Yo, Renhain! Here's what you were waiting for!
"After a brutal assault, Carter's life falls apart. But what kind of a hockey player would he be if he couldn't deal with a bit of violence? For a new team, it goes back to the ice rink... and back in the closet."
— webtoon description
CRUSH3D!! is an ongoing webcomic published by German artist Yaa
on Webtoons, Tapas, and Tumblr. As of 2019, the original run was cancelled due to the author's personal growth and dissatisfaction with the comic, and the remake began publication in January 2020.
The story centers around 18-year-old Carter "Crush" Howe and his new start in life as a first-year at Renhain Academy and center for the local AA ice hockey team, the Renhain Deers.
CRUSH3D!! contains examples of:
- Animal Motifs: Not only are the Renhain Academy grade levels referred to by types of deer (fawn, caribou, elk), but Carter's narration remarks of his team that, "Fitting with their animal counterparts, there are many big and strong guys on the roster."
- Bilingual Bonus: German readers have noticed several puns in the names of minor Class 11A characters.
- Boarding School: Most characters attend and live at Renhain Academy, as the school has an agreement with the local hockey team to educate and house the teenage players. However, a few have been mentioned to just live in town with host families or in their own homes.
- Cast of Snowflakes: Class 11A and the Renhain Deers hockey team add up to around 40 different characters, all of whom are named and uniquely designed, even those only intended to be in the background.
- Color-Coded Speech: The thought boxes for Carter, Scott, and Reuben are colored green, orange, and blue, respectively.
- Color Motif: The three main characters are all associated with a color. Carter is green, Scott is orange, and Reuben is blue. These colors all show up in their appearances, in hair color for Carter and Scott and eye color for Reuben, as well as being the color for their thought boxes.
- Flashback Echo: When Carter looks into the coach's office, it sends him into a flashback to his time as an Ovensee Penguin. He shuts the office door in Renhain while recalling the one in Ovensee as something that always had to remain closed.
- Fictional Country: Gernada, as the author calls it, is located somewhere in the Arctic Circle and contains elements of North America and Europe, especially Canada, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, and Iceland. The primary languages are English, German, and French, and most citizens are at least bilingual. The legal system is closest to Germany.
- Hair Color Dissonance: Many characters have hair in shades of blue, purple, red, or pink to represent brown, black, and blond without looking too monotonous.
- Hero of Another Story: Yaa has three comics in the CRUSH3D!! universe and characters may overlap.
- Leo White is Carter's cousin and friend of Henry Marley, who both help Carter move into his dorm in chapter one. Henry and Leo are the main characters of Java Bonds, a comic set a year before in Henry's point of view.
- Middle Child Syndrome, which takes place before CRUSH3D!!, has Scott in the final chapter as Thomas's boyfriend. Now, he is a main character.
- Leo White is Carter's cousin and friend of Henry Marley, who both help Carter move into his dorm in chapter one. Henry and Leo are the main characters of Java Bonds
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every chapter is named after a song.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Carter and Reuben. While Reuben is focused and cold, Carter is emotional and extroverted.
- Switching P.O.V.: Chapter POVs alternate between Carter, Scott, and Reuben.
- Tone Shift: While the prologue consists of Carter reminiscing on his childhood and his old self almost resentfully, culminating in an unspecified violent event, the first chapter shows him two years later, sporting a head of green hair and skating down a mountain gleefully on move in day for Renhain Academy.
- The New '10s: The story begins in 2010.
- Time Skip: The prologue takes place in May 2008, and chapter one begins two years later in September.
