The Fall 2024 K-Comics Guide

Changing the Genre from Angst to Heartwarming

What's It About? 

I've been reincarnated. Into a novel I used to enjoy in my past life, no less! My name is Renatis, and I'll be playing the part of little sister to the female lead in this dark, tragic whirlwind of a story where a beastly bad boy shatters my sister's hopes, dreams, and her life. My sister is too good and too beautiful, and I'm not about to let that happen to my perfect sister. So, I'm taking charge. I shall turn this dark, tragic story into a heartwarming tale of healing. I will save my sister.

Changing the Genre from Angst to Heartwarming has a story by Hwang DoTol and art by Yongdam, with an adaptation by Ryuho. WEBTOON localized the English version. This K-Comic is published by WEBTOON.

This series contains themes regarding child abuse that may not be suitable for all readers. Viewer discretion is advised.

Is It Worth Reading?

Don't you just hate it when you realize you've been reborn in a terrible, angsty dark romance novel? Renatis sure does, and she will not take it sitting down. No sooner has she realized that she's the younger sister of the doomed heroine in a book she previously read then she hatches a plan: get her sister the hell out of the plot and figure out how to handle to beastly hero herself. After all, what good is all of her book knowledge if she can't at least do that much?

Although it isn't particularly new in the genre, it's still a premise that's easy to get behind. Rena may not be a genius, but she's good at what she does, and by the time she ends up at the hero's house in her sister's place, she's already got at least a bit of a plan. Of course, she's not entirely prepared for the poor guy to be attempting to cope with parental abuse, and although she doesn't necessarily say it, we can see that she's starting to understand why he ended up killing her sister in the original novel. It's also something Rena can relate to because, in her new life, she's also saddled with an abusive father – at one point she makes a casual reference to him having once thrown a chair at her. That means that there's a genuine darkness underneath the ludicrous angst she's more aware of, and it helps to set the story apart from other titles, at least a little.

The other major draw here is that Rena is clearly living in a different world than the hero. Theodore is stuck in the world he was written into: a dark, sad, angst-filled one where he suffers because of his family's heritage. But Rena is busy being all pure sunshine energy, writing Theodore a note filled with emojis and somehow saddled with a bright pink slime she trades wisecracks with. To say that Theodore is confused by Rena is an understatement, but across the ten chapters currently available on WEBTOON's site (with rather more on the app), we can see her relentless goofiness beginning to wear him down. She's not truly silly, of course, but she's so outside of anything Theodore has ever experienced that she comes across that way to him, and that, almost more than her kindness to him in the throes of his madness, is what helps to bring him back from the edge.

There isn't much that's serious in this story, and that's one of its attractions, at least so far. The art does a good job of bouncing between chibis and fully drawn characters, as well as leaning into the capital-a-angst when it needs to, with a definite edge of melodrama that helps. I'm not sure how long this can keep up its pace, but as of right now, it's a fun read.