Omniscient Reader, Not Like Other Action WEBTOONS

 Omniscient Reader, Not Like Other Action WEBTOONS

Krysantha Flores

Dr. O'Brien

Language and Literature 2

05/01/2025

So, most people who have read WEBTOON know that action is a big genre on the platform. Most people also agree that a lot of action manhwa (Korean comics) on WEBTOON are slop, meaning that they aren’t that good. I agree with this statement, a lot of action WEBTOONS are too edgy, or the main character is way too overpowered. Popular titles like Solo Leveling & Teenage Mercenary give up a story or developed characters simply for a character to beat up the bad guys and give viewers the satisfying revenge they want to see. Eventually, stories get repetitive, like no, I don’t wanna read “I reincarnated into the demon king and married 10,000 girls” or “The apocalypse started and I’m the chosen one who the system favors” because a lot of these stories have storylines that are too similar and eventually get boring after reading 1 or 2 of the same genre. While some actions avoid this by developing new tropes, some can actually use these overused tropes creatively, and this is where we get Omniscient Reader.

Omniscient Reader follows a 30-year-old office worker named Kim Dokja. He had been the only reader of a webnovel for 10 years straight, and suddenly, one day, the story he had lived with for so long became true. This story uses the ‘game system’ trope, a popular trope in which the main character is put in a situation (could be a game world, an apocalypse, etc) where they use abilities given to them by a system. Usually, the main character of a story like this gets a super overpowered weapon, power, or is just overpowered themselves. Dokja receives abilities unique to him based on reading. After realizing his situation, he uses his knowledge of the novel to survive.

His character is refreshing to read about among a sea of aura farming, emotionless main characters. Dokja is seen as kinda pathetic at the start of the story, just an average man. He has no girlfriend, he doesn’t have (present) parents, and he is only an office worker. He has a peculiar attachment to a novel called Three Ways to Survive in a Ruined World (TWSA), and after reading it for 10 years every day, without fail, it is finally the day to read the last chapter, the epilogue. When on the subway, he suddenly receives a message from the author stating that the novel had won in a competition. Following this odd message, the lights on the subway go out, and here the story begins. 

It seems as soon as the curtains to these scenarios opened, Dokja completely changed, becoming confident with the knowledge of the book and using it to his advantage. Despite his given skills not being overpowered, he strategically uses his abilities to work his way through this game-like world. One ability he is given is called The Fourth Wall, which protects him from mental and physical pain. This allows him to see the world as fiction; however, when faced with his real-life traumas, like his father's death or the existence of his mother, his resolve weakens. These moments are interesting because we can see Dokja’s safety net being ripped out from under him. It gives a human reaction, despite his efforts to push his traumas to the side.

Books were all Dokja ever had. To keep himself going through his miserable life filled with bullying, exploitation, and depression, all he could do was read. Even in the apocalypse, his reading abilities protect him. But the attachment, the obsession with this book, would eventually destroy him. One example being The Fourth Wall, The Fourth Wall is an ability that protects him, however, it gets hungry in a way, consuming everything that comes in contact with Dokja's mind. While seeming like a good safety measure, this backfires on Dokja when it eats his mom. When Dokja forces it to spit her out, it spits out his mom and then the words narrating Dokja's trauma, causing him great mental pain. Another example is the fact that his death was set by the fates that the “Person Kim Dokja loves the most will kill him,” and in the end, the characters from the book kill him. In the end, Dokja’s obsession with TWSA had shielded him so much that it was all he could see. When he finally opened his eyes to reality, he could not handle it.

Works cited

Sing Shong, Omniscient Readers Viewpoint, Seoul: LINE WEBTOON, 2020, book.