If you spend a lot of time on the internet digesting 2D content, then you’ve probably heard of webtoons, but if the term is as confusing and scary to you as the words “intimacy” and “commitment” are to me, then let me give you the lowdown. Webtoons are comics which are usually meant to be read on a smartphone. They are optimised for that reading experience by being formatted as a single continuing vertical image you can scroll through. Webtoons originated in South Korea, but their international popularity is spreading like the crotch stain of a BTS fan after an autograph signing.
While the unique verticality of webtoons can allow for truly unique artwork and story progression, it’s also totally possible to put naughty stuff in them. That has obvious advantages, since you can hold and scroll with one hand while your other hand is…doing other things. Like table tennis. Let’s take a look at some English translations of webtoons that are available for your one-handed scrolling pleasure.
A lot of webtoons are serialized, which leads to soap opera-like stories that take a number of wild turns. Take Taste of Stealing: Physical Charity for instance. The story begins with a respectable homeowner getting cheated out of his house by some gambler hustlers who distract him with a sexy lady peeing (because…fine) and then moves on to show his wife and daughter’s attempts to get financial help from an old friend, who is the director of a nursery in Seoul and also extremely horny. You can pretty much guess what happens next.
There’s something very “90s VHS porno” about the scenarios in this webtoon, which I find quite endearing. If it sounds like your kind of bag, you can get the first chapter for free to get a taste. What have you got to lose?
A common trope that comes up in Korean media is the rich progeny of a powerful business group and abuses of their power. In Mansion Maids, a young playboy unknowingly puts his hands on (and his penis in) his dad’s mistress while killing time waiting for said dad to show up. Well, guess who shows up to spoil the party. Cue playboy son being sent off to a spacious mansion on the south coast. Apparently, this counts as punishment.
He shares the mansion with a busty lady and her daughter, and immediately finds himself in a position of power over the mother when literally the first thing he sees when he turns on the TV is a video of her getting railed by another employee of his dad’s. You would think she would have known that was there, but…whatever. Will our playboy learn the error of his ways from being made to live in a giant house with two women he’s bound to fuck over and over again? Well, you’ll have to buy the other chapters to find out. It’s how they get ya.
Here’s another webtoon that’s very much in the 90s-porno-meets-soap-opera realm. Housewife Eunkyung, who is in a sexless marriage and whose husband doesn’t let her work, starts to feel a little happier when her nephew comes to stay with them after getting a job in the city. I guess the issue with young folks entering the workforce still having to live with relatives is pretty universal these days. Anyway, the nephew has grown up to be surprisingly hot, which leads to some awkward moments at home.
A friend of Eunkyung’s suggests she join a yoga studio to help with her boredom, and on the day she shows up, she discovers that the instructor is her nephew…and he’s currently balls-deep in another student who got horny during a session. You have to ask how she never knew he was working there. Do they not chat over the dinner table? Anyway, the first chapter ends on that cliffhanger, and you can practically hear a soap opera ending theme in your head as the words “To Be Continued” lure you towards the next chapter. Of course, it’s hardly a spoiler to say that it’s only a matter of time before he starts “instructing” his auntie.
If you like having something to read on your phone and the simplicity of the upward scroll appeals to you, then why not give some translated webtoons a go? If the sex doesn’t do it for you, you can still get a lot of enjoyment out of the cheesey scenarios and unintentionally hilarious translations. All the webtoons have free first chapters, and subsequent chapters are on sale for a mere pittance, so there’s no better time to develop a new unhealthy habit.
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