From Pages to Prespective: How Manhwa Changed Me

Manhwa is a type of Korean comic, often referred to as Webtoon due to its popularity on that platform. The modern Korean lifestyle can serve as inspiration for artists' work. Manhwa can be read on various platforms, such as phones, tablets, and computers.

I first discovered manhwa when I was 15 years old. At that time I found a video clip of manhwa called “Solo Leveling” on the internet. I was like “This thing is fire” and because of that, I quickly fell in love with manhwa, the style of the art feels fresh, the art is colorful, and the short chapters make it simple to follow, even during my free times. Then I realized that manhwa is not only for entertainment, but also a modern way for small artists around the world to share their creativity to readers like me.

For 8 months, I could find many genres that matched my mood, from fantasy and romance to slice of life, but I was really fixated on one genre that I often read a lot, it is leveling based type of manhwa. Basically a manhwa genre about the main character who becomes strong, thanks to the leveling system that is commonly found in games. Another genre that I liked is action. It has fighting scenes with high-paced plot, the adrenalin, and also the excitement.

One year has passed and I’m 17 years old now, I still find myself to just read some manhwa when I’m bored. The fantasy and the leveling system based genre that used to be fun, a scene of manhwa characters fighting with dramatic effect, they feel empty now, and I found myself thinking “I used to get really excited about every plot twist. But now I can guess the ending easily…”. Even at some point I was on hiatus for several months because there was nothing interesting that I could read and I started to focus on my daily routine, going to school, preparing myself for final exam, graduation event, and even spending the last days of high school years with my high school friends.

I’m 17 years old almost 18 now, after graduated from high school and a few weeks with my free time, I decided to start reading manhwa again. Not fantasy and action, but slice of life. The first slice of life manhwa that I read is “Underworld Restaurant” and it piqued my interest to start reading again. Story about the main character living a normal life as a chef and serves costumers from both underworld and overworld. The drama about loss, the sad stories from its customers, even the suffering that the main character goes through created a spark in myself to continue reading manhwa. When the manhwa was stuck at a certain chapter, I still managed to wait and to try out new comics with the same genre. Somehow, the simple story about people drinking coffee while chatting feels so warm. Even though in the past I was really reluctant to read this type of manhwa. It had to be one with fights, the epic ones, it had to be power or magic. And then I realized that, this isn’t so bad after all.

The time I’ve spent, the comics I read, the genres I tried one by one, and the hiatus I had. Starting from drama, slice of life, comedy, romance, medical, work, or even music. For me, manhwa is no longer just a comic, but the life I live, the free time I fill with reading, manhwa is more of a home for me, the place where I can rest from heavy world and return after the burden is gone. Even in the future I’ll still continue to read manhwa. The essence that I got from reading manhwa is kindness. From manhwa characters I learned a lot about kindness, being kind is not only about behavior, but also about how you forgive others. Sometimes, the simplest thing like a manhwa story, drinking coffee with friends while chatting are the most relatable in this modern era and now I’m not just reading to escape reality, but also to understand life. (ARD)