By Marion Peña
Spoiler warning: this overview will comprise spoilers for a number of main occasions that occur all through the principle collection.
Content material warning: there will likely be dialogue of some heavier themes this collection tackles, together with obsessive stalking, home violence, PTSD, and suicide.
True Magnificence is a romance dramedy comedian on Naver’s Webtoon concerning the battle of studying to like your self. Its characters are mired in emotional turmoil, as they stumble by means of their integration into society. The principle feminine lead is Jugyeong Lim, a woman in love with different rock and horror comics/motion pictures. All through center faculty, she was incessantly bullied for her look–bushy eyebrows, zits scars, monolid eyes, mainly something thought-about conventionally unattractive to Korean youngsters.
It took her to on-line boards, desperately looking for an answer to cease her struggling, in order that she might look within the mirror and never be reminded of how toxically everybody has handled her. That was how she found the ability of make-up. Enter highschool: Jugyeoung has lastly solid the talent and expertise to mould her type and style into what fits her. She lastly has buddies! However lurking beneath at any time when she goes dwelling and washes her face earlier than mattress is a reminder of why she must expend a lot effort into her outward look. A stark reminder that every one of her connections and happiness rests depending on the very fact she has to kind a persona. Horror is creepy, so don’t speak about it! Zits scars are ugly, you higher cake on that concealer! Contacts could make your eyes bubbly and approachable! It’s a lot effort, however folks will deal with you with precise human decency and compassion! And that’s what Jugyeoung has been craving since an early age.
Jugyeoung Lim, sporting make-up. Credit score to Yaongyi and WEBTOON.
You see, she’s the center little one of her household. Her older sister is a tutorial overachiever, and her youthful brother is the princely child. Along with her mediocre grades and homely look, even her mom can’t appear to assist however deal with her extra harshly, even when she doesn’t imply it. This is the reason she leans so deeply into her area of interest hobbies–it’s a method to revel within the unconventional, and discover consolation within the irregular. Sadly, she doesn’t have any buddies to share in these pursuits, till she meets our first male lead, Suho Lee. They stumble upon one another one evening on the comedian retailer after faculty, each aiming to snag the newest quantity of a Junji Ito collection. Naturally, that is after she’s taken off her make-up for the day. He’s abrasive, and leaves after taking the guide for himself. The following day, they meet once more however Jugyeoung recommends in opposition to one collection Suho tries to choose up, saying that midway by means of the writing takes a nosedive. At her behest, he tries one thing else, and to his shock, he enjoys it! The develop a rapport all of the whereas Jugyeong is wracked with terror as she realizes he goes to her faculty and has no concept who she is as a result of her look is so starkly completely different. This terror and worry is clear and inherent to her all through your entire 223 episode run of the principle collection.
Jugyeoung Lim, with out make-up. Credit score to Yaongyi and WEBTOON.
It stems from worry of exclusion, worry of rejection, and a fervent want to be liked. She has spent all of her childhood and adolescence up to now being handled subhumanly. If anybody discovered of her secret, that her “pure” look is just not so fairly, the one factor she expects is even harsher rebukes and ostracization. It’s a really palpable worry, and the artwork does an impressive job of conveying it by means of the realistically detailed character designs. The proportions of faces and our bodies will not be closely stylized, apart from comedic segments with SD (super-deformed) faces drawn with flat colours and easy shapes. I used to be fearful initially that such a practical artstyle would run the danger of creating every thing look too stiff and robotic, however that wasn’t the case. The faces are extraordinarily expressive, Jugyeoung has a rainbow of feelings, and all of them are proven in uncooked element. She cries, she feels scared, she will get glad, she rages, and he or she will get disgusted. The real pleasure she feels on the considered sharing happiness together with her buddies, concurrently with the guilt seeping in from protecting her naked face a secret, stands out each time writer Yaongyi places it on show.
Varied facial expressions. Credit score to Yaongyi and WEBTOON
So what does it imply when Jugyeoung slips up and her face will get found? We wouldn’t have any drama if the established order isn’t shaken up, and that’s precisely what occurs early on with Suho. Because it seems, Suho doesn’t care about that. He has been dealt his personal shitty hand in life, and doesn’t care that Jugyeoung’s face at college clashes together with her picture at college. He’s simply glad to have somebody that enjoys the identical issues he does–his first pal in years. Suho is taken into account engaging, and isn’t a stranger to ladies coming as much as him for his quantity or to ask him out. However he can’t afford to consider ladies. He has additionally been bullied–for being Korean-Japanese. It has left him with mistrust and wariness to anybody coming as much as him solely due to his look. In the case of Jugyeong, he’s simply glad to attach with another person on a private degree, not superficially, after wading by means of his personal swamp of feelings.
In center faculty, Suho had a pal named Seyeon Yoon who truly broke into his shell, and invited him to coach collectively as idol trainees with a proficient singing classmate named Seojun Han, the second male lead of this collection. Lengthy story quick, Seyeon, the peppy and likable all-rounder, finally ends up the sufferer of a nasty PR cycle from on-line followers who flippantly determined to not assist him. It results in him overworking and feeling like he has no approach out. Seyeon commits suicide, on the day he tries to contact each Seojun and Suho, however each can’t choose up due to their very own private familial points. This occasion–which occurred in center faculty–steers Seojun into delinquency and makes Suho much more delinquent. Suho’s curiosity in horror stems from morbidity and a consolation that the supernatural isn’t actual, or moderately, as actual because the occasions he’s needed to endure. Alongside together with his first pal dying, he additionally needed to grapple with the dying of his mom, and his father’s obvious infidelity within the wake of it–that is the explanation he couldn’t choose up Seyeon’s name, and the explanation he blames himself for his pal’s dying. It results in episodes of post-traumatic stress for each Suho and Seojun, with Suho choosing remedy and medicine to assist course of his grief. So yeah, within the face of this emotional baggage, Suho doesn’t actually care about Jugyeoung’s white lie about her look.
For about 95% of the collection, Jugyeoung’s secret stays a secret to the overwhelming majority of individuals she is aware of. Which means loads of her inner struggles with loving herself and growing confidence and vanity are likely to ebb and torrent with how she sees how others understand her. As a poor scholar with mediocre grades, when it got here to profession paths, Jugyeoung was torn between getting a basic schooling–the economically possible alternative–or getting licensed within the make-up arts, which is extra pricey and requires a unique entrance examination. She finally ends up going to a standard college to check visible arts, however continues to pursue her ardour on the aspect. There are a number of mini arcs the place she finally ends up serving to folks round her, like college students, moms, or professionals that recruit her, and it turns into clear to her how fulfilling it feels to make folks happier together with her make-up prowess. This works in the long term, as a result of many of those characters come again in later arcs as ancillary elements of Jugyeoung’s character arc and the principle story. There’s a nerdy scholar in Jugyeoung’s movie research class, who doesn’t know a lot about style, however desires to look good to impress a woman he likes. She’s apprehensive at first, however decides to assist him out anyway as a result of he’s been an excellent group companion and desires to return the favor. Jugyeoung is sort of notorious amongst her shut circle of buddies for being naive and fast to sacrifice her personal time to assist others, but it surely’s to her benefit as a result of her character attracts simply as many grateful souls as opportunistic ones who’d wish to screw her over.
One in every of my favourite features of this story is that we get to see what occurs when such a form, weak particular person finally will get shot as much as a place of public curiosity. By her exhausting work and energetic social media presence, Jugyeoung turns into an influencer with lots of of hundreds of followers on this collection’ equal to Instagram and Youtube. She witnessed firsthand what it’s prefer to work together with on-line trolls, seedy starlets, and obsessive stans. Fame comes with obstacles to freedom and private selections. There are occasions the place she will get attacked by malicious feedback from jealous and insensitive anons who wish to tear her down for merely daring to simply accept a lot consideration by having a public profile. It supplies a really legitimate and insightful motive for her to step again and analyze what it means for her to proceed dwelling a life the place her job relies on the notion different folks have of her. It’s a singular perspective, particularly once you evaluate it to her love pursuits Suho and Seojun.
Suho Lee. Credit score to Yaongyi and WEBTOON.
Suho Lee is the son of Jooheon Lee, a Korean actor who married a Japanese lady named Yuko and spent a portion of his life abroad earlier than coming again to settle in his dwelling nation. Suho witnessed firsthand how fickle the general public could be, and after his greatest pal Seyeon handed away after the cyberbullying and relentless vitriol spewed his approach, he wished nothing of it. Seojun nonetheless, got here up from poverty, and singing was his ticket to wealth and offering for his sister and sickly, unemployed, widowed mom. One boy rejects fame when introduced the selection, the opposite begrudgingly accepts; each being conscious of the risks that include it. It’s truly Jugyeoung who convinces Seojun to proceed to pursue his dream, in an ironic growth that makes that the explanation they drift aside. On the finish of their highschool careers, Suho’s father collapses whereas filming a brand new venture, and will get taken to Japan for therapy. Suho follows, and on the peak of his romantic pressure with Jugyeoung, should forgo pursuing his relationship together with her as a result of he nonetheless loves and desires to be there for his father–even below the misunderstanding that his father was dishonest on his mom after her passing. It was below these circumstances that Seojun and Jugyeoung steadily grew nearer, as Suho stopped contacting them and the passage of time allowed them to maneuver on.
Seojun Han. Credit score to Yaongyi and WEBTOON.
Seojun and Jugyeoung finally start relationship, some two years later and alter after Suho is gone. It was throughout this time that Seojun’s monetary troubles got here to floor, and Jugyeoung pushed him to return to the leisure trade. Sadly as success begins to bloom, additionally they don’t have any alternative however to half methods, as a result of being a star or public persona ingrained in Korean idol tradition implies that followers could be rabid and unforgiving in terms of scandals or any form of relationship with the alternative intercourse. Seojun truly turns into sufferer to stalking, by an obsessive sasaeng (a Western equal being stan or “stalker fan”), who truly approaches Jugyeoung after deducing she might need one in all his exes by means of their Instagram posts. She meets Seojun at a fan meet-and-greet and offers him a teddy bear with a hidden digicam. She additionally infiltrates Jugyeoung’s make-up research course and steadily modifications her look to appear to be her, with a view to strategy Seojun and usurp her place in his life. It’s genuinely harrowing and terrifying seeing the lengths she went to, and it escalates to the purpose of violence, the place she takes out a knife to stab Jugyeoung. It was Jugyeoung’s plan to confront her alone with a view to collect circumstantial proof to persuade the police to take motion, however Seojun himself finally ends up injured as a substitute. These sorts of individuals exist in actual life, and whereas they don’t all the time attain this level of hurt, the written legal guidelines haven’t fairly seen to catch as much as the trendy period with a view to defend the victims of such habits.
It’s not simply the principle forged who experiences every thing that comes with fame and fortune. One of many earliest antagonists, Sujin Kang, grows immensely as a consequence of her relationship with Jugyeoung and her follower base. Initially, she was a petty, bitter excessive schooler who discovered early on that her seems to be have been the one factor giving her fast, tangible rewards. Her father left her household, and her mom grew to become an abusive alcoholic. In center faculty, she hit puberty early and it gave her unwarranted consideration from the alternative intercourse. However, in highschool, she discovered that she might use that focus to leverage her presence in social media and construct connections that may finally catapult her out of her dwelling state of affairs. Sadly, the stress to take care of her physique led her to develop bulimia after she had a depressive episode. This occurred fairly early, earlier than the midway level of the collection, and I might have been upset if that was the place her story ended. However it was not.
Issues led to a different, and at a breakthrough level in her on-line presence, she was launched to a different abusive relationship–with a boyfriend who manipulated her into streaming Youtube content material that flaunted her intercourse attraction. Every time she disagreed or talked again to him, he would beat her and scream obscenities, drilling into her a way of codependency and depleting her vanity. He would purposely pummel her in areas that may be coated by clothes in order to keep away from suspicion, and guilt her into pondering it was her fault for talking out. When Sujin someday reconnects with Jugyeoung, she’s full of a blended feeling of disgust, jealousy, and confusion. She will be able to’t perceive how Jugyeoung has cultivated a following when she was so naive and didn’t even understand that she was being manipulated by her in highschool. However when Sujin’s masks slips, and Jugyeoung realizes below what circumstances the previous resides in, she immediately confronts her about it and tries to get her out. It culminates in one other home violence episode the place Sujin’s boyfriend truly discards all pretenses and attracts blood from attacking her face and physique. After he leaves, she locks him out and begins a livestream, asking anybody watching to assist her–finally drawing the authorities to her dwelling as her ex was now determined for forgiveness and wished to comb every thing below the rug as a misunderstanding.
This arc within the story was severely intense, emotionally. It wasn’t the primary time that it drew on the darkness that individuals could be mired into, but it surely was the primary time that bodily violence was portrayed exterior of male-on-male bullying. Creator Yaongyi’s portrayal of home violence was realistically horrifying. Abusers cycle between abuse and acts of apology, reward, and tenderness with a view to conceal their habits and make the sufferer really feel like their abuser truly cares for them; that they’re doing it out of goodness and concern. Sujin was deep into that cycle, and Jugyeoung was in a position to inform and instantly clarify it to her in plain phrases that have been straightforward to grasp. Earlier than, Jugyeoung largely did the minimal social interplay needed, however as she started to work together extra with others, she developed the short pondering and charisma essential to suppose on her toes. It was a second of noticeable development throughout the board. Jugyeoung was made conscious and accepted the truth that she wasn’t truly appreciated by Sujin in highschool after it got here up in dialog, however additionally accepted that Sujin wanted assist and he or she was the one one who might inform her what wanted to be mentioned. Jugyeoung was additionally thorough in her follow-up, by speaking and protecting involved after the incident to ensure she’s recovering; particularly after the fiasco left Sujin for the vultures of social media within the public eye.
Regardless of the place you go, the web could have folks speaking about something. Individuals behind a display will really feel empowered to say no matter they need, be it form, malicious, miserable, sympathetic, offended, or no matter you’ll be able to consider. Some folks don’t study this till they turn out to be well-known sufficient to have those self same folks speak about them. However True Magnificence lets us know that by exhibiting us precisely what it means to be well-known. The title will get dropped a couple of times inside the story, however for probably the most half, it appears to have been left up for interpretation. Jugyeong by no means will get cosmetic surgery, a straightforward and socially accepted resolution in Korea in terms of magnificence requirements that really feel unimaginable to uphold for some. She by no means heals from her zits scars, regardless that she tries numerous therapies and residential treatments. She nonetheless makes use of make-up at any time when she leaves her home for social occasions, though opts to not when she’s doing private errands like going to the comedian retailer. She consistently questions whether or not she’s worthy of receiving love from her household or her lovers, when she was bullied a lot that the concept of exhibiting her naked face to her boyfriend Seojun throughout an in a single day lodge keep gave her a lot anxiousness she handed out. However even within the face of all of this, Jugyeoung accepts that she deserves all of it. She’s labored exhausting, for herself and for others. She used particular results make-up to permit for a scarred burn sufferer–who by no means took an image together with her daughter at her life occasions like graduations–to lastly have a household photograph when that daughter lastly acquired married.
True Magnificence lies not solely within the eye of the beholder; on this case, Suho Lee who has by no means as soon as stopped loving Jugyeoung, but additionally within the soul. The climax of the 223 episode fundamental storyline comes because of Jugyeoung’s Youtube channel supervisor, who leaks pictures of her center faculty years earlier than she started to make use of make-up. The motive was to attract uncooked publicity, and on the top of the scandal, flip the general public opinion by revealing that her center faculty bully was the explanation she started to cover her naked face, and the only perpetrator behind lots of of evil feedback calling for Jugyeong to give up her profession and commit suicide. The factor is, these items did occur. Her bully was truly signed to the identical administration firm that scouted Jugyeoung to make her Youtube channel. However her producer/supervisor, who used to stay up for her and reassure her that there gained’t ever be stress on her to disclose her naked face, ended up doing it anyway with a view to silence her bully after the specter of an unconsenting face reveal being thrown into the combination. This scandal suggestions Jugyeong over the sting, leaving her with no alternative however to run away from dwelling for a number of days to cool down. It’s throughout this reprieve that she encounters older ladies dwelling in a retirement dwelling with agricultural services. She learns that regardless that they’re solely of their late 50s and 60s, it’s time for them to take portraits to arrange for his or her funerals, in case of emergencies. She rediscovers her motive for persevering with her make-up research–to unfold the happiness and confidence that comes with bringing out the sweetness in somebody’s options. The grannies deal with her lovingly and categorical their gratitude on the alternative to really feel like they’re middle-aged once more, because of Jugyeoung. It was the loving faucet on the shoulder that she wanted to remind her that no matter what strangers may consider her, her actions serve a objective that spreads achievement and contentment to these round her.
True Magnificence was an intense learn. There have been moments that gave me whiplash, however loads extra that made me whooping and hollering like a sports activities fan. It was a satisfyingly bingeable collection, and I used to be grateful to have the ability to catch up and skim the entire thing within the span of about 5 days. The episodes didn’t really feel too quick or too lengthy, and I felt that it made good use of its medium when it got here to structure. There have been a number of nice reveals that used the lengthwise scrolling of my good system to its benefit by build up pressure. I feel it was this sense, equal to an exhilarating “page-turner” in bodily books, that led to me studying it so quick. One other benefit that I’ve seen utilized solely by a number of different digital collection, corresponding to Pocket Comics’ Girl to Queen, was the utilization of BGM, in Episode 150. The music used is a vocal monitor, presumably sung by the character Seojun, because it makes use of lyrics he sings later in the identical episode. It made for a uniquely emotional studying expertise that stood out very simply amongst all the opposite collection I’ve ever learn. As webtoons and digital manhwa proceed to unfold worldwide, I can simply see this being extra generally used a minimum of as soon as for majorly common collection for climactic moments. It’s ingenious as a result of stay motion dramas and animation are instantly thought-about to be probably the most logical type of enlargement for these sorts of tales, however permitting for the visible comedian to flourish with an aural enhancement now looks like the choice standing proper in our faces. With ideas like leitmotifs for characters or fundamental/title themes, it permits for followers to dig deeper into the artists’ work and have a sharper concept of what these creators had in thoughts for his or her worlds.
Total, I extremely suggest True Magnificence in the event you’re within the temper for drama. Each episode of the principle story is free to learn on WEBTOON, and there are 8 aspect story episodes out there on their Quick-Go. It additionally has a 16 episode TV drama out there on Viki. It’s an interesting, uplifting story about studying to put your self naked to the folks you like, after studying easy methods to love your self. The best way it approaches how social media capabilities in trendy society additionally helps to floor it in realism. It’s a modern-day Ugly Betty, for comics lovers! With 940+ million international views, I feel there’s in all probability one thing that was performed proper.
Marion Peña is a Dominican author based mostly in NYC. They’ve been studying manga and comics since childhood, and writing/podcasting about them since 2015. For those who’d prefer to see extra of their work, all their initiatives are right here: https://microwavey.carrd.co/
