While pursuing a case, Detective Ieum Kim of the Violent Crimes Unit rescues a man collapsed on a mountain trail. Stricken with amnesia, the man believes himself to be a child... Thus begins Ieum's dangerous cohabitation with a mysterious stranger.

Degenerate has story by Gyeja and art by HKMI. English localization is done by Manta. Published by Manta (December 23, 2025). Rated M.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Every job comes with its dangers. Not that Ieum Kim ever expected that his work as a cop would lead to him taking in a grown man with amnesia making him think he's an eight-year-old child, but here he is. After finding the unconscious man in the middle of a backcountry road, he's horrified to find that whatever knocked him out made him lose most of his memories – and that the “child” has imprinted on Ieum. When all efforts to identify him lead to nothing, Ieum has no choice but to name the “boy” Yeongsik and take him home.

A lot of the humor of these first eight chapters are rooted in the fact that this giant, muscular man – whom we saw plotting the death of another man in the first chapter before his memory loss – is acting like a little boy. He wants to be pushed on the swings and play dinosaurs and he's afraid to sleep alone. He loves his teddy bear T-shirt. He's freaked out by his adult body and disgusted by his adult genitals. Despite how he looks (which is threatening to say the least), he really is just a little kid. (At least until the end of chapter seven…) While some of the humor feels a little mean, because honestly, any kid who suddenly woke up in an adult body would be very freaked out, for the most part it's an enjoyable juxtaposition.

It's also one that keeps Ieum from asking the most pressing questions about why he can't find evidence of the man's identity. His fingerprints and DNA aren't in any national database, where, I presume, they normally would be due to his compulsory military service. That he hasn't completed this tour of duty leads Ieum to think that maybe he's an immigrant, but the better question to ask would probably be whether or not he's involved in something illegal. Given that Ieum is working on a case that seems to be about a mafia group, it feels a little odd that he's not exploring that angle with his guest. Possibly he doesn't want to because he can't imagine the sweet little boy grew up to be a vicious criminal – an issue that the man in question's own mother also seems to have.

Like many of Manta's titles, this is available as both a “full version" and one that's more geared towards a YA audience. The latter is the only one you can read on Manta's app; if you want to see the whole thing (and “Yeongsik's” whole thing), you'll need to read the series on their website. My general feeling is that even if I don't want to see it, I'll be damned if someone will tell me, a full-grown adult, that I can't, but as of the first eight chapters, it's not making a major difference to the plot. The only downside to switching is that you'll have to rebuy chapters, which is an annoyance. But the story itself is entertaining, so whichever version you chose, you ought to have a good time.