Moon You (7/17/2019)

Spoilers ahead. Please don't read this if you haven't read Moon You yet.

Moon You is a masterpiece.

But before I start talking about it, I need to first explain what Moon You is. Moon You is a webcomic written by Cho Seok, and translated and published by Webtoons. A quick search online reveals that it hasn't garnered as much attention as it should. In fact, its wiki,
https://webtoon.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_You, doesn't even have a full article written about it.

And this sucks because honestly this Webtoon is basically perfect. It's pacing is great, the characters are great, and the author does a great job of surprising you throughout the entire series. It's only 66 episodes, but I'm fine with that because you can easily binge-read it in a day and honestly, I don't think the series would be as good as it is if it wasn't so straightforward.

The story starts out insanely strong, with Moon You hilariously trying to commit suicide. It really sets the tone of the story very early, with the dark and "serious" humor in an overwhelmingly depressing situation. This type of humor is a signature of the series, where the story is able to make you laugh despite it's depressing premise. Throughout the story, the author does a very good job of making you laugh, and then instantly making you cry with just a few panels.

Throughout the story, however, the author is always able to make sure that he never pulls his punches. Just the fact that the entire world is destroyed in the first place shows that the author is willing to let anyone die at any given moment, and this is shown throughout the story as seen through the death of Nenad (the dude). Of course, the decision of Moon You to sacrifice himself and stay on the moon is also another important plot point.

Even the filler episodes seem in place and they actually add to the tone of the story. The one episode about the little girl living by herself fit the depressing tone of the story, but it also gave an example of how Moon You was positively affecting people around the world without his realization. The other episode where it is revealed that the NASA man had to disguise himself as his twin brother was not only extremely powerful emotionally, it also showed the various hardships that everyone had to go through after the accident.

Overall, these filler episodes actually add to the world building to the point where I'm not sure if they can really be called filler episodes. They deviate from the main story, but it feels like there is a point as to why the author is showing us this.

Something else that the author does very well is how he manages to write plot twists and surprise you throughout the story. The solar power system was fairly out of the blue but it just felt so natural in the story because of the detail the author put into describing the backstory. It just feels like something that would've happened in the world, and the author does a good job of criticizing today's modern world with this plot element too.

I also like how there is a reveal to everything. The reveal that the little girl's drawings were actually drawings of dead bodies was amazing. Carol's reveal of her being an assassin not only tied into the current plot in a satisfying way, it also revealed a lot about the pre-disaster world, as long as helping to build her backstory.

A particularly strong scene that I wanted to point out was the scene that Moon You realizes that people are still on the earth. The drawing of how he just collapses really struck a strong emotional chord with me, and this is when I fully realized that this series wasn't just good, it was great.


Go read Moon You if you ignored the top and read this without reading Moon You first. It's definitely worth your time. Also please spread word about this super good Webtoon so it can get the attention it deserves.



P.S. As long as I'm concerned, Moon You surviving is canon. I know that he has no shadow in the end, but I choose to ignore that fact.


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