Spotlight#75:Unordinary

Have you ever decided to embrace the inevitable? If so, you've probably realized that it's finally time to talk about one of webtoon's best and brightest. I was always going to make this spotlight, and I think that I've wasted more than enough time, so let's finally shine the spotlight on Unordinary by uru chan.

Summary

In a world where everyone is granted a supernatural ability, power corrupts you no matter which side you're on. Be weak, and you'll be nothing more than a slave and victim to the strong. Be strong, and society will mold and judge you into something unrecognizable. No other location represents that struggle quite like Wellston Academy, a place where the students can quickly use their highly destructive abilities freely, which makes the life of powerless cripple John Doe a living hell. But when the high tiers of Wellston start taking an eagle eye at John, they soon realize that his secrets might be the thing that changes the insurmountable hierarchy forevermore.

Characters

John: Our main character, John, is a living anomaly inside the school of Wellston. Despite his constant bullying, John always holds himself in a dignified manner and never backs down. He prefers to take things easy and be left alone mostly. This has left him with the ability to inspire other people on a path to where people shouldn't be defined by their power. However, this philosophy is also a mask to hide a far more bloody path.

Seraphina: The strongest woman in all of Wellston, Seraphina originally was a rather uptight individual that relied on protection. However, through meeting, John Sera develops a far more relaxed yet righteous view of the world. That being said, the pride of her ability is still very much clear as she will not back down from pretty much anyone.

Arlo: The king of Wellston Arlo is Seraphina's exact opposite. He maintains tight control over Wellston and believes that those with power should use them in service of order. However, his order has often led to cracks in the system that he is often blind to. And anyone who fails to uphold that peace will meet severe punishment.

Overview

I honestly don't know where to begin with Unordinary, but I'll try to be focused here. If God of Highschool is Webtoon's DBZ and Tower of God the equivalent of One Piece, then Unordinary is the My Hero Academia of the app. Uru Chan's art isn't the greatest, but it more than makes up for its small limitations through distinct character design. Every character in Unordinary has a unique color to their eye, hair, and word bubbles to easily distinguish people from one another. This helps differentiate the large cast as we see that each one has their unique views of the world that has led them to bitter mistakes in the past. For an open mind that continues reading, I would truly find it hard-pressed to dislike a single character from the main cast once truly understanding them. It also doesn't hurt that the various supernatural abilities grant Uru some rather creative and brutal fight scenes. From time manipulation, energy blasts, physical augmentation, and memory recall, the series displays a wide variety of strong and weak powers to create rather inventive fight scenes. However, this still fits with Unordinary's overall themes of the story as almost every single ability mention has been misused as nothing more than terrifying powers used to maim, usurp and possibly even kill those who are deemed weak by their users.

Throughout its various seasons, Unordinary continues to build its unique world through the painstaking build-up of previous concepts. The school setting of the series was an amazing move as it quickly becomes apparent that it, in a way, is supposed to represent the society of the outside world. Because it quickly becomes apparent that the universe of this story is flawed to hell and back. Low tiered individuals are forced into constant bullying, harassment, and poverty as they are often picked on by the strong. However, famous high tiers to unruly have often had society place such high standards that they are eventually corrupted. The very fact that John is considered a useless cripple by being normal by our standards and not being defined by his ability is striking. And it's even worse when the very thought of high tiers trying to save people weaker than them is opposed by the very government itself. And for John's unique perspective in the world quickly influences and weighs on himself and his surroundings.

The seasons have always delved into this idea of classism and unfairness. And if I had to say anything about this webtoon after four years of analysis, I have to say that this is the story of hatred. A story of how hatred blinds one to one faults. A story of how it skews your view of the world. A story about how hatred is an addicting cycle that can quickly devolve into hatred. A story about how those with the power and voice should use them to help make things better instead of worse. And I think it's only recently where we discovered the climax of this message and how to stop violence truly, we need to drop our guard, see our similarities and move past our prejudices. Which is something I think we need in the trying times of 2021 and forever.

Epilogue

Overall, Unordinary deserves every single praise it gets as a series. It has remained at the top of its class, and it will continue to be that way until its eventual end. I only hope I can be on the front lines of that spectacle. But for now, let's spin the spotlight temporarily to another webtoon analysis, as I will return here shortly.