Khushi Aggarwal, New Delhi

Are you guys interested in watching K-dramas, manhwas, or webtoons? If yes, then this article is for you. Webtoons have recently gained a lot of popularity, just like how K-Pop spread in India. There exist many K-dramas that are recreated from the webtoons. One such popular K-drama titled ‘Extraordinary You’ is based on a webtoon series called ‘July Found By Chance’, written by Moo Ryu-yee. The genre is fantasy, romance, and comedy.

Characters

It tells the story of Eun Dan-oh, who is a student at a prestigious university. As certain events happen in her life, she starts believing that she can foresee the future, and her memories of events are rather distorted. Soon, she comes to a heartbreaking realization that she herself is a part of the comic world and on top of that she is just an extra character in a comic book called “Secret” and has a predestined fate which the author has determined for her. Knowing this, she decides to change her fate by trying to change the plot of the story. In the comic, she’s suffering from life-threatening heart disease, is engaged to her crush who despises her, and is expected to die soon.

Unexpectedly, she meets a nameless guy whose roll no. is 13 in the storybook. Dan-oh names him Haru and believes he is the key to changing her destiny. In another comic world ‘Neungsohwa’, Haru was the main character who played the role of a warrior and Prince Baek-king’s personal guard. Both Dan-oh and Haru gradually start experiencing parallels with the writer’s previous book, ‘Neungsohwa’, which is set in the Goryeo era, where Dan-oh plays the role of the main character who was going to get engaged with Prince Baek-kyung.

Baek-Kyung is the fiance of Dan-oh in ‘Secret’ and one of the main characters of ‘Neungsohwa’. Kyung is a rude and arrogant student who has an abusive father and a greedy stepmother. He is engaged to Dan-oh whom he dislikes due to her circumstances around their arranged marriage. The webtoon Secret has its own set of main characters who are in a love triangle namely Yeo Joo-da, Lee Do-hwa, and Oh Nam-joo. The events of the comic world revolve around these characters affecting the other characters as well. As the story of the comic world progresses, it simultaneously complicates the life and fate of Eun Dan-oh.

Plot

‘Extraordinary You’ follows a bunch of high school students who are characters in a comic book called ‘Secret’. Dan-oh plays an extra in the comic book who realizes that they’re trapped in a comic book and wants to change her fate. She falls in love with a nameless guy, Number 13, and soon realizes that changing their fates comes at a price.

Comparison Between the Webtoon and K-Drama

In the webtoon, Eun Dan-oh’s character is stylish, has a little attitude, and is full of pride, but in the drama, they changed her into a cheerful, funny, and cute character that everyone likes. There is non-linear storytelling in the webtoon, ‘July Found By Chance’, that makes the audience guess what happens next; on the other hand, the K-drama is predictable. The tone of the webtoon version is more serious, while the changes in drama make the audience’s hearts race and flutter. Also, the webtoon is shorter than the drama.

Conclusion

Both the drama and the webtoon are worth watching and have their own significance. They have their own style to impress and engage viewers in their shows. The way the writer expresses the characters’ thoughts gives the audience better visual and clarity. I liked the K-drama personally as compared to the webtoon. The drama gave me a permanent face of fictional Eun Dan-oh and Haru played by Kim Hye-yoon and Rowoon respectively. Both the webtoon and the K-drama are worth it!