webtoons / manhwa / manga of 2024

[darkunicorna]

i am reading a truly monstrous number of illustrated media right now to the extent that it may or may not be impeding on my daily life, and i figured i should make a little entry about it so that i could remember what i was reading (since i am burning through these at the speed of light lol). will keep updating over time!

edit: 10/4 omg do i need to make a part 2

ongoing:

• the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all japanese, ongoing, ch. 98, t THE GREEN LESBIANSSSSSS. finally read them despite knowing abt them for a long time, and i'm glad i waited ngl! the chapters are pretty short, so it's nice to have been able to read a lot of the story up until now. in fact, ch. 97 was the perfect place to leave off the story at <3 i love my little tomboy outsider mitsuki... and JOE... BEST UNCLE EVER! i'm so glad that mitsuki has made friends who know her and care about her, even that narita guy LOL i'm glad that didn't end up being an antagonistic moment! the art is sooooooooooooooo gorgeous to me and this manga actually made me cry even though it is objectively not that sad... no i will not be processing that rn


• childhood friend complex korean, ongoing, ch. 41, e UHHHHHH unfortunately i watched inuyasha at far too formative an age and so i think acting tsundere is like the epitome of love... IT DOESN'T HELP THAT THESE TWO MCS LOOK VVVV SLIGHTLY SIMILAR TO INUYASHA AND KAGOME TOO........ maybe it's my wishful thinking hahaha either way i really love this dynamic of this guy who seems stoic on the outside but is really so down bad for this girl he's been friends with forever and will literally do anything for her to protect her, INCLUDING helping her explore her sexual curiosities hahahaha this shit is like catnip to me FUCK i'm obsessed. mincheol i am so obsessed with you!!!!! you are so hot to me!!!!!! i also really love the art style. i hate keeping up w ongoing works bc my attention span is just so bad and i always lose track pretty quickly BUT! i am making an effort for this one! i want to see where they will go from here! why is mincheol not a PE major... does it have to do with the wristband haneul never takes off....... hmmmmmmmm...


• maybe meant to be korean, ongoing (season 1 finished), ch. 80, m AAAAAAHHHH this webtoon actually doesn't have many tropes that i typically like, aside from marriage of convenience, and in a lot of ways jia and mincheol aren't really the type to seem to fit together, but the storytelling is just soooo fun and imaginative and unique! i really love seeing the ways they work it out and come to understand each other (and like each other for who they truly are) over time! mincheol is so clearly autistic lmfao but i love how jia really gets his weird quirks, like of course he drinks blended chicken and is obsessed with working out and googles how to do things right on the internet all the time. and in turn, i love how mincheol doesn't push jia in the ways everyone else does; i adored the hypnosis scene so so much! i love how they are both so imperfect, but i think i still love them so much because they both love each other so much and it's so clear to see? either way, this is truly flawed characters done right! dang, i even love the side couple romance with sang-u and sooyun! i'm curious about jia's backstory — like why did what happened ruin her relationship with yunju? and why did she stop writing altogether? anyway! genuinely such a fun time!


• boy-friend's rule korean, ongoing, ch. 38, t this was just so wholesome! i liked how there aren't huge storylines about hangups and jealousy even though some of these characters like characters who like other characters who like other characters... LOL. i really love bora and want to see more of her (maybe we will after what happens in ch 38???) but in general, once jiun and seohyeon properly got together, my fervor to keep reading to find out what happens next kinda went downhill lmao i AM the problem ppl talk abt re: romance storylines ending as soon as ppl get together (jk i am not LOL but i am when it's high school romance hahaha) but in general a really sweet high school romance story that kept me reading bc it was very wholesome w a good cast! seohyeon is so great, as are jiun's attempts at understanding him! sensing a theme once again in the stories i read hahaha. honestly not sure if i will keep going as more chapters come out!


• reasoning with a beast korean, ongoing, ch. 52, m? at first i just read this on a whim... didn't really expect it to be good or go anywhere at all hahaha but i actually ended up really enjoying it! i really like how the format is kinda like a crime procedural, and i really like how smart and clever seojin is bc of all her miscellaneous jobs — girl me too! or at least i like to think i am HAHA. she's clearly a necessary part of taeoh's life, and seeing the ways taeoh develops to recognize that is cool. if we just ignore the political implications, we're so golden!


• tears on a withered flower korean, ongoing, ch. 31, e a very sad story tbh — reading all the comments about characterizations were so interesting, because this woman is clearly in an emotionally abusive relationship, and the way it affects her actually permeates everything she does and thinks about herself. the psychology behind mincheol, her stupid ass husband, is also interesting, bc there are moments where he is so so horrible, and then others where it seems like he actually liked her or loved her before everything went downhill. with the most recent updates where ari and fl finally find out about each other's existence show that this type of man engages in cyclical behavior, which is also extremely accurate albeit extremely sad. and of course, this ml seems shady as fuck HAHAHA like is she just leaving one abusive guy to go to another? bc my guy keeps lying about who exactly he is, even if it is to help her in the long run. he is a younger guy, so of course my interest is peaked hahahaha so i will keep reading even though it seems so sad!


• how far are you okay with? korean, ongoing, ch. 30, e i read this because someone from the tl discord recommended it for ppl who like cfc — it's cute! younger guy, check! down extremely bad for the girl, check! i think it's funny how embarrassed eunpyeong is by how "perverted" her sexual interests are, but i'm like... tying someone up is supposed to be embarrassing and kinky? i've gone too far hahaha. that hasn't factored toooo much into the storyline so far either, tbh, but i like how this series broke out of the manhwa smut mold bc nyeok actually going down on eunpyeong is hot, and her being vocal about liking xyz vs not liking abc is great. also the part where eunpyeong tries to give nyeok a blowjob and he actually says something abt her teeth — THANK YOU if it's someone's first time giving a blowy it's not gonna be good for sure LOL. and nyeok looking up which positions feel best for women and focusing more on pleasing eunpyeong than himself! very refreshing! i'm very curious but mildly afraid where this criminal record backstory is going to go?? and i'm curious about the title, because rn nyeok and eunpyeong are already dating and seem to be perfectly ok with going however far lol. will be keeping my eye on how this series goes!


• a demon's wish korean, ongoing, ch. 49, e really adore the art here and i like the push-and-pull going on in the beginning! at first i was going to leave this for later bc i didn't want to wait for more chapters, but i started reading more of it bc it's just sooooo popular so i wanted to know what i was missing out on, and BOY WAS I MISSING OUT. as i mentioned above, i grew up on inuyasha... and this is like inuyasha redux so obviously i fucking love it LMAO ancient times romance w fl possibly / probably being the reincarnated version of the demon's first love? AMAZING. i also love that doyah is actually like one of the most powerful demons ever, but his power is essentially for nothing bc he was heartbroken so bad that he regularly gets magicked into forgetting everything about his past by his "uncle" taeha THIS IS JUST MADE FOR ME I THINK. i looooove how doyah still doesn't necessarily understand his feelings toward so won, but he recognizes that at least physically / attraction-wise, he's soooo down bad for her, which is another dynamic i loveeee haha he's a MESS whenever they get physically close at all and i love it so so much. i also like so won — i like that she's sexually forward and isn't shy about showing sexual desires or asking for sex. i do think she's a little bit messy too lmao like girl how are you breaking up with jaehyun and then having intercrural sex w doyah like barely even an hour later. but overall the dynamics are soooo up my alley that idec if the plot is messy for now lmao we'll see where the story goes from here!

completed:

• two weeks and counting korean, complete, ch. 66, t i read this bc i loved childhood friend complex so much that i wanted to read the other things this author has written. it was actually fun to see the ways the author had grown between this work and cfc, as well as what things have stayed the same — she def has a penchance toward really bold and fiery FLs and quietly dependable MLs, which i really love! i also loved both kibum and namsoo, and i loved seeing kimsoo's relationship with both of them! when the supernatural stuff started happening i was like hmm... this is interesting... it did make the manhwa more unique, and i liked how it explained why kimsoo was so drawn to kibum, but i also think it did make things complicated and slightly overdramatic and kind of got dropped during the time skip in the end haha. i thought some elements of the plot were a tad rushed — but maybe understandable bc i'm sure the author was only given a certain number of chapters to tell the story w, so i can imagine that's really hard! in general i did enjoy this a lot, and it makes me look forward to this artist's long career ahead :) and because I read this, I was able to spot some easter eggs in cfc :) :)


• a summer night's dream korean, complete, ch. 86, t i adored this one so much! i loved si-u and i do tend to love storylines abt younger guys who are down bad for older women haha. i also thought the dream premise was so fun and interesting, and i thought there were some suprisingly deep and really beautifully conveyed messages in here about parenthood, what love really is, etc. the first half of this series is a bit more like school 2013, where each student has a sort of backstory, and i loved how this made the cast feel more full and well-rounded. i genuinely grew to care about each of the characters and was really warmed by how much they all cared about each other in turn. the hajin storyline was maybe the one storyline i felt a bit less satisfied by... i guess i felt like hajin and yeoreum didn't get enough closure. the story could have also steered away from dreams (and did around the middle!), but i liked how it brought dreams back as a significant part of the story at the end. really really heartwarming with a surprising amount of depth! tho of course, lots of trauma as always haha. i like to imagine seokhwan and ju-o ended up together in the end :DDDDD


• sixth sense kiss korean, complete, ch. 86, m? a little suggestive but not explicit lol aaaahh. i really really enjoyed this one in the beginning and laughed so much throughout! but i ended up kind of dragging myself to the finish line... i felt like it was just so overdramatic for no reason, and i also felt like the pair sort of lost their personalities when they got together, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine in romance stories. it just felt a little too cliche — like too many coincidences and too many missed timings etc., and i felt like yesul's past with jiun wasn't that well explained... it sounded toxic af like jiun you weren't the only one at fault! ANYWAY. i finished it! it was fun at least!


• que sera sera korean, complete, ch. 70, m omg this plotline has been done before in so many different ways across so many different eras LOL and ngl i was actually about to drop this one... but then i got past the pregnancy and really fell in love. the characters are definitely flawed — like what gave sungyeong the right to impose her beliefs and desires onto hani? sungyeong was also rather unlikeable at the end as well, and i didn't really understand why she was so upset to find out about sunjoon and hani's relationship? i mean... i get it to a point, but not to the extent that she went? yenipang was also an interesting one lol but i'm glad that wrapped up nicely, but overall i just loved ran soooooo much and loved how sunjoon was with ran!!!! could read a whooooooole 70 more chapters about the three of them together aaaaaahhhhh i swear i don't have baby fever..... i just love noona romances and also accidental baby acquisition. SO WHAT?


• here u are chinese, complete, ch. 139?, m i have definitely read this before (could recognize the art immediately), but i ended up rereading it bc i didn't remember anyyyythingggg about the story. i really love how real it is; zhang jianyu is clearly a fujo haha but i like how xiaoyi balances her and reminds her that the people she is trying to scheme together are real people, and there are real implications for them being gay in real life vs in a story. i also loved and related to chu huanwen's story so very much — p sure the first time around his story hit me the hardest too. and just in general li huan and yu yang are just so perfectly in love and caring for each other AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH it makes me so happy to see the little chapters that feature snippets of their life beyond the manhua. loved it just as much as i did the first time!


• can a gangster leave the gang? korean, complete, ch. 4, e veeeery short and fun with very pretty art! not too deep — i think there could have been a lot of drama from the reveal at the end of chapter 1, but luckily (?) sungjin is bad at his job / just very whipped for his hyung HAHAHA. pure fluff, no strife really, which made it a nice palate cleanser!


• sweet dreams korean, complete, ch. 48, e omg! i absolutely loved the premise of this manhwa. i read the summary and kind of moved onto other manhwa for a few days, but i came back to this one bc i remembered the premise and i was interested in what kind of story would unfold. i'm really glad there were two seasons, and that these two seasons focused on different people — i think jaehee and taerim's story wrapped up nicely, and i wouldn't have enjoyed manufactured drama to keep the story going. i do wish that there had been more explanation about why jaehee was so special... she just had a lot of yin? is that it??? hahaha and i think there could have been more of them falling in love, but then would taerim have died LOL he was so close to bad things happening. on the flip side, i really liked how the second season focused on a woman succubus. i loved how bold taeyi was, and how hyeseong would constantly surprise her and knock her off her throne. when they spent an entire weekend fucking in their dreams??? tf hahahaha. i like how you really gain something different from both stories — i would 1000% take more side stories from different characters in this same universe. for example, for a sec i thought the second season would be focused on that other incubus from the first season and jaehee's coworker...... haha. would even love to get taeyeon's backstory! this author truly went off w this concept... and the art was quite nice! maybe i'm saying this bc i literally just finished a manhwa w poor / messed up proportions for the sex scenes hahahah this felt much sexier!


• a friendship so impure korean, complete, ch. 10, e hmm! i liked the artwork here, and it's clear how the artwork developed over time with more experience. i also thought jihoo was so so sweet, and i'm glad siyeong didn't spend too much time entertaining her ex. the scene when she confronts him in the stairwell when he shows up to her apt... i was really glad she stood her ground and didn't REALLY need jihoo to intervene. i thought it was overall a sweet and quick story, and i loved the happy family epilogue!


• who made me a princess? korean, complete, ch. 125, t omg! i sped through the first like 80 chapters and then kind of slowed down once athy grew up bc i had a lot of deadlines crop up but also bc the plot gets a little more convoluted near the end, so it's harder to follow / keep track. it's actually more difficult for me to look at the story as a whole because i read it so spread out, so it's hard for me to gauge pacing etc... but i think hands down my fav part of this whole thing is claude and his brother being girl dads. i just think it's so so sweet to be down bad for your daughter, and it gets me emotional thinking about how athy is basically all claude has left to remind himself to be a person. i am extremely intrigued by claude's story and i find the chapters involving him most impactful, so it did make me sad to see him basically written out of the story for quite a number of chapters closer to the end. i thought jennette was annoying lol but someone pointed out in the comments that she is technically the one who is mentally the youngest, since athy is an adult in a baby's body and lucas is also not actually that young, and especially since she's kind of been manipulated her whole life, it makes sense that she's mentally naive. i also love love loved lily and felix and i need more of their story as well! i haven't read the side stories, but apparently....... there is a lot there..... does anyone know where i can find them.........


• narae's fantasy korean, complete, ch. 38, e well. i found this one from a reddit thread recommending manhwa similar to sweet dreams. in the beginning, it seemed like it would be pretty similar and would be pretty fun; there is a character named nokjoo who is a succubus and sleeps w narae and takes her to a mysterious mansion that only people with certain energies can live in... which made me think more succubus stuff was gonna happen, but NOPE. nokjoo is hardly seen again, and the reason for the mansion barely makes sense? a lot of people say that it seems like things wrapped up in this story too quickly, so it was probably cut off / canceled before it could actualize any storylines, but idk... i think even from the very beginning, the story was rather weak. when the three potential love interests were introduced, i could immediately tell that i didn't actually really like any of them. once it became clear narae would end up with team leader ahn, the author / artist didn't put any effort into developing their relationship further beyond sex scenes. narae would say she couldn't imagine herself with anyone else and she was so in love etc etc but i didn't really SEE that in any of her actions or NONEXISTENT conversations with team leader ahn. i ended up liking jaehee the most out of all the characters in the end, bc everyone else was so gross. there was a lot of depiction of seemingly nonconsensual sexual situations, including a gross vice president guy who just has some weird creepy sex den? and chef kang's storyline basically fell soooo flat, he ended up being entirely unnecessary. maybe i am being way too harsh... i mean, i myself am really bad at constructing stories, and it does take practice and experience to be able to write stories at all. so in that sense, i think it's quite impressive that the author completed a whole manhwa! but it was just definitely not for me :(

ones i started and want to continue when more chapters come out:

• villain with a crush korean, ongoing, read up to ch. 3 the premise (girl gets saved by a legendary superhero police guy, crushes on him, develops powers of her own, wants to get close to him but ends up accidentally being cast as a new villain) seems really fun and interesting and funny! the art is nice, tho this ML is as white as a sheet of paper my god he needs some vitamins LMAO. rn s2 only just started, so i think there will still be quite a few chapters to go. will wait until s2 is more underway!


• third ending korean, complete, stopped at ch. 29, e i started this and really enjoyed it and was really curious about where it was going, but the site i was reading it from only went up to ch. 29 and had it marked as complete SIGHHHH i tried googling to find where else i could read the rest of the story, and ppl said that the second season was not as good bc yoonseul is too clingy and kang joon is bad at communicating, so the sex scenes seem a little tooooo nonconsensual. someone on reddit recommended honey bear instead, so...


• honey bear korean, complete, read up to ch. 7, e? this one was really cute! hajin is sooooooo pretty and so funny at how hard he is trying not to lead geonwoo on bc he knows geonwoo wants more than hooking up and he's a... non-loveist? hahaha is that the same thing as aromantic or is it just that he's not looking for a relationship? either way, it was super super cute, but i noticed there seemed to be a missing bit between ch. 7 and ch. 8 so now i need to look for a proper place to read the whole thing! which i WILL. very soon.

ones i dropped (need to write these or else i'll try to read them again and be like wait a second...):

• to love your enemy korean, complete, dropped at ch. 53 i didn't hate this... but i also didn't love it and i didn't want to waste my time further when THERE'S SO MUCH OTHER GOOD CONTENT TO READ! i DO love noona romances, and i also love younger men who are down bad for older women... and i love a haters to lovers romance... BUT i felt like the ML in this story was a little TOO childish and clueless. i like it when the younger guy is down bad AND ALSO capable of taking care of the noona. HASN'T NOONA SUFFERED ENOUGH??? THROUGH THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF LIFE??? i felt like the FL here mostly saw ML as cute, which doesn't really feel like she "sees him as a man" as the korean webtoons love to say lol, so i wasn't sold on their romance.


• operation: true love korean, ongoing, dropped at ch. 10 i don't know if i should keep trying with this one since it's sooooo popular... but in general the FL seems like WAY too much of a pushover not wanting to break up with her boyfriend. i understand she's an insecure teen... but i think i am finally beyond wanting to dig deep into stories about insecure teens lol. also the fact that in the prologue at least, she says she cheats on her bf w eunhyeok??? GIRL JUST BREAK UP! YOUR BF IS TRASH! JUST. BREAK. UP. i just feel like her problems are easy to solve lmao. i have also definitely started this before in the past, and i think i stopped for similar reasons as well, so I HOPE I REMEMBER NEXT TIME THAT I HAVE ALREADY TRIED THIS.


• charming you korean, complete, dropped at ch. 7 i picked this one up for the art, and it was generally kind of funny, but i think this girl is too much of a stalker for me to feel good abt this turning into a romantic situation. she feels a bit like a pick me for being like "everyone is obsessed w sunbae but i'm special bc i turn him away!" idk! i'm not sold.


• my younger brother's friend korean, complete, dropped at ch. 1 LMFAO this is WAY too much of a fantasy written by someone who does not have younger brothers / has not actually hung out with high school boys lmfao all of this brother's friends being considerate of the noona like... idk i'm not THIS delusional haha


• bakha korean, ongoing, dropped at ch. 11 idk... maybe i will continue w this one? i mostly started it bc it was smutty and seemed to have pretty art, and i am somewhat curious about who exactly this man is, but the story doesn't have much substance so far. i will say it is still early, so maybe i'll pick it back up when more chapters come out. time will tell!


• meet me in the middle korean, ongoing, dropped at ch. 14 okay, i'm still not sure if i will drop this or not... i thought the premise (these two people are both lying about their age in two different directions HAHA) was super funny and interesting, and i think the plot is moving forward at a nice pace where you find out just enough to wonder what else will be revealed. that being said, i guess i want to see more of the ml being sweet to her? as of now it's really clear that he's using her, and i want to get to the part where he has emotional investment, too. maybe if i keep reading it'll come along soon enough, but as of now, there are too many other more interesting manhwa for me to read to spend my limited free time on this one!