Extension Project

For my final extension project I decided to investigate the webtoons website and a few webtoons. To begin the webtoons website has a very anime sort of feel to it. There are many different mixed colors very close together with a clustered but striking feeling to it. There is a real emphasize on the cartoons rather than the website itself as the background is solely white. There are easy to access genres and a search bar at the top. Overall the lay out of the site is a little intimidating at first but easily navigable and informative. I chose to delve into the highly popularized webtoon Hardcore Leveling Warrior. This webtoon was under action with 2.5 million likes and a youngish boy sweating and desperately looking at his phone. I couldn’t tell you why but it sparked my interest. After reading the small summary intro provided I was sold.

The webtoon began in a very confusing manner. The main character was introduced right away as the #1 player on a future virtual reality MMO. His name is Hardcore Leveling Warrior and to be honest he thinks hes the shit. He is a complete asshole to everyone in the surver on the game that everyone is now playing. As revealed later in the webtoon this game is called Lucid Dream and is played when asleep. That’s all that i’ll spoil. The artist draws HLW with new shiny armor and a huge smirk on his face. He cockily struts around town while the towns folk mutter about what horrible deeds he has done to them. Through the images one can really see the tension in the story and honestly hate the main character. Their is a lot of rhetoric used as well in particular with HLW. In the beginning HLW is killed through sketchy means and brought back to level 1. The reader now kinda feels sorry as he is beaten up over and over. He still has his cocky flare to him as before however which portrays the fire in him.

I also read the webtoon Lumine. Now this was the first webtoon I read and it was because of another extension project. This webtoon first got me into them. This one is drawn by Emma Krogell and is about a runaway werewolf named Lumine who befriends a which and is hired as his bodyguard. I have read the entire 58 episodes at this point as I was engulfed by it a few weeks ago. This was like reading a great book but fast paced and with pictures. Lumine is drawn to perfection sometimes displayed a regular kid trying to find his place in life and others as a vicious protective incredibly rare werewolf. Kody is another main character in the webtoon who is bullied at school for not being strong enough and has a difficulty trusting Lumine and accepting his help. The design choices especially for this webtoon bring it to life. I truly felt sorry for Lumine and found myself rooting and reacting to everything Lumine and Kody did.

Webtoons are a special medium of literacy. It is a refreshing change from a traditional novel as it seems to combine novels and anime to an extent. The ones I have read so far have very distinct design choices that draw the reader in. Such as for Lumine the different stages of wolf he transformed in brought an intense anticipation everytime a fight occurred. Just waiting for the little boy to transform into an epic beast and wipe the floor with his enemies. Each webtoon also has a lot of back and forth and reading between the lines. I was always guessing the next event and the secrets that would be revealed next. Overall webtoons is a hard recommended from me a new and creative medium for literacy.