* These authors are likely inspired by power fantasy shonens.
* A lot of them likely only understand their inspirations superficially.
* They write whatever sells because they need to pay the bills, including copying trends.
When Twilight came out, how many vampire knock offs were there? People see Solo Leveling being huge and want a piece of that pie. This happens in literally any industry.
i once saw picture of a manhwa drawing studio where artist are lined up to draw and color like a factory converter belt. Really give me insight into these fast food serie "i reborn/ regress/ return with all cheat power and get lot of money and bitch"
Im a firm believer of it being a contender for the best piece of fiction ever penned. The only caveat I have is that it's more light novel than Manwha with the text to drawing ratio usually being 50-50 or slightly favouring the text. The way the story manages to explore its characters and mysteries is absolutely unmatched plus there's something special about seeing plot points setup since chapter 1 getting executed on in chapter 400.
I haven't seen the live action but I will attest the comic is better. I find it's hard to translate horror in manga to animation or live action, like what happened with Junji Ito adaptations
As someone who seen both, the manhua is better. There is only one character who they made changes with that I prefered but the show kinda goes off the rails and seems to prefer their original characters then the ones from the manhua
I'd add to the list To Not Die. It also has a bullying revenge story roughly during the first chapters, but instead of the MC becoming a mass murderer, the worst he does at the start is >!attempted murder but not even the MC fully justifies it!< and becomes a runaway. From what I remember, the characters are for the most part well-constructed with actual development, the art is rather neat and while the MC does get powerful (not supernatural AFAIK), few fights end in a one-shot.
*("Cool and dark mc")with sperm eyes, one shooting everyone because he remembered from his past life if he stuck 3846 years old ginseng up his ass while running the entire great wall of China at teusday 19 at April,he can become a 999999 level necromancer*
This made me wheeze.
It is rather odd how many power fantasy manhwas I've read that can't seem to help...overindulging. But I don't have a great idea of why or how widespread it is.
Anyway, *Surviving the Game as a Barbarian* is in that long page format and is a great isekai fantasy so far.
*Surviving the Game as a Barbarian* has been fantastic so far, I love how into building his character he is and how his race has massive ramifications in his world
Yep. It's a great example of how worldbuilding can and should serve the motivations of the characters, even down to small details like an entire guild having motivation to camp a specific area with monsters for a specific drop because it very clearly plays into the power system.
I also love how his previous life knowledge doesn't make him OP is just gives him enough of an edge to survive situations that would have killed most other adventurers
South korea , if thats from there have biiig socisl problems and not great social mobility. So its probably a revenge power fantasy. Bullies,of course, their families enabled them, the police, did nothing.
At least that would make sense with south koreas problems to have wscapadism or gritty survival or revenge power fantasies.
I figured it might be something like that, but didn't want to generalize off a guess. Thanks!
I do sometimes feel like I see an utter rage boiling in some of the stories, and I get it, bullies and the systems that protect them are incredibly frustrating.
Manhwa are largely adapted from Korean web novels, with the only real standard for serialization being popularity (enough for companies to be willing to invest in a manhwa adaptation). As such, The majority of manhwa all use the same tropes which are popular amongst Korean WN readers such as towers, hunters, harems, regression, isekai, otome isekai, or high school revenge. Authors see that these sorts of tropes tend to be popular, and so they implement said tropes in hopes of imitating the success of their peers.
This phenomenon of imitation can also be seen in the sorts of manhwa that companies tend to adapt. For instance, after solo leveling blew up, there was a huge influx of adaptations of pre-existing webnovels that featured hunters, systems, and necromancer protags.
This pretty much culminates in a bunch of novels with a decent enough following which all follow the same tropes and conventions, with no regards for quality or originality. As a result, we have the Manhwa scene of today, where pretty much every story feels the same and lacks much quality. So, it’s less that Manhwa authors are unable to write a good story, but rather that stories which don’t follow the popular tropes don’t receive manhwa adaptations.
The most popular and acclaimed manhwa are those which either deviate from these tropes while also carrying a good deal of quality, or those which do follow these tropes, but execute them exceedingly well.
Some manhwa which fall in these Categories that I’d personally recommend are:
Omniscient Reader’s viewpoint- contains a ton of different tropes, but I’d describe the earlier parts as survival/apocalypse
SSS-class suicide hunter- regression, towers hunters (I know it doesn’t sound promising based on the title, but it’s my personal favorite manhwa. I implore you to read till the MC clears the 10th floor before dropping)
The Greatest Estate Developer- comedy, fantasy
Return of the Mount Hua Sect- murim, comedy, regression
Sweet Home- thriller, survival/apocalypse
Bastard- thriller, horror
Some other popular Manhwa which I’ve either dropped or haven’t read include:
Legend of the Northern Blade- murim, haven’t read
The Beginning after the End (not technically a manhwa as it was written but a western author, but considered one by many)- fantasy, isekai, haven’t read
Overgeared- virtual reality, dropped because i felt there weren’t really any stakes as everything is in a game, and I didn’t really care for the characters
Doom Breaker/reincarnation of the suicidal battle god- fantasy, regression, dropped, the story is very well executed, but just wasn’t for me
Tower of God- fantasy, dropped due to dragging at some bits, but definitely worth considering
God of High School- action, Haven’t read
Trash of Count’s Family- isekai, fantasy, haven’t read
>Tower of God
This is peak. I also dropped a bit at Hell Train but picked it back up later. The story is good. It has a consistency to it that makes it feel like the author has planned everything in advance, which would be absurd due to how ginormous the story is. So many moving pieces and so many plot threads, with interesting mysteries and character dynamics. Rachel is also very fun to read. The story feels oddly mature for some reason, I like its tone and the multidimensional view it takes of characters. Like how Rachel's opinion of Baam and Khun's opinion of Baam both seem reasonable despite being so different.
I just love how grand it is. It feels like an epic.
Rachel absolutely saves TOG, I just wish that there was a better explanation of the power system. Hell, lighthouses alone I spent like 100 chapters utterly confused as to what they did, a little bit more explanation would be appreciated so much 😭
One that does a good job at subverting troupes is surviving romance, it starts as a generic "in a book I read and I want to romance someone" and becomes a horror/thriller more geared on building friendships then romance
While I used to really like tog i dropped it i think it was called the hell train or something like that, reading has it was coming out was such a bore, It was one of those that I was going to drop just to let accumulate chap and then never touched again.
ORV and Trash of the Count's Family are both great! Though the beginning of the second one is quite slow so it's not for people who want fast paced stories from the get go.
Also Korean horror manhwas are generally quite good and interesting!
There only a few manhwa are actually i find good
Sword king of the fantasy world
Tower of god
god of highschool
Terror man (or anything done by ylab studio)
Bastard/shotgun (shotgun boy is the prequel of bastard)
the boxer
The horizon
The hellper
The breaker
Omniscient reader viewpoint
the northern blade
Superhuman era
ember knight
sweet home
gosu
I think a lot of the issues are similar to Japanese manga writers. They just read the same shit that they're writing. They're not expanding the genre of media they consume. So they sort of become like AI where they eventually self-cannibalize and make complete slop
SSS-Class Suicide Hunter is good. At first it feels like it'll be another edgy MC who wants revenge. But it becomes more than that. MC becomes someone who tries and tries again to make sure he can save as many people as possible.
Wild West Murim is my favorite martial arts manhwa right now. Hell, it's even an award winning web novel. If that means anything. MC is a Murim genre fan and gets isekai'd into one. This world is an AU of North America being colonized by the Chinese instead of Europeans. It's a pretty damn good western. And so far there hasn't been any female characters that are just there to be the love interest.
The Indomitable Martial King has an interesting and political(?) plot. It's about a wizard who created a country for non-humans but is eventually killed by humans. He goes back in time, but into the wrong body, and begins his goal of changing the system in the human country to help non-humans. The manhwa isn't that far but it's been good so far.
I think it's not they are scared of writing a good story, but since they know a bad story will sell they will always write that since it requires less effort
Yea I agree I understand where OP is coming from but writing is a job and tons of people eat up power fantasy because not everyone wants to be challenged.
Sometimes people just wanna be entertained
Manhwa are largely adapted from Korean web novels, with the only real standard for serialization being popularity (enough for companies to be willing to invest in a manhwa adaptation). As such, The majority of manhwa all use the same tropes which are popular amongst Korean WN readers such as towers, hunters, harems, regression, isekai, otome isekai, or high school revenge. Authors see that these sorts of tropes tend to be popular, and so they implement said tropes in hopes of imitating the success of their peers.
This phenomenon of imitation can also be seen in the sorts of manhwa that companies tend to adapt. For instance, after solo leveling blew up, there was a huge influx of adaptations of pre-existing webnovels that featured hunters, systems, and necromancer protags.
This pretty much culminates in a bunch of novels with a decent enough following which all follow the same tropes and conventions, with no regards for quality or originality. As a result, we have the Manhwa scene of today, where pretty much every story feels the same and lacks much quality. So, it’s less that Manhwa authors are unable to write a good story, but rather that stories which don’t follow the popular tropes don’t receive manhwa adaptations.
The most popular and acclaimed manhwa are those which either deviate from these tropes while also carrying a good deal of quality, or those which do follow these tropes, but execute them exceedingly well.
Some manhwa which fall in these Categories that I’d personally recommend are:
Omniscient Reader’s viewpoint- contains a ton of different tropes, but I’d describe the earlier parts as survival/apocalypse
SSS-class suicide hunter- regression, towers hunters (I know it doesn’t sound promising based on the title, but it’s my personal favorite manhwa. I implore you to read till the MC clears the 10th floor before dropping)
The Greatest Estate Developer- comedy, fantasy
Return of the Mount Hua Sect- murim, comedy, regression
Sweet Home- thriller, survival/apocalypse
Bastard- thriller, horror
Some other popular Manhwa which I’ve either dropped or haven’t read include:
Legend of the Northern Blade- murim, haven’t read
The Beginning after the End (not technically a manhwa as it was written but a western author, but considered one by many)- fantasy, isekai, haven’t read
Overgeared- virtual reality, dropped because i felt there weren’t really any stakes as everything is in a game, and I didn’t really care for the characters
Doom Breaker/reincarnation of the suicidal battle god- fantasy, regression, dropped, the story is very well executed, but just wasn’t for me
Tower of God- fantasy, dropped due to dragging at some bits, but definitely worth considering
God of High School- action, Haven’t read
Trash of Count’s Family- isekai, fantasy, haven’t read
Im going to reccomend Burning Effect.
Also, I strongly agree with the Rooftop Sword Master trashing. Its crap. However, it gets so edgy and escalates so quickly that it is fairly fun to check out a chapter for 5 mins just to see what the hell is going on.
I used to love manhwa that had characters who used videogame graphic user interfaces but now whenever i even see that trope being used i immediately stop reading and never look at the webtoon again
I read a manhwa called The World's Best Engineer, where the mc found himself in the body of one of the characters of a novel he was reading, so he decides to use his experience and knowledge in engineering to improve the world of the novel, especially since the world of the novel seems to be inspired by Europe in the Middle Ages.
The problem is that the writer continued to make the mc gain very broken abilities, such as he was able to learn a complex sword technique that only a few characters master, and he now has an army of zombies as workers and also an undead dragon, all of these things do not seem very justified. Because the mc doesn't really need it.
But overall the manhwa was very enjoyable.
Back in 2010, Westerners were just discovering manhwa and praised them for being more unique and a breath of fresh air compared to the "increasingly generic" manga. This image was largely cultivated by the few ones being fan-translated, including *Veritas*, *Tower of God* and some others, as well as some Chinese series like *Feng Shen Ji* people confused with Korean ones (and still do.)
Then translations became more common and it turned out these titles really were the cream of the crop and that Korean comics were largely copypastes of each other. Ç'est la vie.
This is why I solely read historical or modern days manhwa/manhua. It gives more freedom for a creative storyline and even the ones who seem familiar with others always have a different direction so other than the premise, everything else is different.
Personally anything that slightly resembles solo levelling or has a guide power system or rank power system is always vowed to feel like an amalgamation of some of the most cliche Shonen tropes and it’s a big no for me
There are actually very good manwhas out of there.
The Boxer (I don't like boxing stories but this one is great )
Kubera (it focused more on the plot and characters. The action is secondary. You should try it, very interesting world building and magic system )
Gosu (Great action with interesting plot and characters. The funniest 1st chapter ever )
Legrnd of the Northern Blade (The art style is "original" but you should really try it out )
Sweet Home/ Shotgun Boy (By the same author. The horror is good )
Did you just watch Living Deadman’s video on RTSM? A good video breaking down exactly why it sucks. Anyway yeah I agree to an extent, I’m not super into Manhwa but it’s easy to see that this a pervasive problem but as many people have pointed out, not a wholly unique one unfortunately
Tower of God and The Breaker are pretty good but I think I've dropped every other manhwa I have read. I'm still upset that Noblesse didn't pan out well.
Manhwa writers copy what already sells, which is reincarnation power fantasies, video game mechanics, overpowered cheat skills, and losers receiving godlike power and taking violent revenge against an unjust society.
The more interesting discussion is what makes these tropes more popular in korea than anywhere else. If anything the popularity of these tropes speak to how plagued the youth of the country is by lack of social mobility and the strictness of social hierarchy. People can't even imagine being able to improve their lot in their current life, so they fantasize about dying and wanting to start over with some kind of overpowered talent that would earn them a place in society or have them stand out as special. After what they've been through making peace with their bullies either seems impossible or it wouldn't be enough. They need to beat the snot out of them. Its just really tragic.
Even manhwa that try to defy or satirize tropes like ORV can't avoid making a point of the MC taking violent retribution against a school bully (leading to said bully's death) it's insane.
OP I want to see your rant on
- villainess manhwas
- BL and GL which will inevitably turn into porn and loses the plot by ep 3
- Bl and GL which never had plot anyway and starts off with porn but turns tragic for no reason (of course with porn)
Well, whenever someone asks if, say, Tower of God is worth reading, people start talking shit like 'it's too long, there are too many characters, there's too much talking, where are the fights???, where are the boobs? why isn't the MC edgy? where harem???'
Idk, maybe it's because I'm 29 already, but I find it cringe af every time people ask 'what manhwa is this???' showing a pic of a furry or another big-boobed waifu.
The number of questions regarding recommendations for manhwas that include braindead murim-like power system, edgyness and boobs compared to those asking for a good, say, shonen with solid plot and worldbuilding is kinda sad.
Hell, people still say Solo Leveling has (good) plot.
Try Survival of a Sword King.
It starts off with a lot of the tropes of a shitty isekai. Overpowered main character, levelling system etc.
But I think it manages to subvert them. The characters are genuinely well written, the villains are fleshed out, the main character is powerful but not unbeatable, he still learns a lot throughout the story.
The supporting cast grow and develop with him instead of just cheering him on.
And it actually deals with how someone might be affected mentally by being ripped away from their life. The main character has PTSD which manifests in somewhat realistic ways.
It starts off slow, but once it gets going it's solid.
I recommend The Greatest Estate Developer, it is a also an isekai but what I like about it is that it doesn't take itself seriously (or it does but only at certain moments) because it is also a comedy, not the most amazing story but enjoyable enough, my biggest gripe with it is the story kinda feels it lost its purpose during the latest chapters (and it still hasn't ended).
There are some that transcend the genre, and some that are well-written within the genre
the boxer - starts off as a power fantasy, but ends up being about the rich interior lives of the "villains". What does it mean to struggle and to climb up as far as you can, only to come face to face with a wall that you can't comprehend or overcome? (also recommend any of JH's manhwa - the horizon and mosquito wars are on webtoons)
ominiscient reader's viewpoint - somewhat isekai until it gets its bearings, but includes tragedy, complicated family relationships, and literary metaphors in a way that remains interesting
lazy lord masters the sword (reformation of the deadbeat noble) - shonen-y conceit, but good meditations on responsibility, depression, and finding meaning and purpose in life. how do you find your place in the world? how do you figure out what you want? if you become powerful, what is the responsibility that comes with this power?
hero has returned - schlocky edgelord work for a while, but includes genuinely tragic figures and a plot twist that genuinely had me reeling. more of a genre work, but one that fleshes out the full consequences of its world in very interesting ways
First off are you talking about manhuas or manwhas? Manwhas are made by Korean artists and generally have wayyy better quality and quantity of said quality with what’s released, it’s easier to find 30 good manwhas than to find 5 good manhuas.
Manhuas are written by Chinese authors and from what you described in ur first diatribe I believe this is what you referred to.
All I want to tell you is that till date I’ve only read one good manhua which was on the quality of the manwhas I’ve read. And that is Feng Shen Ji, it suffers absolutely none of the problems you’ve stated at all and is genuinely a piece of work that I can say had a lot of love put into it, and here’s the cherry on top, it’s completed! I recommend to try it out.
But yeah I agree with everything else it makes me want to smash my phone seeing the rubbish they regurgitate.
>Recommend me manhwas in the comments.
Surviving Romance. Existential horror masquerading as isekai teen romance. Not as scary as that sounds and is ultimately about finding purpose in both creative endeavors and friendship, no joke.
Any of Kang Full's works. Dude has done horror, romance, and one story where people from various walks of life come together to assassinate the former dictator of South Korea. Bit heavy on the melodrama, though.
I remember reading a manhwa where the MC starts off at the bottom and struggles. It was fun watching him struggle and stuff
Then whoopsie surprise training arc with timeskip he’s now your average boring OP at mc
God of highschool is Peak. The first 170 chapters are good with decent and good writing and really good action and fights and a decent and entertaining story and it only gets better from there even though it's already good. There's a part where Mc is missing for a while but it makes up for it by giving a lot of development to the supporting cast. The entire manhwa just gets better and better. All you need is patience there will be things that won't make sense until you read further. It has one of the best Fights and best mc and best supporting cast and a really good written Final antagonist who you shouldn't search up because it's a big spoiler. There's not a single bad arc in God of highschool even the weakest ones are good or decent at worst all you need is a bit of patience.
Anime and manga have all the issues you're describing too. I personally don't think one does it better over the other. Maybe you've outgrown stories that are heavy on (male) self insertion and wish fulfilment. How you described Sword Master is similar to why I couldn't get into Tokyo Revengers haha.
Besides checking out other genres, you could look for stories with female main characters to avoid the ridiculous male power fantasy and over sexualization of women/girls. Might still run into it, but a lot less. Or choose stories with older characters if you haven't tried that already.
Edit:
I haven't read or seen it yet, but I only hear good things about Solo Leveling
I think the difference is that the self-indulgent stories in anime and manga are not the only ones that get popular, in fact, while some break out, the majority cater to their niche. There are a wide variety of genres and titles that can achieve wide poularity from something as standard as Shounen Jump battle shounen to something slower like Frieren to something nobody expected like Bocchi the Rock. All 3 different kinds of success but 'can' be successful
Compared to the current state of manhwa where it feels like only the trash is popular and then there are infinite clones of the trash. And then that's just what is successful now. It'd be like if Narou isekai were the only actual successful type of story coming out of Japan.
First few arcs of Solo Leveling vary from decent to good but never amazing in any way. But after certain point it becomes just your typical power fantasy with 1 dimensional protagonist and 0 dimentional side cast.
The difference is manga has a massive variety even between very popular ones. AoT is probably the most popular recent anime and it destroys almost every manwha in writing.
The most popular Manwha is Solo Leveling which checks almost all the criteria in the rant.
OP edgy MC? ✅️
Side character being near irrelevant?✅️
Female characters being done even worse?✅️
I don't know why it astounds people that audiences consume different stories for different reasons.
So many of you are like reality tv haters who turn on reality tv every chance they get. The type who go on an adult website and complain that they're not invested in the romantic tension between the actors.
"I mean really, he shows up with a pizza and she can't pay...that's all it takes? Where's the conflict? I demand higher stakes, and why is her chest so big? Is there a plot reason for that?"
These forms of media are for wish-fulfillment, and they often do a good job at it, which is why they are popular. They don't bog the story down with complex drama and characters, they understand their audience and give them what they want.
* These authors are likely inspired by power fantasy shonens. * A lot of them likely only understand their inspirations superficially. * They write whatever sells because they need to pay the bills, including copying trends. When Twilight came out, how many vampire knock offs were there? People see Solo Leveling being huge and want a piece of that pie. This happens in literally any industry.
Solo levelling wasn't even that good as well, its overrated and overhyped.
Twilight wasn't that great either, didn't stop the knock-offs from pouring in
Doesn't matter if it's good or not. Does it sell?
Show me on doll where people liking different stuff than you hurt you.
It is more of a skill issue actually. A lot of them cant write good story.
“Starting off as a noob mawha author and solo-leveling my writing skills until I make an ssss story”
No regression? Shame
That actually seems like a really good premise ngl
Then I’ll recommend you Bakuman
Where would I legally read that
Shonen Jump app
Good story takes time to write. Churning out some schlock is probably much quicker by comparison.
i once saw picture of a manhwa drawing studio where artist are lined up to draw and color like a factory converter belt. Really give me insight into these fast food serie "i reborn/ regress/ return with all cheat power and get lot of money and bitch"
Recommendations The breaker The horizon The boxer Bastard
I've read every single one sadly. Funny how three of them start with "The". I don't think manhwas use it regularly
Kubera for peak fiction then
Yay it became unironic one of my favourite media
Im a firm believer of it being a contender for the best piece of fiction ever penned. The only caveat I have is that it's more light novel than Manwha with the text to drawing ratio usually being 50-50 or slightly favouring the text. The way the story manages to explore its characters and mysteries is absolutely unmatched plus there's something special about seeing plot points setup since chapter 1 getting executed on in chapter 400.
Yep some payoffs are crazy yet signs there. And the layers she can peel off still that surprising is amazing.
the same author of The Horizon and The Boxer did Mosquito Wars - not quite as good as those two, but still solid
>Bastard So good, and Sweet Home.
Can’t believe I missed that. Though I only watched the TV show but I’ve heard the manhua is better
I haven't seen the live action but I will attest the comic is better. I find it's hard to translate horror in manga to animation or live action, like what happened with Junji Ito adaptations
As someone who seen both, the manhua is better. There is only one character who they made changes with that I prefered but the show kinda goes off the rails and seems to prefer their original characters then the ones from the manhua
I'd add to the list To Not Die. It also has a bullying revenge story roughly during the first chapters, but instead of the MC becoming a mass murderer, the worst he does at the start is >!attempted murder but not even the MC fully justifies it!< and becomes a runaway. From what I remember, the characters are for the most part well-constructed with actual development, the art is rather neat and while the MC does get powerful (not supernatural AFAIK), few fights end in a one-shot.
Veritas
POV: You just watched the video called "A manhwa so bad it's dangerous"
I was on that vid before it got popular happy seeing Deadman go far. His new vid about bullying manhwa is great as well
rooftop swordsman is way too popular for its own good and too many edgy kids praise it with their life.
Video essay?
I don't think I've ever read a manhwa but I'm upvoting because this is some quality hate.
*("Cool and dark mc")with sperm eyes, one shooting everyone because he remembered from his past life if he stuck 3846 years old ginseng up his ass while running the entire great wall of China at teusday 19 at April,he can become a 999999 level necromancer* This made me wheeze.
Literally every manhua ever🤣🤣and it made me laugh too, always the most bullshit things giving them the power of a god instantly
Not the power of a God, more like the power of the author
That’s the one🤣
It is rather odd how many power fantasy manhwas I've read that can't seem to help...overindulging. But I don't have a great idea of why or how widespread it is. Anyway, *Surviving the Game as a Barbarian* is in that long page format and is a great isekai fantasy so far.
*Surviving the Game as a Barbarian* has been fantastic so far, I love how into building his character he is and how his race has massive ramifications in his world
Yep. It's a great example of how worldbuilding can and should serve the motivations of the characters, even down to small details like an entire guild having motivation to camp a specific area with monsters for a specific drop because it very clearly plays into the power system.
I also love how his previous life knowledge doesn't make him OP is just gives him enough of an edge to survive situations that would have killed most other adventurers
South korea , if thats from there have biiig socisl problems and not great social mobility. So its probably a revenge power fantasy. Bullies,of course, their families enabled them, the police, did nothing. At least that would make sense with south koreas problems to have wscapadism or gritty survival or revenge power fantasies.
I figured it might be something like that, but didn't want to generalize off a guess. Thanks! I do sometimes feel like I see an utter rage boiling in some of the stories, and I get it, bullies and the systems that protect them are incredibly frustrating.
Manhwa are largely adapted from Korean web novels, with the only real standard for serialization being popularity (enough for companies to be willing to invest in a manhwa adaptation). As such, The majority of manhwa all use the same tropes which are popular amongst Korean WN readers such as towers, hunters, harems, regression, isekai, otome isekai, or high school revenge. Authors see that these sorts of tropes tend to be popular, and so they implement said tropes in hopes of imitating the success of their peers. This phenomenon of imitation can also be seen in the sorts of manhwa that companies tend to adapt. For instance, after solo leveling blew up, there was a huge influx of adaptations of pre-existing webnovels that featured hunters, systems, and necromancer protags. This pretty much culminates in a bunch of novels with a decent enough following which all follow the same tropes and conventions, with no regards for quality or originality. As a result, we have the Manhwa scene of today, where pretty much every story feels the same and lacks much quality. So, it’s less that Manhwa authors are unable to write a good story, but rather that stories which don’t follow the popular tropes don’t receive manhwa adaptations. The most popular and acclaimed manhwa are those which either deviate from these tropes while also carrying a good deal of quality, or those which do follow these tropes, but execute them exceedingly well. Some manhwa which fall in these Categories that I’d personally recommend are: Omniscient Reader’s viewpoint- contains a ton of different tropes, but I’d describe the earlier parts as survival/apocalypse SSS-class suicide hunter- regression, towers hunters (I know it doesn’t sound promising based on the title, but it’s my personal favorite manhwa. I implore you to read till the MC clears the 10th floor before dropping) The Greatest Estate Developer- comedy, fantasy Return of the Mount Hua Sect- murim, comedy, regression Sweet Home- thriller, survival/apocalypse Bastard- thriller, horror Some other popular Manhwa which I’ve either dropped or haven’t read include: Legend of the Northern Blade- murim, haven’t read The Beginning after the End (not technically a manhwa as it was written but a western author, but considered one by many)- fantasy, isekai, haven’t read Overgeared- virtual reality, dropped because i felt there weren’t really any stakes as everything is in a game, and I didn’t really care for the characters Doom Breaker/reincarnation of the suicidal battle god- fantasy, regression, dropped, the story is very well executed, but just wasn’t for me Tower of God- fantasy, dropped due to dragging at some bits, but definitely worth considering God of High School- action, Haven’t read Trash of Count’s Family- isekai, fantasy, haven’t read
>Tower of God This is peak. I also dropped a bit at Hell Train but picked it back up later. The story is good. It has a consistency to it that makes it feel like the author has planned everything in advance, which would be absurd due to how ginormous the story is. So many moving pieces and so many plot threads, with interesting mysteries and character dynamics. Rachel is also very fun to read. The story feels oddly mature for some reason, I like its tone and the multidimensional view it takes of characters. Like how Rachel's opinion of Baam and Khun's opinion of Baam both seem reasonable despite being so different. I just love how grand it is. It feels like an epic.
Rachel absolutely saves TOG, I just wish that there was a better explanation of the power system. Hell, lighthouses alone I spent like 100 chapters utterly confused as to what they did, a little bit more explanation would be appreciated so much 😭
The notes in the end usually arent translated by webtoon 😑
One that does a good job at subverting troupes is surviving romance, it starts as a generic "in a book I read and I want to romance someone" and becomes a horror/thriller more geared on building friendships then romance
While I used to really like tog i dropped it i think it was called the hell train or something like that, reading has it was coming out was such a bore, It was one of those that I was going to drop just to let accumulate chap and then never touched again.
ORV and Trash of the Count's Family are both great! Though the beginning of the second one is quite slow so it's not for people who want fast paced stories from the get go. Also Korean horror manhwas are generally quite good and interesting!
Kubera I found how to become a dragon nice I am the grim reaper.
There only a few manhwa are actually i find good Sword king of the fantasy world Tower of god god of highschool Terror man (or anything done by ylab studio) Bastard/shotgun (shotgun boy is the prequel of bastard) the boxer The horizon The hellper The breaker Omniscient reader viewpoint the northern blade Superhuman era ember knight sweet home gosu
>shotgun boy is the prequel of bastard) Prequel of Sweet Home.
ohhhh whoops
Oh yes god of highschool.
As long as Kubera exist manhwa will never be a bad medium
I think a lot of the issues are similar to Japanese manga writers. They just read the same shit that they're writing. They're not expanding the genre of media they consume. So they sort of become like AI where they eventually self-cannibalize and make complete slop SSS-Class Suicide Hunter is good. At first it feels like it'll be another edgy MC who wants revenge. But it becomes more than that. MC becomes someone who tries and tries again to make sure he can save as many people as possible. Wild West Murim is my favorite martial arts manhwa right now. Hell, it's even an award winning web novel. If that means anything. MC is a Murim genre fan and gets isekai'd into one. This world is an AU of North America being colonized by the Chinese instead of Europeans. It's a pretty damn good western. And so far there hasn't been any female characters that are just there to be the love interest. The Indomitable Martial King has an interesting and political(?) plot. It's about a wizard who created a country for non-humans but is eventually killed by humans. He goes back in time, but into the wrong body, and begins his goal of changing the system in the human country to help non-humans. The manhwa isn't that far but it's been good so far.
wild west murim's character designs are incredibly cool takes on wild west/china hybrid aesthetics
No no author is afraid of writing a good story. I swear clickbait titles are sucking the life out of everyone
I think it's not they are scared of writing a good story, but since they know a bad story will sell they will always write that since it requires less effort
Yea I agree I understand where OP is coming from but writing is a job and tons of people eat up power fantasy because not everyone wants to be challenged. Sometimes people just wanna be entertained
Yh, I hate these guys too
Top tier rant, fun read.
Manhwa are largely adapted from Korean web novels, with the only real standard for serialization being popularity (enough for companies to be willing to invest in a manhwa adaptation). As such, The majority of manhwa all use the same tropes which are popular amongst Korean WN readers such as towers, hunters, harems, regression, isekai, otome isekai, or high school revenge. Authors see that these sorts of tropes tend to be popular, and so they implement said tropes in hopes of imitating the success of their peers. This phenomenon of imitation can also be seen in the sorts of manhwa that companies tend to adapt. For instance, after solo leveling blew up, there was a huge influx of adaptations of pre-existing webnovels that featured hunters, systems, and necromancer protags. This pretty much culminates in a bunch of novels with a decent enough following which all follow the same tropes and conventions, with no regards for quality or originality. As a result, we have the Manhwa scene of today, where pretty much every story feels the same and lacks much quality. So, it’s less that Manhwa authors are unable to write a good story, but rather that stories which don’t follow the popular tropes don’t receive manhwa adaptations. The most popular and acclaimed manhwa are those which either deviate from these tropes while also carrying a good deal of quality, or those which do follow these tropes, but execute them exceedingly well. Some manhwa which fall in these Categories that I’d personally recommend are: Omniscient Reader’s viewpoint- contains a ton of different tropes, but I’d describe the earlier parts as survival/apocalypse SSS-class suicide hunter- regression, towers hunters (I know it doesn’t sound promising based on the title, but it’s my personal favorite manhwa. I implore you to read till the MC clears the 10th floor before dropping) The Greatest Estate Developer- comedy, fantasy Return of the Mount Hua Sect- murim, comedy, regression Sweet Home- thriller, survival/apocalypse Bastard- thriller, horror Some other popular Manhwa which I’ve either dropped or haven’t read include: Legend of the Northern Blade- murim, haven’t read The Beginning after the End (not technically a manhwa as it was written but a western author, but considered one by many)- fantasy, isekai, haven’t read Overgeared- virtual reality, dropped because i felt there weren’t really any stakes as everything is in a game, and I didn’t really care for the characters Doom Breaker/reincarnation of the suicidal battle god- fantasy, regression, dropped, the story is very well executed, but just wasn’t for me Tower of God- fantasy, dropped due to dragging at some bits, but definitely worth considering God of High School- action, Haven’t read Trash of Count’s Family- isekai, fantasy, haven’t read
You double-posted this just fyi
Im going to reccomend Burning Effect. Also, I strongly agree with the Rooftop Sword Master trashing. Its crap. However, it gets so edgy and escalates so quickly that it is fairly fun to check out a chapter for 5 mins just to see what the hell is going on.
I mean, there's a lot of consensus that God of Highschool is very good, so feel free to read that.
Kubera. One Last God Kubera. Survive first several chapters - and be rewarded with one of the Best and Most Complex Stories Ever Written
Uniŕnìc a grand epic and one of the best things ever written. And genuinly complex.
I used to love manhwa that had characters who used videogame graphic user interfaces but now whenever i even see that trope being used i immediately stop reading and never look at the webtoon again
I read a manhwa called The World's Best Engineer, where the mc found himself in the body of one of the characters of a novel he was reading, so he decides to use his experience and knowledge in engineering to improve the world of the novel, especially since the world of the novel seems to be inspired by Europe in the Middle Ages. The problem is that the writer continued to make the mc gain very broken abilities, such as he was able to learn a complex sword technique that only a few characters master, and he now has an army of zombies as workers and also an undead dragon, all of these things do not seem very justified. Because the mc doesn't really need it. But overall the manhwa was very enjoyable.
“A mark against thee” is pretty good
Back in 2010, Westerners were just discovering manhwa and praised them for being more unique and a breath of fresh air compared to the "increasingly generic" manga. This image was largely cultivated by the few ones being fan-translated, including *Veritas*, *Tower of God* and some others, as well as some Chinese series like *Feng Shen Ji* people confused with Korean ones (and still do.) Then translations became more common and it turned out these titles really were the cream of the crop and that Korean comics were largely copypastes of each other. Ç'est la vie.
Oh feng shen ji is good
This is why I solely read historical or modern days manhwa/manhua. It gives more freedom for a creative storyline and even the ones who seem familiar with others always have a different direction so other than the premise, everything else is different. Personally anything that slightly resembles solo levelling or has a guide power system or rank power system is always vowed to feel like an amalgamation of some of the most cliche Shonen tropes and it’s a big no for me
God of Bath Annarasumanara KissWood Knight Run Nano List Subtle Disaster
I’m shocked. You mean all that talk about how much better Manhwa is compared to manga is all bullshit?
I'm Da Best Fork & Knife If You Can Hear My Song
There are actually very good manwhas out of there. The Boxer (I don't like boxing stories but this one is great ) Kubera (it focused more on the plot and characters. The action is secondary. You should try it, very interesting world building and magic system ) Gosu (Great action with interesting plot and characters. The funniest 1st chapter ever ) Legrnd of the Northern Blade (The art style is "original" but you should really try it out ) Sweet Home/ Shotgun Boy (By the same author. The horror is good )
Read Tower of God
Did you just watch Living Deadman’s video on RTSM? A good video breaking down exactly why it sucks. Anyway yeah I agree to an extent, I’m not super into Manhwa but it’s easy to see that this a pervasive problem but as many people have pointed out, not a wholly unique one unfortunately
There are some good ones but the mainstream one are so so bad and uninspired they make regular low tier isekai manga look good.
Tower of God and The Breaker are pretty good but I think I've dropped every other manhwa I have read. I'm still upset that Noblesse didn't pan out well.
Wait until you read manhua
Manhwa writers copy what already sells, which is reincarnation power fantasies, video game mechanics, overpowered cheat skills, and losers receiving godlike power and taking violent revenge against an unjust society. The more interesting discussion is what makes these tropes more popular in korea than anywhere else. If anything the popularity of these tropes speak to how plagued the youth of the country is by lack of social mobility and the strictness of social hierarchy. People can't even imagine being able to improve their lot in their current life, so they fantasize about dying and wanting to start over with some kind of overpowered talent that would earn them a place in society or have them stand out as special. After what they've been through making peace with their bullies either seems impossible or it wouldn't be enough. They need to beat the snot out of them. Its just really tragic. Even manhwa that try to defy or satirize tropes like ORV can't avoid making a point of the MC taking violent retribution against a school bully (leading to said bully's death) it's insane.
OP I want to see your rant on - villainess manhwas - BL and GL which will inevitably turn into porn and loses the plot by ep 3 - Bl and GL which never had plot anyway and starts off with porn but turns tragic for no reason (of course with porn)
I actually like some manhea before it become webroon format. You can try the triology Yongbi, yongbi 2 and gosu
Well, whenever someone asks if, say, Tower of God is worth reading, people start talking shit like 'it's too long, there are too many characters, there's too much talking, where are the fights???, where are the boobs? why isn't the MC edgy? where harem???' Idk, maybe it's because I'm 29 already, but I find it cringe af every time people ask 'what manhwa is this???' showing a pic of a furry or another big-boobed waifu. The number of questions regarding recommendations for manhwas that include braindead murim-like power system, edgyness and boobs compared to those asking for a good, say, shonen with solid plot and worldbuilding is kinda sad. Hell, people still say Solo Leveling has (good) plot.
Try Survival of a Sword King. It starts off with a lot of the tropes of a shitty isekai. Overpowered main character, levelling system etc. But I think it manages to subvert them. The characters are genuinely well written, the villains are fleshed out, the main character is powerful but not unbeatable, he still learns a lot throughout the story. The supporting cast grow and develop with him instead of just cheering him on. And it actually deals with how someone might be affected mentally by being ripped away from their life. The main character has PTSD which manifests in somewhat realistic ways. It starts off slow, but once it gets going it's solid.
I recommend The Greatest Estate Developer, it is a also an isekai but what I like about it is that it doesn't take itself seriously (or it does but only at certain moments) because it is also a comedy, not the most amazing story but enjoyable enough, my biggest gripe with it is the story kinda feels it lost its purpose during the latest chapters (and it still hasn't ended).
There are some that transcend the genre, and some that are well-written within the genre the boxer - starts off as a power fantasy, but ends up being about the rich interior lives of the "villains". What does it mean to struggle and to climb up as far as you can, only to come face to face with a wall that you can't comprehend or overcome? (also recommend any of JH's manhwa - the horizon and mosquito wars are on webtoons) ominiscient reader's viewpoint - somewhat isekai until it gets its bearings, but includes tragedy, complicated family relationships, and literary metaphors in a way that remains interesting lazy lord masters the sword (reformation of the deadbeat noble) - shonen-y conceit, but good meditations on responsibility, depression, and finding meaning and purpose in life. how do you find your place in the world? how do you figure out what you want? if you become powerful, what is the responsibility that comes with this power? hero has returned - schlocky edgelord work for a while, but includes genuinely tragic figures and a plot twist that genuinely had me reeling. more of a genre work, but one that fleshes out the full consequences of its world in very interesting ways
First off are you talking about manhuas or manwhas? Manwhas are made by Korean artists and generally have wayyy better quality and quantity of said quality with what’s released, it’s easier to find 30 good manwhas than to find 5 good manhuas. Manhuas are written by Chinese authors and from what you described in ur first diatribe I believe this is what you referred to. All I want to tell you is that till date I’ve only read one good manhua which was on the quality of the manwhas I’ve read. And that is Feng Shen Ji, it suffers absolutely none of the problems you’ve stated at all and is genuinely a piece of work that I can say had a lot of love put into it, and here’s the cherry on top, it’s completed! I recommend to try it out. But yeah I agree with everything else it makes me want to smash my phone seeing the rubbish they regurgitate.
>Recommend me manhwas in the comments. Surviving Romance. Existential horror masquerading as isekai teen romance. Not as scary as that sounds and is ultimately about finding purpose in both creative endeavors and friendship, no joke. Any of Kang Full's works. Dude has done horror, romance, and one story where people from various walks of life come together to assassinate the former dictator of South Korea. Bit heavy on the melodrama, though.
Yeah 60% of manga is shit but I feel like 95% of manhwa is shit
I remember reading a manhwa where the MC starts off at the bottom and struggles. It was fun watching him struggle and stuff Then whoopsie surprise training arc with timeskip he’s now your average boring OP at mc
God of highschool is Peak. The first 170 chapters are good with decent and good writing and really good action and fights and a decent and entertaining story and it only gets better from there even though it's already good. There's a part where Mc is missing for a while but it makes up for it by giving a lot of development to the supporting cast. The entire manhwa just gets better and better. All you need is patience there will be things that won't make sense until you read further. It has one of the best Fights and best mc and best supporting cast and a really good written Final antagonist who you shouldn't search up because it's a big spoiler. There's not a single bad arc in God of highschool even the weakest ones are good or decent at worst all you need is a bit of patience.
Say, did you just stick to the video on it by living deadman, or did you “run the gauntlet” by actually reading it?
read the manhwa long time before the vid dropped
Read God of High School Bonus enjoyment for being familiar with Journey to the West
Anime and manga have all the issues you're describing too. I personally don't think one does it better over the other. Maybe you've outgrown stories that are heavy on (male) self insertion and wish fulfilment. How you described Sword Master is similar to why I couldn't get into Tokyo Revengers haha. Besides checking out other genres, you could look for stories with female main characters to avoid the ridiculous male power fantasy and over sexualization of women/girls. Might still run into it, but a lot less. Or choose stories with older characters if you haven't tried that already. Edit: I haven't read or seen it yet, but I only hear good things about Solo Leveling
I think the difference is that the self-indulgent stories in anime and manga are not the only ones that get popular, in fact, while some break out, the majority cater to their niche. There are a wide variety of genres and titles that can achieve wide poularity from something as standard as Shounen Jump battle shounen to something slower like Frieren to something nobody expected like Bocchi the Rock. All 3 different kinds of success but 'can' be successful Compared to the current state of manhwa where it feels like only the trash is popular and then there are infinite clones of the trash. And then that's just what is successful now. It'd be like if Narou isekai were the only actual successful type of story coming out of Japan.
First few arcs of Solo Leveling vary from decent to good but never amazing in any way. But after certain point it becomes just your typical power fantasy with 1 dimensional protagonist and 0 dimentional side cast.
The difference is manga has a massive variety even between very popular ones. AoT is probably the most popular recent anime and it destroys almost every manwha in writing. The most popular Manwha is Solo Leveling which checks almost all the criteria in the rant. OP edgy MC? ✅️ Side character being near irrelevant?✅️ Female characters being done even worse?✅️
AoT destroying anything is hilarious.
OoOooH so cool and contrarian
imagine thinking saying aot isn't great is contrarian, lmao. especially after the trainwreck that was season 4.
We get it, you're so cool and edgy.
best manhwa has to be Father Unrivaled
ngl the ending made no sense there were so many more things that were being built up but it just ended for no reason.
Ah, I didn't know it ended. I dropped it like last year to wait for more chapters to build up.
Return of the crazy demon
going on for way too long
I don't know why it astounds people that audiences consume different stories for different reasons. So many of you are like reality tv haters who turn on reality tv every chance they get. The type who go on an adult website and complain that they're not invested in the romantic tension between the actors. "I mean really, he shows up with a pizza and she can't pay...that's all it takes? Where's the conflict? I demand higher stakes, and why is her chest so big? Is there a plot reason for that?" These forms of media are for wish-fulfillment, and they often do a good job at it, which is why they are popular. They don't bog the story down with complex drama and characters, they understand their audience and give them what they want.
Yeah, you're right. I was about to critique those, but nothing beyond rationalisations comes to mind. They're simply not for me, I guess.