Last time, I reviewed Kind of Confidential, Love Me Knot, and Devil Number 4 comics from Webtoon. This time, I cover Girls of the Wild’s and Super Secret.
Girls of the Wild’s
Girls of the Wild’s cover art by Zhena
Girls of the Wild’s is a teen boy’s journey as the first male student in a prestigious formerly girls-only mixed martial arts high school. Jaegu has to navigate this environment, along with loads of egos, fights, and of course, love triangles. While most of the girls come from advantaged backgrounds, Jaegu works part time after school to support his little brother and sister, as their dad died and their mom abandoned them. On top of this, he was the target of bullying for many years. Jaegu forges friendships with some of the older girls who are champion fighters, as they teach him how to fight and defend himself, along with help him along with his siblings.
Going into this comic, I wasn’t sure if it was for me, considering I’m pretty indifferent about fighting and high school drama. However, I appreciated the approach on gender roles, along with portraying the conflict some girls face on what should be the dominant part of their identity. Here, the girls were tougher than the boys, and certainly more competent fighters, so had to use their skills responsibly. To show this, there were thugs and gangs as a contrast to these professional fighters. I also appreciated the exaggerated portrayal of gender expectations, and how each character navigated these. Daldal valued femininity, beauty, and domestic prowess with her cooking skills, as she was also petite. Moonsong struggled with her weight as a boxer and was shamed for it by Daldal, so had to make decisions between slimming down for lean agility or maintaining her muscle mass for strength.
As a warning, this comic covers serious themes, such as bullying, parental abandonment, kidnapping, blackmail, and mental health issues, including trauma and body image. Overall, it is funny and well thought out, including the cliches. The art is bold, which is appropriate for the characters and fighter theme. I definitely recommend this completed Daily Pass series.
Super Secret
Super Secret cover art by eon
Super Secret starts as a comedy about a werewolf, Ryan, and his family of supernatural beings as they hide their supernatural form from his childhood best friend and crush, Emma. As the story continues, we learn about the complexities of Ryan and Emma’s relationship, including how protective Ryan is of Emma and how he cares for her in an almost overbearing parent way. Early in the series, there was the obligatory love triangle and turf war of sorts. What started out lighthearted evolved into complicated and surprisingly deep, as we learned about the challenges each character faced, along with the complex challenges of their relationships with some others. This world included Mer-persons, vampires, werewolves, witches, a nine-tailed fox, and many others, who somehow coexist alongside and hide in plain sight of humans. If their supernatural form or power is accidentally revealed, the humans have their memories wiped. This captured the absurdity of dating well, even without the supernatural woes.
While overall I enjoyed this completed Daily Pass series, I didn’t expect the level of drama and depth, which sometimes felt a bit excessive. Just how many hardships should relationships and people endure?!? (I know, the same applies to the real world…) There was this underlying sadness beneath each character. The title alone sounded like it would be a comedy, much like I expected Kind of Confidential to be one. The art style was adorable and cute/fun, almost like a comic strip.
Join me next time for even more Webtoons to read.
