Today’s Webtoon | A Healing K-Drama about Webtoons & its Artists

A remake of the Japanese series Sleeper Hit, Today’s Webtoon is a K-Drama about the world of webtoon! With Kim Se-Jeong, Choi Daniel and Nam Yoon-Soo, our dynamic lead characters will take you in for an animated ride!

Disclaimer: The post ahead may contain SPOILERS since this is a review of the whole series.

Storyline of Today’s Webtoon

A former Judo athlete, Kim Se-Jeong plays the bright and optimistic On Ma-Eum. After retiring from Judo after her injury she recently joined the editorial team of Neon Webtoon as a contractual employee.

With Seok Ji-Hyung (played by Choi Daniel) and Jang Man-Cheol (played by Park Ho-San), they are Ma-Eum’s sunbaenims at work. Two veterans in the webtoon industry, they teach Ma-Eum all the work behind each and every webtoon that came to light.

Played by Nam Yoon-Su, Gu Jun-Yeong is Ma-Eum’s fellow rookie in the team. Despite being a polar opposite of Ma-Eum’s bright personality, they learned the ins and outs of the webtoon world. Later on, they started handling their own projects and webtoon artists as webtoon PDs.

With few more colleagues in the team, we dive deeper into the world of webtoon creation and the tales they tell. Shall we get started?

Personal Review of Today’s Webtoon

On Ma-Eum’s bright and positive personality is peculiar yet contagious. We’ve seen her face her new-found passion and challenges at work. But despite the uncertainty of her role as a contractual worker and her team’s spot in Neon, her passion didn’t wane at all.

Worrying about what hasn’t even happened yet, and feeling all anxious and scared… Gosh that isn’t how I do things. Had I been the type (of person) who only dream of things that I could be sure of, I would’ve never set out to become an Olympic gold medalist.

On Ma-Eum

When she confronted Gu Jun-Yeong about worrying and being anxious about work, I was slightly slapped in the face and boy it stings. I was a constant overthinker and my anxiety over everything that hasn’t happened yet… God knows its limit. Her mental strength and fortitude, made me feel embarrassed. At the same time, I was inspired to improve myself and adapt new practices.

But what I loved about the series is the way it taught us how to accept failed dreams and move forward. That it wasn’t wrong to have a new dream and aspirations in life. And that like life itself, dreams grow and sometimes die on its own.

And even the talented and genius artists crumble and struggle too.

Bonus Section Part 1: Webtoon Artists

While the Editorial Team is the main dish, the webtoon artists are the banchan ( side dishes). The roles they play and their essence completes the slightly bumpy ride of the K-Drama. And what a diverse range of artists we have. We have a senior artist who poured his heart and health into his work. Then we also have an artist who struggles to balance his work and his personal romantic relationship.

A talented and beautiful artist who despite her success continuously doubt her talent. Last but not the least are our rookie artists who went through hoops just to officially debut as webtoon artists.

All our artists have their own stories to tell. Some have significant ones and some maybe not-so-significant but the roles they play speaks volume. It all comes to passion. They love what they do even if things get tough at the risk of their health and happiness. We’ve seen them crumble and struggle yet they also pick themselves up.

But not everyone have a successful story to tell. This what makes the K-Drama realistic. It portrays the reality for some of the most hardworking and ever determined artist like Im Dong-Hee. The real shadow artist of the show and an artist assistant for both senior Baek Eo-Jin and rookie Shin Dae-Ryug, my heart breaks for him. Working hard sometimes is not enough. But Im Dong-Hee taught us that being a shadow artist is a role someone has to play and he’s good at it.

Shadow artist what? PD Seok Ji-Hyung used the term shadow artist as someone who works with the artists to help the artists deliver the output. They are people (not necessarily an artist) who contributes behind the scene and is rarely recognized. Reflecting on what I do for a living, I found myself as a shadow player of the team. I don’t deliver vital output for the company, but I work with everyone (140+ people) behind the scene. When I heard how proud PD Seok Ji-Hyung is as a shadow artist, I started to take pride in what I do.

Bonus Section Part 2: Shin Dae-Ryug & his Peeve Weapon

Moving on to my biased favoritism towards Artist Shin Dae-Ryug (played by Kim Do-Hoon), I can’t help but recognized him. From his dark drawings, law of attraction mindset, painful trauma and his bromance relationship with Im Dong-Hee, I so adored him!

With a twisted fate, we’ve seen him face his trauma with an ugly truth… he (somehow) caused it. In real life, most of us go through the same thing over and over again, we don’t see the consequences of our actions. We only believe what we can perceive. But all is not lost, we’ve seen him face his own demons and heal from it.

Others may call it the typical K-Drama cliché, Today’s Webtoon showed us acceptance and healing. It is only by these two we will grow. The more we deny it, the more we suffer.

K-Drama Rating

A K-Drama with a light touch of corporate politics and budding romance, Today’s Webtoon is not extraordinary, I agree. A little romanticized, it appeals to viewers who wants to devour heartwarming workplace storylines. Which is totally my taste to counterbalance the heavy storylines I watch. I, On Ma-Eum and Neon’s Webtoon Editorial Team deserved a happy ending, and it did not disappoint as the story came to an end.

• Personal Rating Score: 8 out of 10
• Target Audience: Webtoon/Manhwa Fans
• Will I recommend this: YES! Similar take with Military Prosecutor Doberman, don’t sleep on this!

An underrated K-Drama due to its competitor Big Mouth, Today’s Webtoon showed us how to face our failed dreams while pursuing new ones. With a glimpse of webtoon artists’ journey and how their works came to light, I absolutely enjoyed it. One thing is for sure, it was an enjoyable ride for the past 8 weeks and I will miss this squad!