Spotlight#12: Girls of the Wild's/Daily Pass

Okay so this is more of an impulse spotlight since I had literally just finished the series and I wanted to do this like right away, this does mean that I'm going to have to push the more creepy webtoon I had planned to the back and focus on this webtoon and the actual Halloween webtoon for the season itself. But for now, let's get into the nitty and gritty. Since I started being on webtoon for about as long as I've been in high school, which means that for me swim team has always been closely related to Webtoons. And with every new season, I seem to find a new webtoon that I follow to the point of obsession that by the end of my season quickly becomes a mainstay in my library/ heart. For the first year, it was God of highschool second Tower of God, and now for my third year, that story was titled Girls of the Wild's. Strap in ladies and folks because today I will be shining a light on what I consider to be a somewhat controversial webtoon made by Hun and Zhena armed with a system I can't stand.

Summary

While there are many prestigious schools located in South Korea, none have ever proven to be as fearsome, crazy, and infamous as the legendary Wild's high. The students that attend then this all-girls school have made it into the real world as legendary MMA fighters feared by gangsters and bank robbers alike, but while the school has been running smoothly for years, the dean Charles wilds decided to make a change. Fearing that the girls were missing out on their teenage youth and femininity, he makes the school coed! But unfortunately for orphan Jaegu Song, he is somehow the only boy in the entire school, and there is no turning back.

Okay, but seriously this is like my worst nightmare. I already have a problem with the opposite sex enough as it is now you mean to tell me that this man has to go to a school filled with women that for sure can kick my ass? No, thank you. I'd rather flip off a bridge.

Characters

Jaegu: While he may only be a teenager let it be known that Jaegu lost his childhood a long time ago when his father was killed due to an unknown illness and his mother left him and his younger twin siblings to never return (no we never get any closure on this). Because of this, Jaegu is always working and providing for his family while also displaying politeness and a nonconfrontational attitude, which makes him the prey to bullies. However, after going to Wilds, he starts becoming far more vocal and confident in himself. However, due to his mommy issues, he does have a hard time acknowledging female relationships and has been shown to have incredible anger when provoked.

Queen: Also called Ingui Queen embodies her namesake both in the ring and around the world as she is destined to be heir to a famous company called Yk. Due to being badly burned by a boy when she was young and having to maintain appearances in the corporate world, Queen often displays a very fierce exterior. But the interior shows that like every flipping tsundere, she is a lot timider than you might believe and wants to live a normal life with fighting being her outlet.

Moonyoung: My favorite character Moonyoung is your typical tomboy who is often direct, rambunctious, and loud. Mooyoung is a professional as she is the most likely to resort to fighting in the ring instead of out on the streets. Out of the three main girls, she is the most responsible for Jaegu's physical and mental improvement. She is constantly trying to improve herself and has often been the cool head next to the other girls in the series. She is also a supreme glutton. Moonyoung's specialty is in her boxing talents.

DalDal: My least favorite character Dal dal is a very bossy and loud girl who isn't afraid to make fun of anyone. She is arguably the most feminine, talented and prideful of the fighters as she rarely practices, and after meeting Jaegu obsesses over and cooks for him every day. My reasoning for my dislike is just that she is the type of female fantasy that would be terrible in real life, and we never understand why she likes Jaegu. DalDal is an incredibly powerful and skilled Taekwondo practitioner.

Overview

Wild's has a nice and pretty to look at art style that is very light to signify comedy and look at gorgeous locations. The school is very well developed, with its infamous fighting tournament being a very enjoyable arc. This is also one of the funniest webtoons I have ever read, lots of wtf hidden gags and running jokes though this means that a 20 chapter long conflict could be ended with an out of nowhere joke. The series has a lot of really good knowledge on fighting tips and different martial arts. It is a very fun and loose Webtoon with a hint of fanservice here and there. If there is one theme from this Webtoon, it's never to underestimate someone, standing up for yourself, being aware, and thankful for your surroundings. And probably most of all, showing off the different meanings of femininity and masculinity.

However, near the tail end of the series is where the series gets controversial as after Jaegu gets his rapid development, the series loses a lot of focus on what it wanted to be with random conflicts running into Jaegu for a while. And while it's a great comedy and pretty good action story but it's not the best romance in the romance centered season 2 because of the lack of insight into the character's decisions. I don't know much about romance, but one of the few important things about this genre is mainly the character's thought process for keeping up or moving away from such a relationship, and while the story does it well, it doesn't do it well enough. It is also has a very rushed ending that makes even Noblesse sweat with a lot of unresolved plot points and character arcs.

Daily Pass

Okay, so I'm fine with the fast pass since most of the webtoons that spawned from it took only a short break, and the only real "cost" is that if you stop buying fast pass, you could be waiting weeks for a regular new episode. However, the latest policy, called the daily pass, makes no sense. So far completed Webtoons Girls of the Wild's, Bastard, Orange Marmalade, and My Boo have all been affected with the pass which effectively makes almost all of the chapters for each story being priced and is giving only two free passes to read a chapter for 15 days before it being needed to read again. This is a painful system since it kills binge reading and a lot of motivation to revisit past chapters. This also makes you question what other canceled webtoons will be next on the chopping block because Noblesse is canceled, so is that going to have a daily pass for it's 545 long series? Overall trash system.

Epilogue

In my heart of hearts, I like Gow, but I think that it had more insight and room to breathe, we could have been left with a complete ending. Ironically if the series was tamer, then we could have gotten something a lot more loved. I don't think the hate it got was deserved, but hey, it's been over for three years so I can't complain. It was an enjoyable story that I'll revisit. And with that done, I will be giving a spotlight to one of my fave Webtoons ever, so stay tuned.