Webtoon Spotlight

Spotlight#12: Girls of the Wild's/Daily Pass

Okay, so this is more of an impulse spotlight since I had just finished the series, and I wanted to do this right away. This does mean that I'm going to have to push the more creepy webtoon I had planned to the back and focus on this webtoon and the actual Halloween webtoon for the season itself. But for now, let's get into the nitty and gritty. 

I started webtoon when I was in high school, which means my swim team is closely related to Webtoons. And with every new season, I seem to find a new webtoon that I follow to the point of obsession that quickly becomes a mainstay in my library/ heart by the end of my season. 

It was God of Highschool second Tower of God for the first year, and now for my third year, that story was titled Girls of the Wild's. Strap in, ladies and folks, because today, I will be shining a light on what I consider a somewhat controversial webtoon made by Hun and Zhena armed with a system I can't stand.

    Summary

    While many prestigious schools are located in South Korea, none have ever proven to be as fearsome, crazy, and infamous as the legendary Wild's high. The students who attend this all-girls school have made it into the real world as legendary MMA fighters feared by gangsters and bank robbers alike, but while the school has been running smoothly for years, the dean Charles wilds decided to run smoothly to make a change. 

Fearing that the girls were missing out on their teenage youth and femininity, he makes the school coed! But unfortunately for orphan Jaegu Song, he is somehow the only boy in the entire school, and there is no turning back.

    Okay, but seriously this is like my worst nightmare. I already have a problem with the opposite sex enough as it is now you mean to tell me that this man has to go to a school filled with women that for sure can kick my ass? No, thank you. I'd instead flip off a bridge.

Characters

Jaegu: While he may only be a teenager let it be known that Jaegu lost his childhood a long time ago when his father was killed due to an unknown illness and his mother left him and his younger twin siblings to never return (no we never get any closure on this). Hence, Jaegu is constantly providing for his family in anyway he can. All while displaying a poltie and nonconfrontational attitude, making him prey. 

However, after going to Wilds, he starts becoming far more vocal and confident in himself. However, due to his mommy issues, he does have a hard time acknowledging female relationships and has been shown to have incredible anger when provoked.

Queen: Also called Ingui Queen embodies her namesake both in the ring and worldwide as she gets destined to be heir to a famous company called Yk. Due to being badly burned by a boy when she was young and maintaining appearances in the corporate world, Queen often displays a very fierce exterior. But the interior shows that like every flipping tsundere, she is a lot timider than you might believe and wants to live an everyday life with fighting being her outlet.

Moonyoung: My favorite character Moonyoung is your typical tomboy who is often direct, rambunctious, and loud. Mooyoung is professional, resorting to regulated fights. Out of the three main girls, she is the most responsible for Jaegu's physical and mental improvement. She is constantly trying to improve herself and has often been the cool head next to the other girls in the series. She is also a supreme glutton. Moonyoung's specialty is in her boxing talents.

DalDal: My least favorite character DalDal, is a very bossy and loud girl who isn't afraid to make fun of anyone. She is arguably the most feminine, talented, and prideful of the fighters as she rarely practices, and after meeting, Jaegu obsesses over and cooks for him every day. My reasoning for my dislike is that she is the type of female fantasy that would be terrible in real life, and we never understand why she likes Jaegu. DalDal is an incredibly powerful and skilled Taekwondo practitioner.

Overview

    Wild's has a nice and pretty look at art style that is very light to signify comedy and look at gorgeous locations. The school is very well developed, with its infamous fighting tournament being a very enjoyable arc. It is also one of the funniest webtoons I have ever read, with lots of wtf hidden gags and running jokes though this means that a 20 chapter long conflict could end with an out of nowhere joke. 

The series has a lot of excellent knowledge on fighting tips and different martial arts but not to the extent of say Kengan Ashura for example. It is a very fun and loose Webtoon with a hint of fanservice here and there. If there is one theme from this Webtoon, it's never to underestimate someone, standing up for yourself, being aware, and being thankful for your surroundings. And probably most of all, showing off the different meanings of femininity and masculinity.

However, near the tail end of the series is where the series gets controversial. After Jaegu gets his rapid development, the series loses a lot of focus on what it wanted to be with random conflicts running into Jaegu for a while. And while it's a great comedy and pretty good action story but it's not the best romance in the romance-centered season 2 because of the lack of insight into the character's decisions.

 I don't know much about romance, but one of the few essential things about this genre is mainly the character's thought process for keeping up or moving away from such a relationship, and while the story does it well, it doesn't do it well enough. It also has a very rushed ending that makes even Noblesse sweat with many unresolved plot points and character arcs.

Daily Pass

    Okay, so I'm OK with the fast pass since most of the webtoons that spawned from it took only a short break, and the only actual "cost" is that if you stop buying fast pass, you could be waiting weeks for a regular new episode. 

However, the latest policy, called the daily pass, makes no sense. Completed webtoons like Girls of the Wild's, Bastard, Orange Marmalade, and My Boo are part of the pass. Effectively making most chapters in the story gettingpriced and gives only two free passes to read a chapter . After 15 days before it being needed to read again. 

This is a painful system since it kills binge reading and a lot of motivation to revisit past chapters. This also makes you question what other canceled webtoons will be next on the chopping block because series like Noblesse have over 500 chapters which makes it a slog to get through.  Overall trash system.

Epilogue

In my heart of hearts, I like Gow, but I think that it had more insight and room to breathe, we could have been left with a complete ending. Ironically if the series was tamer, then we could have gotten something a lot more loved. I don't think they hate it got was deserved, but hey, it's been over for three years, so I can't complain. It was an enjoyable story that I'll revisit. And with that done, I will be giving a spotlight to one of my fave Webtoons ever, so stay tuned.