Punch Drunk Love
Literary Masterpiece
Tropes: Comedy, golden-retriever type, grumpy-sunshine, tsundere, office romance, office politics, friends with benefits to lovers
Seon-Woo is just your regular guy, with (seemingly less than regular) looks and a regular job. He has a deep secret that he may no longer be able to keep now that he meets his ever-so-handsome colleague Tae-moon. Watch as he Seon-Woo tries to win him over with all his batshit crazy shenanigans.
This manhwa is pure comedy gold! Even compared with other forms of more traditional media, it’s absolutely hilarious and I honestly cannot name another manhwa that comes close, which is why I really had no choice but to rank it in the highest tier. Comedy and humour is really difficult to pull off but this was truly a masterclass. The characters are really lovable. They’re funny but still very layered at the same time. Since this is a lighthearted manhwa, you wouldn’t expect it to get too serious or deep but the characters and their arcs weren’t completely superficial either. I felt liked that it really hit the sweet spot of keeping the characters light to match the overall tone of the story, while still giving them enough depth to keep you invested in them. I felt that they did explore certain themes quite well, such as sex positivity and sexual identity, personhood and maintaining your core identity, retaining your values vs being adaptable to be more accepted by those around you. Again, nothing too deep or serious to maintain the lighthearted tone, but enough to give the story some heart to it. The art and plot really complemented the comedy perfectly. The art is beautiful and really portrays the characters’ expressions so vividly which was central to a lot of the humour. The plot was also written really well - the office and family politics were detailed and specific enough that you are invested to see how everything plays out until the end but again nothing too dark that it takes you out of the mood, and I love the unconventional use of misunderstandings to further drive the humour. Misunderstanding and miscommunication tropes have gotten a terrible rep in manhwas because of how unrealistic and frustrating they are and how most of the time it can be resolved very easily which point towards lazy writing. But to use misunderstanding and miscommunication over things that were so absurd, for the sake of comedy, was just pure gold. The story is not without its flaws though. I was slightly out of it during the last part of the last season when I felt that the plot got a little too unnecessarily complicated and there were some more ‘traditionally annoying’ misunderstanding tropes - but these were easy to look past.
This manhwa is absurd, unhinged, and completely out of pocket - but in just the best way possible. It is the biggest barrel of laughs, and I honestly have never read anything like this, which is why: literary masterpiece.
