Webtoon Spotlight

Spotlight#95: Age Matters

Have you ever wanted to indulge in some literary junk food? If so, then fear not because I am about to shine a light on Age Matters, the nearly completed series by Enjelicious.

Summary

Time does wait for no man or woman, it seems, as Rose Choi is officially a 30-year-old suffering from both a broken heart. On top of that, her best friend has left on a last-minute honeymoon with her "one true love," leaving Rose to take her job and place.

However, Rose's luck will seemingly change forever when she realizes that her new occupation would involve relations with Daniel Yoon, the 23-year-old CEO/founder of Lime's social media empire. Before Rose can even process this shocking revelation, she realizes pretty soon that she's going to catch a lot more than just a wealthy paycheck from him.

Characters

Rose: Our cute little cougar, Rose, on most days, is friendly, fun, flighty, feisty, kind, and reliable. She is a woman that is willing to do nearly anything to defend the people that she cares about, and she does see the best in them more often than not. However, on the flip side, this means that Rose will often downplay her feats and wants unnecessarily in comparison to others, especially with her age.

Daniel: Rose's richer half, Daniel is a natural businessman with great ambition, resourcefulness, and honesty. However, his troublesome upbringing in his wealthy family and his past negative experiences have left him jaded, stubborn, antisocial, grumpy, and awkward. Nonetheless, his demeanor starts to change for the better upon meeting with Rose.

Dylan: The main romantic rival of the series, Dylan is an attractive young model who is far more fiery and flirtatious than Daniel. However, beneath his ever-present smile and pining for Rose betrays a more somber persona. Daniel, much like Rose, often feels like he's a lacking adult despite his fame and almost always tries to follow his heart no matter how painful it is.

Overview

I feel like the best way to describe age matters is similar to my last review. Anyone familiar with stories like 50 Shades of Grey already knows the business mode this story follows. Still, unlike those stories, I think that Age Matters knows what to reel in specifically to avoid its pitfalls. While still sometimes having the same cliches and flaws of the genre (take a shot every time important characters happen to drop unannounced, and please call an ambulance halfway through the story).

Lowkey, I wished that the whole age difference dynamic kind of got a bit elevated to help it stand out a little better compared to the stuff we get in other webtoons. By real-world standards, a 7-year-old age difference is not even close to crazy given the shit I've seen, and I definitely could've opened up more exciting discussions on Rose and Daniel's relationship. Though I understand entirely if Enjelicious wanted to point out that the difference didn't matter while avoiding another Persphone and Hades debacle.

Personal beef aside, I will admit that this series looks the best and brightest out of the mainline romance webtoons. Our friendly potato gives most of the characters a glossy, supermodel look to everything. Sweeter moments are given a rosy or beautiful look to them with some detailed surroundings to boot.

The series also features a medium-sized cast of characters that get at least a decent amount of screen time to help diversify the story with some side plots. That getting said, though, most of the story's internal-external and internal conflicts pretty much stem from Rose and Daniel, more so the latter given his larger presence within the story.

Speaking of the two, I will admit that Rose and Daniel are some of the best power couples on Webtoon for me. Even during their tumultuous beginnings, they have a fun and solid dynamic that will get the oo's and aah's necessary. However, as they start to break down their emotional walls, I think it takes a rather reasonable amount of time to make sense of their relationship.

Once they get fully together, they come fast and hard, naturally but briefly overcoming their barriers, families, and finally, their exes. All while in my eyes, at least maintaining a healthy amount of communication, spicy romance, and cute scenes. It may all be a slow buildup, but the finish is super strong.

Overall, I think what managers get Age matters to overcome its potential pitfalls the most is pretty much in its tone. The arrival of Daniel's family pulls out pretty much every rich guy-poor but dependable girl romance trope you can imagine. Still, through good writing and humor, I never felt the story took itself too seriously or made all these characters completely unrealistic.

Dylan is probably the biggest stand-out in that regard, as he's my favorite character in the series by a long shot. While he's not the biggest obstacle in the series for Daniel and Rose, he is the most persistent rival to appear.

However, as I mentioned before, the series gives him a lot of moments to shine as Rose's biggest ally. Yet, he has enough common sense to want Rose to be happy with whoever (and his feelings don't manage to go away despite his efforts quickly). So again, it's a prevalent trope. Still, the series manages to make every character work.

Epilogue

All in all, Age Matters was a pretty fun romp that teaches you to try and fight for your love against all emotional and physical ways. A story about how no matter your age, you're still free to live your life. A message that I, for better or worse, am not going to experience any time soon. Either way, it was a fun series to read until its end, and I hope more people read it.

With march to 100 still coming in strong and my return to webtoon more triumphant than ever, let's spin this spotlight and see where it takes us next.