There are many webtoons that tell stories about high school students.

Among Line Webtoons, there are quite a few stories about high school students such as 'True Beauty', 'A Bitch and a Punk', and 'Dinner for a Hungry Person', but all of them have different core stories. So, there is little in common except that the main character is a high school student.

As teenagers still go through chaotic times before they become adults, cartoons about teenagers are rich in stories so that many cartoonists are attracted by this material. Especially, middle and high school girls are very complicated in terms of psychology, and it’s even more appealing to tell a story about them.

 

Being produced as a film and forming a large number of fandom, Middle School Girl A was one of the cartoons that covered complicated relationships and psychology of a middle school girl and gained popularity. While Middle School Girl A focused on relationships of a schoolgirl who went to middle school, Odd Girl Out tells a story of a high school girl who just enters high school.

The main character, Nari Oh is an ordinary girl who just enters high school.

The only difference is that Nari is a daughter of the Tortoise Bakery which allows her to be made fun of her being chubby in the past. She put a desperate effort into getting out of it so she lost her weights successfully.

 

After her transformation, she looks forward to a new school life on the first day. On the way to go to school, she meets an unexpected someone. It’s her childhood friend, Yuna Lim!

Yuna is a girl who has got it all; her face attracts people’s attention everywhere, and she was born with a silver spoon in mouth. Due to some incident, she lost contact with Nari before the graduation of their elementary school, and now she gets to meet Nari again. And, what a coincidence! They are assigned to the same high school!

 

 

Anyways, Nari meets new friends in a new school, a new class. With a fresh mind, she wants to make a friend, giving out cookies from her home to a classmate in front of her. Turning around, the classmate doesn’t look like she belongs to this world. She’s super pretty… Her name is Seonji Lim.

Nari was full of confidence after losing her weight, but now she feels timid by appearances of Yuna and Seonji.

On the other hand, after meeting by chance, Yuna comes to Nari’s class every day. Showing up with Yuna, Mirae Seo, a beautiful mixed-race girl makes Nari more frustrated.

Nari had a dream of living as a charming girl at a decent level. But, she’s with three alluring girls who stand out. Will Nari’s dream fall apart in a twinkling?

 

Hanging out with three alluring girls, Nari does not only get everyone's attention but also is compared to them. She now receives finger-pointing and becomes the butt of jokes which makes her gradually lose confidence. Moreover, boys might think of Nari as a cupid, asking her for delivering gifts to Yuna, Seonji, and Mirae. Misfortunes never come singly; because Nari hangs out with Seonji who is bullied in her class due to an awful rumor from her middle school, and with Yuna who is the most popular girl at school, people talk in whispers about Nari… What will happen to their school life in the future?

 

Misunderstanding and conflict of high school girls, jealousy and envy, prejudice and courage against it - these complicated psychologies are solved in the webtoon, Odd Girl Out. Since real-to-life stories seem more intriguing and attractive.

I’ve felt somewhat uncomfortable with cartoons that set a teenager as the main character but have no insignificant difference from stories of grown-ups. No matter how teenagers have changed these days, there are certain feelings that only they can have and also certain concerns that they can have at their age. If a story omits those and develops, it wouldn’t feel real.

However, Odd Girl Out delicately portrays teenagers’ certain concerns and emotions so that it evokes sympathy with people like me who have passed through those days.

 

High school girls are always flocking in groups and trying to take precautions against those who are not included in the group. This psychology becomes a crucial point in the development of Odd Girl Out, and one of its charms is that they are overcoming such conflicts themselves and growing up more. 

 

Odd Girl Out is introduced as a work that depicts the progress that swans who look perfect but feel lonely meet a kind-hearted duck and they go through conflicts together and become real friends. Swans are Yuna, Seonji, and Mirae and a duck is Nari. In the beginning, everyone blames that Nari follows popular girls and wants to make herself look like one of these girls. However, they don’t know that rest of three girls rely on Nari and they’re developing a genuine friendship.

 

After all, they may struggle because they are together, but they also become the strength to overcome it because they are together.

 

 

The characters in this webtoon are still immature, but they don't know.

I and others know this, who have gone through those days; we felt what we knew was all of the worlds and that present moment was most important in those days. But, as time goes by, a moment comes that we realize we wasted so much time and emotion on embarrassingly insignificant things. 

 

This does not mean that the times are useless.

Because I have been through that time, I could realize it, and that's why I have room to say that it wasn't a big deal.

I can’t help rooting for the teenage years of Nari, Yuna, Mirae, and Seonji who are in on-going progression.

 

Odd Girl Out makes me feel proud that they strive through their times and grow up.

I recommend this webtoon to teenagers who are having a hard time right now more than anyone and to someone who has had a stormy time.