Oneuleui Webtun

Korean Drama " Today's Webtoon " had some interesting stories when it came to the artists, however, the main story was boring.

The short cases of the webtoon artists, first of all, were bittersweet, interesting and entertaining.

On the other hand, the main story was cliche and cheesy. It wasn't the glue to keep the other stories together and cohesive, but it added some unnecessary elements, like the romance, and got in the way, messing the pace and stealing the screentime from the actual enjoyable plotlines. Especially since the main story is an overused one, with a girl working several jobs to get by, working hard and trying to be perfect at her work while remaining positive.

The performances, however, were enjoyable by everyone in the cast.

So, overall, four out of ten.

Kim Se-jeong plays On Ma-eum an ex member of the National judo team who joins a web editing team as a green rookie. What she lacks in understanding of an office environment she more then makes up for with her exuberant charm and her love for comics. It is an interesting drama which shows the number of people required to make a webtoon story a success and the effort that goes into bringing people back to read a story on a regular basis. There are a number of stories running through the series concerning the successful artists on the books and some new aspiring ones who have just signed up. It is a cheerful, upbeat and the actors do a sterling job to retain the interest of the viewer in wanting to see how things work out. Probably too much time in my opinion showing the workings of an editing team but still worth a watch with it's upbeat outlook.

The whole drama felt like a short web series that was pushed too hard and stretched too thin to be molded into a 16-long-episodes chunk. There was a big tremendous missed opportunity to genuinely create something unique and special about exploring the Webtoon industry with all its intricacies and nuances but what we got was a bloated melodramatic superficial cheap one-dimensional cookie-cutter cut of a mix of poorly structured sappy stories themed around Webtoons. I though we might get something similar to Shirobako but it wasn't remotely close. The drama was grasping at straws to keep itself rolling. A few cases made some good valid points but the majority were bad and embarrassing to include. The drama gave the impression that every Webtoon creator in the industry is a problematic individual that needs constant tinder love and care to function as a human. This drama might be themed around Webtoons but I wouldn't label it as a drama about Webtoons. One thing in particular that became more problematic and annoying as the drama went on was the female lead, her revolting attitude and extreme overreaction with every single breath made her unbearable to even hear her voice. There was an attempt to give her backstory but that was handled with 2 poor scenes. On the other hand, the other main character Goo Joon Young had one singular facial expression that is a wide static smile. Even as a character his role was negligible. One question remained to be answered, why did they end the drama was a love confession?! Huh?

Today's Webtoon, adapted from a Japanese manga, is mild and not much interesting when converted into Korean Webtoon world. With a global hit (Business Proposal) this year, Today's Webtoon is the 2nd drama of Kim Seo Jeong in 2022, however it had less to no sparks in terms of story.

The screenplay to Today's Webtoon recalls K-drama tropes where a bubbly female lead ends up inspiring those around her and changing it for the better - cheesy motivations, juvenile humour, viewer enjoyment highly dependent on the geniality of the leading lady. At times, Today's Webtoon stretches out select moments of friction between characters or circumstances. At others, it glosses over points that could underpin significant character development.

To summarise, Today's Webtoon is much like the many office dramas before it, but the unbridled confidence, optimism and faith of the characters makes it a one time worthwhile watch.

My Rating : 5.5/10.

When will the webcomics "Princess Kumiho" be released? It looks fantastic. All I want to do is read it.

As a fellow webtoon fan, I beg you to publish "Princess Kumiho" as a manga book.

PRINCESS KUMIHO!! PRINCESS KUMIHO!! PRINCESS KUMIHO !!!