Friday, March 11, 2016

Webtoon Reveiw: Story of Someone we Know & Salty Studio

Having already talked about Cheese in the Trap more than once now, and also mentioned Webtoons by themself too, I will again, write about a Webtoon! And it's a full on complete review!

"Story of Someone We Know"
Omyo is a featured artist on webtoon and she/he (but assuming she) had written and completed two series that I know of so far. Her more well known one, or really just more popular than the other one, is Story of Someone we Know. The other one that I read and really liked was Salty Stuido. I've read them both awhile ago and meant to write a review about both of them far earlier on, but I'm doing it now.

I am, in fact, going to review them together. One because they were made by the same artist and two because they are the same genre. Three is because the two stories have very similaur messages and themes which make them very similaur in a lot of other aspects of too. I'll include and description about the both of them though, seperately.

Okay, first, Story of Someone we Know. Summer is happily in love; Mira is a beautiful and succesfull woman who doesn't have a boyfriend; Jung-Ah lives with her boyfriend and they've been together for 5 years. These 25 year old girls are very close. This is the story of their common everyday lives.

Here is the Salty Stuido summary. Togeun used to work for his father's company without any passion, so he quits his job and moves out from his parents' house in order to follow his dream ind rawing. At the homecoming party (highschool reunion), Togeun begs Sonagi, a girl who he knew in highschool, a great illustrator, to teach him how to draw.

They don't sound similaur in the summary but they kind of are. The genre of the stories, if you haven't guess, is the romance genre. But oh my gosh! What's this? They aren't set highschool? Whaaat?? Surprise, surprise, they're romance stories from East Asia, are super cute, and are not set in highschool. Or even college. These people are young adults and they are on their own. They have jobs and get shit done according to their own agendas relying solely on themselves...well sort of. Okay not really, but they are young adults past college and trying to get their lives to together.
"Story of Someone we Know"

I'm really referring to Story of Someone we Know right now. Although in Salty Studio, they aren't in highschool or college other than two of the side characters, none of them really have their lives together. That's the thing about Salty Studio. They have no clue what to do. That's one of the major difference between the two webtoons.

But back to The Story of Someone we Know.

And yet they still are relatable. That's the first thing to praise. It's not in highschool and is still an amazing protrayal of romance. Weirdly realistic, but that also means it's sad. The way that this particular webcomic progresses is it goes through each girl's story about their romantic life. Throughout the story of all of the girls, they each at one point, have the opposite of what they started off with. How they react to this is what makes it a real story. Like Nana, anyone whose been in a relationship can probably relate to one of these girls. I've never been in a relationship and I personally really loved it.

In Salty Studio, unlike in Story of Someone we Know,  it focuses on the romantic elationship between only two of the characters. A bit more drama and dramatics in this one but not too much. What is also different about this one is that it doesn't always focus on the romance aspect of this webtoon. All the characters have hardships that they have and that are affecting them that just want to let out.

"Salty Studio"
Other aspects include the teenage girl who fell in love with her friend. The over succesful kid who doesn't actually know what to do after highschool. The man who is judged by his looks and then only to be turned away when he fails their expectations. And of course the feelings of the main two, that aren't just romantically as the boy deals with failing his dreams and the girl deals with lying to someone she loves.

See. Dramatics! But also really relatable. One of the problems most people had at one point or another, making it oh so keep going reading. A major focal point in the series is finding yourself and trying to get on you're feet. Not the lame, "I must find myself in the wild" but the, I wasn't born with an amazing talent. My future hasn't been paved already. I don't have a plan. Or even, I had a plan, but it didn't work. THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW?! Extremely relatable since every young person has been here at some point thinking things like, I don't know what I want. Or, I don't know how to get it. Or even, I am unable to get it, because I can't get in. It's bittersweet and it's full of sad things and failures that everyone has to go through and make it through because life doesn't stop.

Okay, okay. Art stuff now.

The art is ridiculously colorful. Damn, is it bright. Everything has color, except their skin. Which is all white. I'm not really sure why, or if it's supposed to represent some kind of thing, but it strangely works for it. The drawing style is really cartoonish and childish, which is the complete opposite of the story it's trying to tell. Or maybe it just goes to show that evolution from innocenct feelings to a more aware person. But then agian, the art never really changes. One unique thing it does though is change the art style from something simple and a sketchy (in a good way) from a professionally done picture at the end of every chapter. This happens in both series. Another great thing about the art is that the speech bubbles are colored, making it easy to follow along with conversations.

Neither are extremely long. Both are summed up in about 50 chapters or less. I highly reccomend it for romancy stuff. (I should probably branch out more....) But anyway, read them!

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