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Danji, Only because of being a woman

임하빈 | 2019-07-12 11:41

‘Would You Give Your Heart to Me?” moved to Lezhin Comics from Canvas webtoons on Line.

What a childish title. It sounds like a book that would be randomly placed on the shelves of Kkaebi book stores I used to go when I was young. Despite of its childish title, the webtoon became an official weekly Lezhin webtoon from a Canvas webtoon on Line. Let’s see how creative and special this webtoon is that it achieved such a feat.  

 

 Jin Sung-Yu sees her elementary school crush, Ryu Won-Ha in the high school orientation day. In contrast to Won-Ha who has grown up a lot since elementary school, Sung-Yu just got a little darker and chubbier. After noticing him, she asks her friend how she looks and waits for an answer that will make her feel confident enough. She didn't want to feel small in front of him, but her elementary school alumnus somehow, maybe through drastically hormonal change, got bigger and muscular. What’s worse might be that her crush doesn't even know who she is. Is he sitting next to her on the first day God’s blessing or playing? 

 


 

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 This typical character composition starts to get complicated and forms love triangles and rectangles. In the meanwhile, Sung-Yu shows all types of misunderstandings and jumping to conclusions by herself, which made me laugh. Although I laughed while identifying myself with her, I don’t want to say I have done the same things that she did before. Trust me... I want to believe that I have not. Maybe it is because the author mixed up some narcotics in the story. While reading the webtoon, I started recalling my own school years “Was he thinking the same thing? It wasn’t only me talking to myself, so were we in the inaudible resonance of conversation?” Look at me. I am having fantasies all alone thinking about faces of more than ten years ago. Wait, no... Okay, once again, this is because the author put drugs in this webtoon....... well.

 

 


 

 

 Anyways, after I clicked on the thumbnail of this webtoon and reading its description, what made me stay was its familiarity. Those familiar drawings came to me as a nostalgia. This was the time when paper comics are three-thousand won per copy. I used to take vinyl wrappers off and read romance comics smelling fresh ink. Me back then used to read used copies of paper comics taking turns with my friends. I wished my dream love will come true like the main characters in the comics as I turned the pages during the night. During adolescent mood swings, I burst into tears out of the blue. Those drops of tear I dropped formed a river and flowed up until now when I became an adult. Let’s be real. Tell me about the memories you recalled when I mentioned Kkaebi book stores. 

 

 These are the kind of memories that this webtoon brings about. It’s the feeling that I might have once felt myself, alone in the corner of the room, thinking back on things that happened in the school, giving meanings to trivial things by myself. This webtoon shows these kinds of girls’ emotions as it is. I think it should feel the same for boys. I would be happy now for the signs from a guy who likes me, but what a poor sense I had back then. My heart pounding for the obvious sign, but I could not easily approach him afraid of being wrong. All these feelings are well expressed in a kind of a bitter-sweet way.

 

 


 


 

 

 It's also fascinating to see where the colors are intentionally added in certain parts while the rest parts are monotone. This is especially like teenage loves get their complete forms as they see each other’s true character. Well, that should be the same for adults. Maybe this is why adults who are wandering around without finding their true love are losing their colors like a black and white image. 

 

 The webtoon that’s impossible to talk about without rambling about personal feelings is the most charming for that it captures the real version of a girl’s sensitive emotions which doesn’t only exist in fiction. All the while, it never loses its humor. The story that summons old memories from more than ten years ago follows the typical structure of romance comics of which the ending is easily predicted. Actually, romance comics is more fun if its ending is easily predicted, just like my first love, or yours. 

 

 Danji shows up as a related searched term when you type in “Lezhin Comics” on Google. That’s how much fans the webtoon Danji has. Back when I was reading webtoons from other bigger web portals like Naver and Daum. My friends told me multiple times to read Danji on Lezhin comics. On a side note, while all the other girls usually talk about other people when they get together, my friends have always been very passionate about consuming internet contents. So, we always talk about webtoons, movies, dramas, novels, animations, and etc.  when we meet. I was procrastinating on reading Danji because I was busy, so it caused my friend who was so into Danji to be mad.

 

 So today I decided to read Danji finally. Of course, the main reason is that the next gathering is this Friday. But, darn it. I found out why my friends were so crazy about this webtoon after a few episodes. I don’t know how it is now, but sons used to be considered the best back then. People used to say it had got better since people preferred sons even more before. You could guess how bad when you hear the reason people gave was “Now you can educate girls, too”

 

 Despite of its cute drawings and its title, it’s quite suffocating to read this webtoon. Some people said you need anticancer drugs to read this webtoon. After reading this myself, that was so true. It was about subtle discrimination and unfairness within the family. No parents would think they themselves are the assailants.

 

 


 

 

 The overall webtoon calmly discusses about personal traumas for experiencing gender discrimination within her family. She even got hit by her brother. Maybe my parents weren’t that bad. I didn’t want to lose to my brother, so I tried my best in studying, doing house chores, and being nice to my parents. Thinking back then it was so difficult for me to live back then because of the inferiority that my family implanted me. (Actually, It’s an ongoing problem.)  All my friends and family members told me I was such a devoted daughter to my parents, but I am not sure if I really loved my parents or I just wanted to be approved by them. My family wasn’t as bad as hers, but I got angry at Danji’s family. Actually, can my parents read this webtoon and feel sorry.

 

The problem is there are so many women with similar problems around me. There are so many of them whose lives are messed up for this. The family members of those will think it’s all because they have lived the lives wrong, and they don’t feel responsible at all. That’s true. What can we expect from parents who don’t treat their parents like human beings. I want to tell Danji that it’s not only the problem of hers. This is the common problem of society. Maybe, Danji is also aware of this. Reading comments on Wiznet, she said she felt comforted for knowing there are so many people who feel the same way, so she knows many women are comforted by reading her story as well.  


 

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 For friends of our generation who are becoming parents now, I don’t want them to project their own pains on to their children. People are known to enjoy harassing the weaker beings even in the small societies, but that shouldn’t be the family where family members are supposed to feel rested.

 

 


 



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