Webtoon Genre Terms in Korean

• 드라마: Drama
• 판타지: Fantasy
• 개그: Comedy
• 액션: Action
• 일상: Slice of Life/Daily Life
• 순정/로맨스: Romance
• 슈퍼히어로: Superhero
• 공상과학/SF: Sci-fi
• 스릴러: Thriller
• 초능력: Supernatural
• 추리/미스터리: Mystery
• 스포츠: Sports
• 시대극: Historical
• 감성: Heartwarming
• 호러/공포: Horror
• 교육/정보: Informative
• 일진물: School Bullies
• 비엘: BL (Boy’s Love)
• 지엘/백합: GL (Girl’s Love)

Frequently Used Korean Webtoon Terms

• 고구마: Sweet Potato means “suffocating” like when a story or character evolves/behaves in a frustrating way.
  (Background Info: Koreans eat a lot of steamed/baked sweet potatoes that you can easily choke on unless you drink something.)
• 사이다: Cider means “gratifying” like when a story scratches an itch like revenge on an unjust world or a character acts in a cool/refreshing way without being 고구마 (sweet potato).
  (Background Info: Koreans call Sprite, 7up, or any similar drink, cider.)
• 참교육: True Education in the Webtoon world describes scolding/beating up bullies or ungrateful people in a 사이다 (cider) way.
• 정의구현: Justice Served is similar to 참교육 (true education), and usually comes with a 사이다 (cider) vibe.
• 팩트폭력: Brutally Honest means to shock someone with an irrefutable fact.
  An example can be when you say, “Why am I so tired these days? Is it because I drank too much coffee?”, and someone replies, “It’s because you’re old.”
• 떡밥: Bait is derived from “chum for fishing”, but actually means “foreshadowing”.
• 떡밥 회수: Bait Retrieved means that foreshadowing bait has been identified/revealed.
• 막장: Ridiculous Situation refers to unrealistic story/event that rarely happens, using very provocative scenes.
• 밸붕: Balance Collapse refers to a situation where a character becomes too strong/weak out of the blue, destroying the previous balance settings of a world.
• 캐붕: Character Collapse refers to a situation where a character behaves out of line with their original personality, without describing how they changed.
• 세계관: Worldview refers to Webtoon world settings, similar to a cinematic world. For example, YLAB has the Super String Universe where their Webtoons are connected like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
• 먼치킨: Munchkin means a protagonist who’s almost invincible like One Punch Man.
• 쿠키굽다: Baking Cookie. Cookies are a currency used for paid Webtoon services. Koreans use the phrase, “쿠키굽다”, to tell Webtoonists that they want the artists to be rich without working too hard.
• 만찢남: Man who’s torn from comic book. This refers to an incredibly handsome male character.

Some examples of 막장 (Ridiculous Situation) scenes, usually found in morning dramas (아침드라마) that ajummas enjoy watching:

This is known as the “Kimchi Slap” (김치 싸다구) in Korea.