Webtoon Spotlight

Spotlight#52: Always Human

Have you ever felt a webtoon that was simply beautiful? If you do, then you'll love Always Human by walkingnorth!

Summary

A futuristic utopia where people can modify their bodies almost interchangeably, a young woman named Suntai falls in love with a non-modified girl named Austen. This is the story of how they navigate through life and love together.

Characters

Sunati: Our main heroine, Suntai, is a childish, optimistic, and bubbly young woman. She always looks out for others and sees their best qualities for better or worse. Her arc is one of for once focusing on her best qualities and further evolving.

Austen: Suntai's lovable girlfriend, Austen, was born with Egan's Syndrome, a disease that can't let her use mods. Because of this condition, Austen is constantly weighed down and worried over how she presents herself from the world's point of view; she is a freak. This leads her to be strong-willed, emotional, and honest, but these negative traits soon dampen as time goes on.

Rae: Suntai's best and most reliable friend, Rae, has even less of a filter than Austen. She also is a lot less sociable, quickly making snap judgments of people. Despite these traits, though, she is incredibly loyal and protective of the few friends, making her devotion to Sunati even more important.

Overview

This webtoon is one word: beautiful. The watercolor-like style fits perfectly with the sci-fi setting, giving it a sense of streamlined brightness. Combine that with the various soundtrack-filled chapters of the story, which creates an awesome cinematic experience.

 The concept of mods is also used to awesome effect as they can change anything from simple cosmetics to memory enhancers. Not only that, but this romance webtoon does something revolutionary. It surprisingly realizes you don't need to have constant sex and drama to make a good and compelling romance. 

I'm also surprised out how well this series manages to represent multiple sexual orientations without shoving them in my face, unlike other shows. Suntai and Austen are fully formed characters that go through their arcs. Their separate development of Sunati and Austen always feels completely natural and believable to anyone who has felt frustrated or scared over their life situation. 

They serve as an excellent lesson to kind of live your life as freely as possible. This webtoon teaches you to be vulnerable, be somewhat selfish, be more accepting of yourself, and be human. That is a lesson that both Suntai and Austen have to learn and so many other people.

Epilogue

While I do miss Always Human to this day, I know that it ended satisfyingly. I hope everyone gets a chance to read it as it gets officially published everywhere now. Walkingnorth is already fast at work on another webtoon called Aerial Magic, which I have left to read, which means that I might shine a light on Walkingnorth at a future time.