Today’s Webtoon: Episodes 5-6

Today’s Webtoon: Episodes 5-6

by solstices

In the webtoon field, aspiring artists and passionate producers alike have lofty dreams. However, it takes more than just optimism and hard work to achieve success, and it’s all too easy to fall into disillusionment or overwork.

 

EPISODES 5-6 WEECAP

We resume in the midst of the heated confrontation at the webtoon camp. Thankfully, before Dae-ryuk can do anything rash, Ma-eum instinctively twists the aggressive bully’s raised arm. He falls to the floor, clutching his wrist and screaming in pain like a giant wimp.

His buddy accuses Ma-eum of hurting a webtoon artist’s precious hand, but Joon-young rightfully points out that the bully misused his hand first to hurt other people. Ji-hyung and Man-cheol arrive to defuse the situation, and they send the injured artist to the hospital (along with his buddy and Joon-young).

Unfortunately, news spreads fast, especially since the other artists filmed and uploaded the whole debacle on their social media accounts. Worried that her actions may have hurt a person and ruined Neon’s reputation, Ma-eum ends up heading to the hospital too.

Except Joon-young assuages her fears with a video he took of the bully waving his perfectly-fine hand around as his buddy gloats over his acting skills. LOL, way to expose your own scam.

Back at the webtoon camp, the judges evaluate the budding artists’ pitches. Dae-ryuk’s art is met with a tepid response, until Writer Baek points out his instinctive eye for good staging and composition. With a little guidance, he could improve his art skills — and he’s willing to offer that help. Aww, Writer Baek!

Unfortunately, Dae-ryuk turns down the position of Writer Baek’s assistant, leaving it to Ma-eum to persuade him. She tells him that she wants to be the first reader of his webtoon, and her earnest faith in him touches his heart.

The final winners of the webtoon camp are selected, ranging from the former baseball player LEE WOO-JIN (Jang Sung-yoon), to the soft-spoken GU SEUL-AH (Jeon Hye-yeon).

Dae-ryuk doesn’t get chosen, but he receives an encouraging text from Ma-eum with a link to a webtoon. She quotes a line from it — just one person is enough to save someone from collapsing — and tells him that she’d be happy to be that one person for him.

Dae-ryuk’s moved by her sincerity, and that’s the final push he needs to accept the position of Writer Baek’s assistant. Yay!

Aw, Dae-ryuk is a bundle of nerves on his first day. Head assistant IM DONG-HEE (Baek Seok-kwang) kindly lends Dae-ryuk a tablet to replace his old and scuffed one, and assigns him his first task of practicing how to draw circles freehand.

Dae-ryuk can’t differentiate people’s faces well, so Ma-eum goes the extra mile. She gets Joon-young to take photos of her making different facial expressions and wearing various outfits, so that Dae-ryuk can have reference images. HAHAHA omg, she makes Joon-young do it too, and before long they’re laughing their hearts out and having fun.

Fellow rookie writer Seul-ah has her first feedback session with Ma-eum, and the mood is optimistic at first. However, Seul-ah’s spirits are soon dimmed by the long list of constructive criticism from the staff and readers alike.

Nasty supervisor KWON YOUNG-BAE (Yang Hyun-min) tries to poach Seul-ah for a big illustration project, guilt-tripping Ma-eum into letting her go. Disheartened by the amount of revisions she’ll have to make for her own webtoon, she accepts the prestigious project, which entails drawing a webtoon adaptation of a popular web novel.

Barely a few days before the deadline, however, Young-bae suddenly demands for Seul-ah to change the appearance of the protagonist entirely. Young-bae dismisses Seul-ah’s concerns as if it’s merely a five-minute edit, when in reality she has to redraw the majority of her work from scratch.

Ma-eum learns about this, as well as Young-bae’s notorious reputation of being a “rookie killer” — artists who work with him usually end up quitting or getting ruined after just one job. Ma-eum frets so much that Joon-young takes notice, and the pair move to the rooftop for a breather.

Joon-young points out that she has a tendency to get too emotionally invested in the artists she works with, and that it could end up hurting her in the long run. Ma-eum acknowledges this, but she can’t stand how Young-bae treats his artists like they’re disposable commodities.

Even when Seul-ah ends up in the hospital from overwork, Young-bae doesn’t display even a single shred of remorse. He and Ma-eum end up arguing during a team meeting, and Ji-hyung invites Ma-eum out for a drink so they can talk through her concerns.

Joon-young asks to tag along, and he explains that he’s done his research — Ji-hyung has to be lenient on Young-bae, because the artists under him make up the majority of the webtoon team’s sales. Ji-hyung concurs, and to the rookies’ surprise, he says that Young-bae used to be as diligent and down-to-earth as Ma-eum.

Back in the day, the current members of the Neon webtoon team used to be a startup called Gingertoon, and they all poured their passion into their work. However, Chief Heo’s coldhearted shutdown of Gingertoon had left Young-bae in shambles and led to his divorce. Since then, Young-bae’s taken a much more pragmatic approach to his job.

Somberly, Ji-hyung reveals that Young-bae focuses on sales and performance numbers, so that the other webtoon producers can invest their time and resources into projects they’re passionate about. Without his harsh, hard-headed approach, their platform would go under due to the lack of revenue.

I like that Young-bae’s nastiness isn’t just for the sake of the character archetype; instead, his harsh attitude is humanized, and we can see how he’s making sacrifices for the team too. His wholehearted emotional investment made the crash back down to reality that much harder, and it’s a cautionary tale of how Ma-eum could end up if she doesn’t manage her emotions and avoid burning out.

Still, a sad backstory doesn’t excuse Young-bae’s mean behavior, nor does it warrant him forcing Seul-ah to overwork herself to the point of hospitalization. I do understand Ji-hyung and Man-cheol’s hesitance to take him to task, since he is keeping the team afloat, but I wish they’d step in when he takes things too far.

Thankfully, Seul-ah stands up for herself and rejects Young-bae’s next illustration offer. Pushing herself to the brink of utter exhaustion served as a wake-up call, and she tells him that she doesn’t want to end up hating her work and herself too. She would rather slowly improve and tell her own story, even if it takes much longer to debut as a webtoon author.

This week, we also learn the true reason for Ma-eum’s judo hiatus. It isn’t her injury, which both us and her father have been led to believe.

We flash back to her last judo competition. With only 15 seconds left on the clock, Ma-eum knew that she had to make a decisive move. Noticing that her opponent was favoring one leg over the other, Ma-eum struck out at her weak ankle to flip her over.

It earned Ma-eum the victory, but it left her opponent clutching her foot in agony while being carried out on a stretcher. The realization that she’d hurt someone with her own actions had deeply traumatized Ma-eum, leaving her scared to return to the sport.

Ma-eum invites her father to the dojo for a sparring match, and it’s almost like a swan song. Afterwards, she admits that she’s gotten a job, catching her father entirely off guard.

He accuses Ma-eum of giving up on judo, but she corrects him — she’s not running away, she’s making a choice for herself. Ma-eum once cherished her dream of becoming an Olympic gold medalist, but she has a new dream now.

Pointing out that they’re two very different people, Ma-eum tells him that this is her life to experience, to learn from, and to take responsibility for. Gosh, I love how the dialogue in this show is written — it’s so raw and genuine, the words alone make me tear up.

On that note, I’m really enjoying the recurring role reversals written for this pairing. Not only does the show poke fun at how much stronger Ma-eum is compared to Joon-young, but they also give Joon-young all the fluttery moments characteristic of a typical rom-com female lead.

For example, Ma-eum pulls Joon-young out of the way of an oncoming motorcycle, leading to an accidental hug. Joon-young’s super flustered, and he asks Ma-eum if she’s okay — but it’s clear he’s referring to more than just being injury-free, because he clutches his beating heart after she turns away. HAHAHA, awww.

I love our rookie pair so much, and how good of an influence they are on each other. Ma-eum’s kindness and tenacity inspire Joon-young to regain a little faith in the world, and Joon-young’s perceptiveness teaches Ma-eum how to be a little more sensitive to other people’s feelings.

Their conversation about still having much to learn about the world was particularly poignant, and it’s nice that they have each other’s backs on this journey. It’s clear they both carry baggage; Ma-eum’s still trying to find an identity outside of judo, and we keep seeing glimpses of a mysterious lady in Joon-young’s house who seems to hover around him like a specter.

Still, I have faith that they’ll grow and heal, and it’s why I’m so fond of this pair — they may feel discouraged by their own shortcomings, but they notice each other’s strengths. They motivate each other to keep going, and with a little guidance from Ji-hyung, I’m sure they’ll go far.

 
RELATED POSTS

Today’s Webtoon: Episodes 5-6
Source: Buzz Pinay Daily