My (insignificant) problem with Korean Webtoons/Manhwa

Golden_Hyde

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I don't know if anyone realized this, or simply didn't care enough (probably the latter), but have you ever realized that almost all—if not the entirety of Korean webtoons are extremely segmented? Like:

  1. if you want romance with male protagonist, you'll have a hard time finding any that isn't R19+ (R18+ outside of Korean rating system, basically full blown sex galore, sometimes with LitRPG power fantasy at #2)
  2. if you still want romance but don't want any of those thing, almost all the time it'll be targeted to young female audience with female protagonist dominating the scene (duh, obviously)
  3. I don't think I need to say anything further what's the rest. You already know what I'm referring to with this one.
  4. Romance in most power fantasy webtoons are most likely something that only readers wishes whenever a hot female lead is present. Even if there's one, it's definitely in the lowest priority. A subplot, if I may.
What do you guys think?
 

Akaichi

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Not only Korean, but most Chinese and Japanese non literary novels follow that segmentation, mostly light novels, manga and such. It is a way to adapt to the readers who wants to know what they are going into, and it works. Sometimes I wish english novels have such thing, it makes searching for a novel that suites my taste easier!
 

Golden_Hyde

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They are also extremely tropey. Even more tropey than CN and obviously more tropey than JP.
definitely. Sometimes, those tropes are starting to get old, even reinventing such wheel may seemed having less impact, unless there are some crazy author who was willing to go out of their way to trailblaze and refresh it.
 

RepresentingWrath

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definitely. Sometimes, those tropes are starting to get old, even reinventing such wheel may seemed having less impact, unless there are some crazy author who was willing to go out of their way to trailblaze and refresh it.
This might sound like a troll reply, but I feel like the aforementioned r18+ KR webtoons are less tropey. Don't take me wrong, 90% of pornhwas are tropey as hell, and you can predict where this or that is going on with frightening accuracy. But sometimes they do, dare I say it, look and read like a proper story. Even if there are tropes, they are not sticking out like a sore thumb. Tropes are blended into the story and you can actually enjoy something fresh. Fresh compared to all the; I level up alone, I level up solo, I level up without party, solitary level up, independendt level up, and so on.
 

Golden_Hyde

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This might sound like a troll reply, but I feel like the aforementioned r18+ KR webtoons are less tropey. Don't take me wrong, 90% of pornhwas are tropey as hell, and you can predict where this or that is going on with frightening accuracy. But sometimes they do, dare I say it, look and read like a proper story. Even if there are tropes, they are not sticking out like a sore thumb. Tropes are blended into the story and you can actually enjoy something fresh. Fresh compared to all the; I level up alone, I level up solo, I level up without party, solitary level up, independendt level up, and so on.
frankly, it's been so long since I read either of them. Sometimes I get tired with all the level up tropes, sometimes I get tired with the extremely horny MC (that came up being rude), and sometimes I get tired with a wimpy but still extremely horny MC.

Maybe that's just me but if that's how it goes, I probably would be better off with the Shoujo Manwha.

And no worries, you got a great point there. No trolling indication found in your reply
 

RepresentingWrath

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frankly, it's been so long since I read either of them. Sometimes I get tired with all the level up tropes, sometimes I get tired with the extremely horny MC (that came up being rude), and sometimes I get tired with a wimpy but still extremely horny MC.

Maybe that's just me but if that's how it goes, I probably would be better off with the Shoujo Manwha.

And no worries, you got a great point there. No trolling indication found in your reply
I get what you mean, KR webtoons do be like that. And I doubt anything will change in the foreseeable future. I can only advise you to read manga. The least tropey and predictable of the three.
 

Hoshino

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Notice: Finally someone who understands my pain-nya.
 

BearlyAlive

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Yeah, those are weird. And even if they have some romance sub-plot like in Ending Maker and not some sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-plot like most of the time they somehow manage to push it so far into the background it might as well be non-existent.

My theory about Koreans being the humans closest to machines might actually be proveable on academic levels.
 

Golden_Hyde

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Yeah, those are weird. And even if they have some romance sub-plot like in Ending Maker and not some sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-plot like most of the time they somehow manage to push it so far into the background it might as well be non-existent.
to be frank, they designed it to be that way, but I'm afraid if they don't diversify like what the Japanese and Chinese did with their webcomics, it will lead to an oversaturation.

And what I feel right now is it already did becoming oversaturated.
 
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