In the ever so popular trend of webtoons, various webtoon portal websites often hold contests to pick outstanding artists. Among them, 'Lezhin Comics World Comic Contest' which has the largest scale has now finished in great success.

 

  The reason why Lezhin Comics World Comic Contest is attracting more attention than other numerous competitions would be that it offers a substantial prize pool and the chance for an artist's work to reach overseas. However, one of it's biggest appeal is the diversity of genres.

 

This time again, Lezhin Comics World Comic Contest has awarded prizes to adult comics, especially to one from 'BL' genre and another from 'GL' genre which are indeed minor tastes.

 

 

1.Royal Servant (BL / Excellence Award )

 

Royal Servant depicts a fantasy, BL romance between (particularly beautiful) nobles with special abilities and their servants. It portrays a servant's desperate and dangerous love toward his master who detests him. 

 

  If anyone ever think that gay men are really the main readers of the BL genre, I would recommend to reconsider.

I wouldn't need to say that the primary readership of BL which addresses affection between men is ironically 'women'.

 

Perhaps I would like to applaud the artist's wonderful judgment to target female readers and devote the webtoon to them who will occupy most of BL population.

As supporting evidence, Japanese manga Black Butler and Rozen Maiden, and Korean webtoon Noblesse which are close to battle action comics all have a huge female fan base since they have mysterious, luxurious ambiance along with many handsome, noble male characters who capture woman's heart.

 

Furthermore, in the BL genre where most fans are females, 'Royal Servant' places nobles and mystic magics in front to prepare a world which fans can get immersed into, making it easier to be loved by more enthusiasts.

 

'Royal Bloods' who possess beautiful servants and overwhelming powers themselves all show off their bewildering presence from the very beginning. Among them, the poor protagonist and his master who pushes him away would certainly get involved in a situation in the future story and as such event would surely bring more special fans to the webtoon, I would definitely want to rate it highly.

 

 

 

2.My Girlfriend's Ex-Boyfriend (GL / Excellence Award )

 

If 'Royal Servant' is attracting the deep immersion of a specific readership by utilizing genre characteristics, MGEB (My Girlfriend's Ex-Boyfriend) reaches out with a material that both male and female readers could get interested in on the contrary.

 

The story takes place as the female protagonist who has only been meeting girlfriends starts to date 'Sena' who haven't had any relationships with females before. The webtoon portrays the delicate minds of characters as the protagonist, her girlfriend 'Sena', and Sena's Ex-boyfriend 'Hwang Joonsung' get involved in incidents.

 

A noteworthy aspect of this webtoon is that nobody can predict how the story would progress since 'Hwang Joonsung' stands in the middle of the relationship as the Ex-boyfriend of the protagonist's lover despite being a GL genre.

 

  I have considered about what kind of love stories these three distinct characters would tell me in the future, but I seriously do not know what might happen to them. Even if my speculations are correct, I still couldn't guess what sort of actions these characters would show based on which emotions. Such unpredictability has indeed given me high expectations after reading the webtoon.

  Lastly, I'm a heavy user who sees a lot of webtoons, but I could approach webtoons with homosexual codes quite easily.

However, as I read these webtoons, I found that such high-quality works were pouring out, and I now believe that it wouldn't be too long before they form a huge genre, not just being a minor culture anymore. I think challenges like Lezhin Comics World Comic Contest and titles like the two webtoons I just reviewed could definitely open the door to such genre.