Juvenile Detention Center

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When I come across action/drama/school webtoons where the synopsis also tends to include revenge/delinquents/bullies and vandals, my initial assessment is negative. This may seem rude to most people, but it's merely a materialization of feelings due to habits shaped by repeated stereotypes included in so many media, which have also influenced the real world—a fixed, unchanging connection that sadly remains as the most primitive and instinctive reality of this world. So perhaps these are just my own errors, but these are my opinions, and there’s nothing to be done about them.


South Korea is a country with many demands and stands out in "social laws," by ... which I mean those created by society, though one could also refer to those legally implemented by public authorities. Social laws are the ones that judge and create problems based on standards about naturally diverse people. The lack of self-awareness and freedom is more than recurrent, leading to various types of complexities and challenging relationships between people. Legislative laws, on the other hand, exist to correct these errors or at least attempt to do so. The idea of full efficacy is impossible to claim entirely—no one really knows—but the representations made through "art" sometimes tell us a lot, and yet so little at the same time. This is because, in all attempts, what always happens is either it's very exaggerated or very unrealistic, and sometimes you get both in one.


The country has a so-called excellent child protection system, where, in rare cases, what happens to our protagonist here would likely never occur. He was sentenced to three years for nearly killing his father, a man linked to a small gangster faction. The possible reason he was imprisoned could be due to his father’s intervention, but firstly: his father was debilitated, and secondly, he was part of a small gang, not influential enough to interfere with the court through third parties. This tells us that it's merely a failed attempt to push real boundaries to create entertainment through a bloody piece where the protagonist is suddenly very strong without reason. In this context, he would never be imprisoned, especially since he had suffered domestic violence from his father all along and even had a witness in his favor.


This is exactly what all similar works look like, with similar details. These works have a certain popularity because these themes are prevalent in the country and occur on a large scale, but my main issue with them is the lack of meaning. Usually, they succeed in representational ideas, and that’s precisely why I don’t entirely hate Manhwas—they contain many truths about South Korea, unlike the many lies told by other media, which is positive. However, within the same context, something drives me crazy: the fact that all these works become so popular and well-rated precisely because they represent people's inner feelings, and readers sympathize, which is enough for them. But the problem is that the lack of results/meaning doesn't solve anyone's problems, and we gain nothing new from it; we continue in an endless cycle of ideas, and none show us a different vision or perspective on these matters. They are simply representations that serve for affected people to relate to and applaud the work because, for them, that's all it takes due to their current state. To them, this is like salvation, even though it’s not; they constantly rely on works like this to keep going, dependent instead of healed.


The Juvenile Detention Center described in the work is a facility for minors who have committed various crimes, but for some reason, they look much older than they should. At 18 or 19 years old, they look in their 40s or more. If it were just one or two of them, fine, but practically all of them? The answer to this is that among these manhwas, the intention is to make them look older to draw more attention from readers in fights and also to try to make the theme mature (even when it shouldn’t be). It also conveys a representation that, given what they are, their older appearance would make sense due to their life experiences, but this does not contrast with reality. It might contrast with aging and disfigurement, but not exactly with all proportions of the human body; I'm referring to the overall visibility of the person when seen.


Thank you for your attention.