Tag: Manhwa

Webtoon Recommendation: Pinocchio(피노키오)

Webtoon Recommendation: Pinocchio(피노키오)

by eastasianlover ♥ 20 Comments

If you’re thinking that this is spin off webtoon of drama Pinocchio, or if Pinocchio drama was made out of this webtoon but you never came to know about it, rest assured (or rather, be a little disappointed), both are totally different.

This webtoon, one of my absolute favorites, is on the verge of its ending (Only some extra chapters left). Written by Maru-ssi (Why do I suddenly remember Kang Maru from The Innocent Man?), this particular piece is so full of emotions and drama, that shoujo lovers would definitely go gaga over it, once they read the story.

Pinocchio 1

The story is about high school student Choi Ha Ram who, one day, gets to buy a beautiful necklace from a suspicious place. After she wears it, she starts seeing a ghost named Yu Ga On, who doesn’t have memories of how he died or what happened to him but has a feeling that he did something bad to his family .

Ha Ram rejects him first because she seems to find herself in trouble whenever Ga On is near her, but develops sympathy for his situation and lets him live with her. She even starts helping him to create fresh set of memories taking photographs and teaching him to write even though he can’t hold or touch anything. But she keeps Yu Ga On secret from every one else including her childhood crush Han Bit who is handsome, kind, pursued by a lot of girls, her senior and has recently come back to be her neighbor. She has been madly in love with him.

Pinocchio 2

During the course of the webtoon, she confesses to Han Bit too only to be rejected more than one time. The story continues to reveal Yu Ga On’s mysterious past, the truth of the guy who sold HaRam the necklace and obliteration of his soul ultimately. (This, in no way, is a spoiler since the actual ending is quite different, and a happy one, from what might seem from this summary. Keep guessing or go read the webtoon!)

I soo want to give spoilers right now, but well, I’ll hold back. Anyway, the webtoon is full of feels and unexpected twists including Yu Ga On’s real story and who Ha Ram ends up with. The “twistful” nature of this webtoon full of cliffhangers (no cliffhangers for people who read it now but one would definitely appreciate the flow it has been made with) has been kept up till the last chapter. Most of the readers would find it difficult to digest what shows in a chapter at first until they read the whole thing (which happened with me in the very last of the webtoon also) and have tears roll down their cheeks and heave a sigh of relief on reality of events.

Pinocchio 3

Pinocchio 4

It also compels the reader to think about life and how our regrets might be hurting not only us but others as well. And that feelings need to be told and forgiveness needs to be asked, you may not get a second chance at that.

Art is great with great use of vibrant colors (Han Bit’s hair color >.<) and there are a lot of touches of comedy. (I love rom com webtoons and manga)

The whole translated webtoon is available here by EGScans. This webtoon has a prequel too, though I haven’t read it, called One Winter which has Yu Ga On’s story of what he was doing before meeting HaRam. Anyway, highly recommended webtoon.

Side Story 1: I always end up not writing a Happy New Year post (or any other occasion’s post, as a matter of fact) and this year too I am tad late but I wish that may this year bring everybody great health, prosperity and happiness.

Side Story 2: One of my blog’s reader has asked me very recently (few hours ago) to keep my rants with myself. I got that comment once before too, so I have decided, I would stop writing about my personal life. I won’t stop writing about my travel or study experiences though. And I won’t remove the earlier posts either.

With that, I will take my leave. *Wanders off to laze around in warm sun after so many chilly days*

Webtoon Recommendation: The friendly winter

Webtoon Recommendation: The friendly winter

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

One of the best webtoons I have ever read is “The Friendly Winter”.

A heart touching story by Mr. Lee Jun, it is about a girl who is 19 years old but has a body of and a 17 year old boy who has a mind of that of small children. The basic plot is about how their fateful meeting totally changes their lives.

images (4)

Han Da Jeong is a 19 year old girl with a rare body growth disorder. Her mother left her and her father; and married someone else. Her father is a worker who finds it difficult to make two ends meet. Then, in her neighbourhood lives a guy of same age as Da Jeong whom she is in love with, but has to pose as 9 year old girl in front of him because of her body. In a mall, she meets a panicked Min Seong  who is lost and helps him find his mother. Thus a new friendship forms and they start running into each other often. They feel comfortable and share their own worries and problems with each other. More characters are introduced as the webtoon progresses including Da Jeong’s mother and her beloved oppa’s girlfriend who happens to be her step sister from her mother’s second marriage.

This webtoon not only shows the difficulties in such people’s lives and their immediate family but also others’ attitude towards them. They are misunderstood quite often and have to face consequences for the things they have never done. This one is especially full of emotions and may make you cry too, sometimes. The best part is, you can actually feel their helplessness and are able to fully sympathize with the main characters.

images (3)

Highly recommended, even if you are just starting with webtoons. Awesome artwork and just 64 and some extra chapters. (Extra chapters are especially fun…… coz of Lee Jun’s avatar and the way he tells you things with just three or four apt expressions in the whole chapter) Here is the link – Mangahere (This won’t be in long strip format)

SCS Scantalations (From original scantalators, though this one doesn’t need scanning, but oh well….. and you can find raw too, if interested. And I haven’t seen how it looks, so can’t comment about format)

Enjoy!

New form of comics: Webtoons

New form of comics: Webtoons

by eastasianlover ♥ 11 Comments

Have you ever read a webtoon? Of course you must have! You haven’t? You are definitely missing a lot! A lot!

Webtoons from Korea are becoming very popular these days. They are very easily accessible and are free of cost. And since they consist of colorful pictures, they are more appealing to the audiences. The effects sometimes are awesome. They go in a long panel, not pagewise. This, in many situations, helps to have more continuity in the chapter and provides more impact and weight in delivering the right emotion.

Orange Marmalade

Some of the authors talk about how they make them through their webtoon itself. In one of them which I finished recently, The Friendly Winter, there was a chapter in which author told that he had used his own clicked photos as the base for backgrounds. That included his neighborhood buildings, shopping malls, streets etc. We can very well assume we are seeing a different kind of South Korea (real may be?) through those pictures.

The freelance translator community for webtoons is ever increasing too. There are a lot of groups and translators working on them like people on webtoonlive.com (at least they don’t need scanlations, that’s why the translation and all is economical too!)

And the plots! All of the stories I have read till now are fresh and out of this world. Be it ‘The Friendly Winter’ or ‘Nineteen Twenty one’. There is a vast variety of genres too, just like manga. Each one seems to give some message also. There are a lot of famous movies from South Korea which are adaptations of various webtoons. The examples include Apartment and Hello Schoolgirl by Kang Pul and Secretly Greatly released in 2010. Flower Boy Next Door, the K-drama starring Park Shin Hye and Yoon Shi Yoon, is also inspired from a webtoon called “I Steal Peeks At Him Every Day”. It also has elements related to webtoon making. You can easily see the characters in the drama (I have just watched the drama, not read the webtoon) using photoshop to draw the characters.

The Friendly Winter

Webtoons are replacing the expensive Manhwa and Manga making. Both the forms of comics have seen a fall in sales in the recent years. The international craze for these is not going down since a lot of material is available online free of cost. But the home business is facing losses. And this is encouraging more people to take up this new introduction in the market. I am not saying manga reading is inferior or something. It has its own charm. It is a lot of hardwork. (Watch or read Bakuman and you’ll find out!) But seeing the trend, webtoons and similar forms may take over the other two in terms of popularity and fandom, in the coming years.

In the end I will say, the webtoons are totally changing the meaning and essence of comics making and reading. You try too. You easily find them on manga sites or see here: http://www.webtoonlive.com/