving her blind. The damage is so bad she needs to have new eyes implanted! She says her parents will be annoyed, since they designed her original eyes. So, do any struggles or issues result from this? Nope. She gets new eyes within a day. Her mom doesn't even notice until someone tells her, and only has minor complaints. Her mom is also the sole designer of the Ivy Eyes. Gee, it's almost like the author forgot what she wrote over three chapters!
We Make the Sex Now:
After twelve chapters of denial and learning nothing important about each other, the main couple gets to old fashioned fucking. WITHOUT MACHINES! And it's perfect each and every time they do it over the course of the night! They're now truly in love and in a healthy relationship because they had real sex. So what if Abeille's dealing with emotional baggage, and Miel has 0 experience in a relationship? They lust after each other and have almost nothing in common, so it's true love! THE PLOT SAYS SO!
Sister's Death:
Evette dies because she and Abeille act like total morons in a place with god-awful security: no lanyards for keycards, no emergency panels or intercoms, and doors that remain open until someone goes through. And somehow, Abeille couldn't find anyone to open the door before her sister froze to death. They have communicators capable of texting and high quality holographic chat, for cripes sake! And they've done this shit many times without issues! Bah, whatever! THE PLOT DEMANDS YOU FEEL SORRY FOR THE POOR PROTAGONIST!
The Reason Touch Is Outdated:
Maybe it's disease, or mental issues from reliance on machines. Actually...nah! "Society teaches us to break away from that as adults." Why? Because "humankind regressed," as we were told. However, the concept of humanity regressing would be us reverting to protofeudalism, have stricter gender roles/norms, or straight up not having advanced technology. Humanity in Love Not Found is progressive as all hell, making the regressive label pointless. I don't know what I was expecting here. This shitwreck of a theme never made any sense to begin with!
Patching Things Up With the Ex:
Abeille and Poppy were in a fairly decent relationship; however, they had a falling out over Abeille's coping mechanism. Poppy continues to be pissy over Abeille's choices, and won't mind her own fucking business. But, after Abeille learns about Poppy's past, everything is sorted with a hug and diabetes. That's right! Repressed childhood trauma and deep-seated issues can be fixed with a quick talk, a hug, and a good cry!
THE PARENTS ARE COMING:
Abeille didn't respond to messages or a monthly check in call from her parents. Now they have to visit Abeille to--wait. WHAT messages and check-in calls? Abeille said she got monthly care packages, but we're never shown any messages or calls! This is supposed to be a big deal, but there's been no build up to it. All we got was two panels of "lol, I'm a black sheep, and my parents are smart scientists, lol." And in just two pages, Abeille goes from worried and upset about the visit, to treating it like a non-issue.
The more pressing matter is that she needs to have a proper date with Miel. They went to a festival, but that doesn't count. So, the solution is (wait for it)...GO TO ANOTHER FESTIVAL! Man, aren't these two fucking brilliant?!
Miel's Shiny New Job
Our boy Miel is offered a new job by his boss. Because this couple has gotten past all uncertainty, Miel doesn't tell her about this and she finds out through overhearing his coworkers. By the start of chapter 18, neither Abeille nor Miel have called one another over their futuristic phones to talk about it, allowing it to stew between them and fuel doubts. Remember folks: this is the main couple; two people who cant find a measly five minutes in their day to call their partner to talk about it. The comic makes him possibly moving away as a big deal, but frankly it's yet another contrived conflict.
Abeille and Miel are Idiots
This ties into the previous issue, since as of now our main romantic lead got caught touching and are now on their way of being screwed. This could've been avoided if they were smart enough to not fucking touch in public places. Even worse is that this isn't their first time being caught. Miel thinks to himself once that they need to be more careful, but that goes nowhere and he never gives it another thought. Our leads hold the Idiot Ball when the comic needs them to.
Setting Issues
Ah, the distant future on a tropical planet with fancy technology! Sound like fun? Well...don't get your hopes up. The setting is prone to imploding upon itself just as much as the plot is.
Touch Is...Outdated? Icky? Uhm...
The people in this webcomic treat touch as something gross, perverted, or even taboo. Kids are raised with touch because it's an essential part of their development, but are taught to give it up as they get older. Yet, people get SUPER close to each other, and even do air kiss greetings. You'd think everyone would be required to wear dance bracelets that form barriers to prevent contact. But, they don't really work. At all.
Then there's the Touching Club, a place where people can meet up and touch each other. Abeille finds a public posting about it. And despite most people's attitudes towards touch, no one seems to care that this place exists.
Meat Is Scarce Here:
If you move to or visit the tropical planet of Monotropa, you must eat a vegan diet, because meat is expensive and scarce. So, did hunting and fishing get banned? Is there no technology to grow meat in labs? We do this shit in the present day, but not in the distant future? Oh, wait. Author headcanon makes it all work, so there's no point in complicating things with proper fucking world building!
People Still Have Natural Babies:
Yep, NATURAL babies. So, what does that even mean? It can't be gene combination in a lab. It can't be sex, because that involves touch and no one does that. So...artificial insemination? Looks like some more author headcanon is needed, because this hasn't been explained at all! In the discussion section on page for of chapter 18, Gina states that "Birth control is a thing. They have implants that keep them baby free until *OR IF* they wish to do that. Most people do the embryo incubator route and those that do experience physical pregnancy would have a planned surgical birth." Touching is considered gross and people use the machine for sex...yet they need birth control?
The Insects Destroy Earth Plants:
Miel says Earth plants have no defenses against Monotropa's insects. And the company is close to having successful Earth harvests. Yet, the planet's open to the public, meaning a growing population. Sub-par harvests mean food shortages. Oh, never mind! We can all go pick apples from apple trees! You know, one of those poor, defenseless Earth plants that get wrecked by Monotropa's insects! This small pocket of human civilization just one bad harvest away from a serious and potentially life threatening problem, but who needs actual conflict in stories, anyway?
Researchers Know Nothing:
Before a human population was settled, researchers studied Monotropa for some time. Buildings would be set up to endure weather such as hurricanes, heavy rain, and humidity, right? Nah! Fuck that! New residents are expected to prepare for rainy season themselves! And even "old" government buildings have design flaws! So, how are these buildings still standing if EVERYONE fucks up this much? Monotropa is an absolute disaster of a colony with this much incompetence. Made even worse is that, despite these major, major, MAJOR problems...they're building a second city. How? How did anyone greenlight this when issues are happening in the unnamed main settlement LA LA LA, NEVER MIND. NOT IMPORTANT AT ALL.
Inclusive, Politically Correct Holidays:
Cornucopia, Jollytide. Festivals for everything! Humans must've decided all their old holidays sucked ass, so they celebrate new ones. Cornucopia is the new Thanksgiving, and is based on a fairy tale about two female lovers. But, it's also a story of the seasons, and not tied to any Earth religion or traditions. I bring up Earth since LNF said humans originated on Earth. So, where did this holiday come from? Did some new religion pop up, and humans decided to roll with it? Did humans steal this holiday story from another race and adapt it?
Wait. This webcomic is called Love Not Found. Most people don't marry for love and most relationships are based on how good the sex is. Yet, the Thanksgiving knock-off holiday is based on the profound love two fictional people shared? What was wrong with just having a harvest celebration? Can it go back to being Thanksgiving? I miss Thanksgiving!
Author biography
While LNF's About Page makes Gina sound like quite the professional artist, she's been slipping for the past few years. Gina has lied repeatedly to herself and her fans, and frequently makes excuses for her growing lack of professionalism. Instead of putting on the big girl pants and fixing things, she continues to fumble around, hoping no one will notice while she asks for more money.
Well, people have noticed, and are rightly upset. Here's why:
Gina likes to mention how much work she has to do: Love Not Found, Patreon perks, her porn website, and other projects that come up. She'll also bring up how raising kids can add complications to her schedule. So, what did she do to address her absolutely, truly insane and horrible workload? In November of 2017, she switched LNF to a Monday and Friday schedule, which slowly became sometimes Monday and Friday, then "miss an update here and there and not explain why." Of course, there were some valid reasons for a few delays: illness, travel, hurricanes, family emergencies. However, some updates were replaced by full-page ads for Gina's Patreon, porn site, or other projects. Because, you know, those image links and blog areas visible on every fucking page of the comic just aren't good enough.
Alas, poor Gina still hasn't caught up with all her work, and can no longer build a buffer for LNF. Yes, working on a shitty webcomic in addition to other things is hard, but Gina is self-employed. She has full control over her workload, but won't do anything about it. Hell, die-hard fans and critical readers both have made the same suggestion to her: put LNF on hiatus in order to take a break and catch up on everything. But, Gina won't do that. She continues to use her workload for sympathy, at least until someone dares criticize her behavior.
No, Gina does not like criticism of her behavior, or her work. She'll either hand-wave it away, get super defensive or passive aggressive, or just outright ignore it. Meanwhile, she'll like and respond to various comments that kiss her ass, or support her choice to pretend she's got things under control. And if Gina doesn't react to a particular bit of criticism, you can sure as fuck bet that her army of fluffy SJW princesses will. You can't call out the lazy, shitty writing of LNF, because that's just lazy, shitty criticism! Yes, this is the type of fanbase Gina wants.
Speaking of the shitty writing in LNF, Gina is not capable of writing by the seat of her pants, as she supposedly learned with the Demon Aid fiasco. But, an interview with her revealed she's doing the same damned thing with Love Not Found. When the comic launched, she had only a general idea of what she wanted to do. Then she waited three fucking years to edit and rework some parts to make them "better" for the pace of web publishing. She also seems to write the webcomic's script one chapter at time without consulting previous chapters. So much for learning from mistakes!
The piss icing on this shit cake is how she left her best free projects to rot. The websites for Erstwhile and Red String broke during the summer of 2017. No reason was given as to what caused this. Gina said she'd try getting to them by the end of September. Then she said there was a new web technician, and things would be ready in early 2018. Well, guess what never happened in 2018?
And things just keep on getting better! On January 3 2019, the Love Not Found site exploded, leaving nothing but a blank page. But, Gina couldn't sit and ignore this problem, because LNF is helping feed her Patreon. She soon told fans that an unsupported update broke the entire site, which would have to be moved to a new host. Even with help, it took her nearly a month to get the site back up and running in a half-assed "bare-bones" state.
During the downtime, fans asked if Erstwhile and Red String would return with Love Not Found. Well, Gina had both good and bad news. She said she'd rebuild the Erstwhile site once LNF was fixed, but the Red String comic would never be online again. It's now 2020, and the LNF website was fixed some time ago. Yet, the Erstwhile site is still offline. Big fucking surprise, right? But, worry not! You can just go buy the digital books for both comics!
And you definitely should buy those books. Gina really needs more money support and kindness to keep her ego stroked working on her free comic, and to keep criticism rude, anonymous trolls at bay. She can't be expected to deal with things in a professional manner. She's only 40 years old!
Conclusion
Love Not Found has the potential to be a great story. There are some interesting ideas, and the artwork is of a quality more webcomic creators should strive for. But, pretty art and a handful of good ideas can't support god-awful writing. Gina needs to stop making everything up as she goes along, and take a serious look at the plot, setting, and characters. She also needs to set limits for herself, and listen to constructive criticism.
But, since Gina has inserted her head into her ass and surrounded herself with praise-spewing fans, nothing in LNF will change. It'll continue to be an inconsistent wish-fulfillment slog where conflicts never happen, and everyone gets away with being stupid.
Links
The webcomic, should you like to see a slow-mo train wreck.
Author's Twitter account
Author's Deviantart page
Comic's asskissing Facebook page, where even the author refers to her characters as cinnamon buns
Author's Tumblr page
