Story
To briefly summarize the plot, our protagonist, Cha Woosol, enters a new school, optimistic about his life going forward. Unfortunately, it turns out that Bae Seokchan, his old middleschool bully, also happened to transfer to that same school, Woosol's own class no less. After class, Seokchan corners Woosol and promises to continue bullying him just as he did in middleschool. Woosol, fully convinced that Seokchan is going to kill him, is driven by the primal instinct of survival and stabs Seokchan in the eye with a pen when the latter's guard is down. In a fit of blind panic and rage, Woosol repeatedly stabs Seokchan all over his body and attempts to kill him, but the other students step in and stop him. Woosol is sent to three years in juvie for attempted murder. Now, Seokchan is genius boxing prodigy but, thanks to Woosol, is now blind in his right eye and is no longer able to pursue his career in boxing. Seokchan, having his future ruined, visits Woosol in prison and promises to murder him the second Woosol steps out. Woosol, now having his life threatened by an extremely dangerous and violent individual, is determined to save his own life and desperately seeks out the help of a famous MMA fighter, who happens to be imprisoned with Woosol, to train him to fight and protect himself.
Now, you might look at that description and think "Okay so this is just another revenge-porn power fantasy webtoon about a weak MC who gets overpowered in an offscreen training montage and then effortlessly beats the shit out of his bully." And let me just tell you upfront, Shark is NOT a power fantasy. While Woosol does get stronger certainly, it's never executed with an offscreen training arc or some shit. The audience is actually taken for the ride in every step of Woosol's training in prison. You see him learn to throw a punch for the first time. You see him deal with the internal politics of prison gangs. You see him develop friendships with his mentor and fellow prisoners. Like, the entire first season is mainly about Woosol in prison. While that may sound boring, there's a lot of stuff going on with the supporting cast both in and out of the prison. Which brings me to the aspect where I think Shark succeeds the most.
Characters
When you get down to it, Shark is a character driven story about growth and learning from your mistakes. All the characters are interesting, memorable, and well-rounded. Earlier I mentioned that Woosol spends a lot of time dealing with the internal politics of the prison, and one thing that was extremely refreshing about this was that all the characters Woosol meets in the prison actually end up mattering. All of them become mainstays over the course of the series. Their stories don't solely revolve around Woosol like so many other webtoons tend to do. They all have their own lives and aspirations going on. You see them develop their own skills and progress as people. I can't go into any specifics because this isn't a spoiler-heavy review, but Shark is definitely a story that rewards you getting invested in its cast, which is really nice to see in a ocean of power fantasy stories which continually shaft their supporting cast to make the MC look cooler.
I also want to include a section just talking about Seokchan, Woosol's bully. Now, the whole "bully revenge" subgenre of manhwa has a pretty bad reputation, and for good reason. So many of these stories have these shallow, one-dimensional antagonists who exist purely to torment the MC so the audience will feel good when the MC kills them, invariably with the bully crumpling down into a pathetic coward who breaks down when things don't go their way. It's MAYBE enjoyable the first time you see it, but it quickly gets boring and stale. I bring this up because holy shit I fucking LOVE Seokchan. Make no mistake, he's a piece of shit. But holy fuck do I love him. Seokchan isn't some one-dimensional coward who spends his life coasting off mommy's and daddy's coattails and has everything handed to him on a silver platter. No, Seokchan is a genuinely dangerous violent individual who will attack ANYONE who looks at him the wrong way, consequences be damned. Like, this is someone who will pick a fight with adult gangsters just for the sake of having someone strong to fight against. Even when he goes up against the boss of the organization, he doesn't give a shit who he's up against and he attacks him. Say what you will about him as a human being, but the guy has absolute balls of steel and is more than capable of holding his own in a fight. So many times with series like this, the antagonist/rival just kinda rests on their laurels while the main character is getting stronger. But no. Seokchan is training just as hard, if not harder, than Woosol is. He's a terrible person, sure, but he's a total badass who actually grows and develops as a character alongside the rest of the cast. I can't go into specifics for the sake of spoilers, but Seokchan is a great character. Shit, I think as far as "martial arts rival" characters go, Seokchan might just be my favorite, like, in general. The story never tries to make you think he's anything other than a wild bloodthirsty thug and you definitely want to see him get knocked down a couple pegs, but every time he's on screen you're paying attention and guessing what he's gonna do.
Finally, I want to talk about Woosol. Woosol is a character who's very easy to like. He's kind and friendly, but even more than that he's the kind of character who's genuinely inspiring. So many times in martial arts manhwa the main character has an offscreen training arc and gets stronger in the blink of an eye, but that is not at all the case here. I said earlier that Shark is not a power fantasy, and what I mean by that is that we actually see Woosol slowly but surely make progress as a fighter. We see Woosol starting out by making actually realistic goals and slowly work up from there. There's never any point where the story goes "Yep Woosol has done everything he needs to do. He doesn't need to make any more progress or put in any effort again!" No, it's made clear that Woosol getting stronger is because of a consistent work ethic that you repeatedly see over the course of the series. You're repeatedly shown his daily training schedule, which continually reminds the audience that Woosol's strength is something he ACHIEVED, not something that was given to him. His work ethic aside, another aspect of Woosol's character that I think is done well is the whole "killing instinct" thing. Like, you've probably seen that shit a hundred times in manga and manhwa where the MC is willing to kill someone if they're pushed far enough. That's sort of the case here, but what I like about it is that it's treated like an active flaw that Woosol needs to overcome. Woosol is a juvenile offender, and the criminal justice system is not gonna go easy on him if he slips up again and loses his cool like he did in highschool. It's a very refreshing spin on such a common trope, which is arguably a good way to describe Woosol overall. He's a great protagonist. Even if he's not the most complex character out there, he's a character who works great for the themes that the story is trying to convey. He's a very well-executed instance of "weak guy trains himself up from nothing."
Art
Now, I am not an artist, so I'm not the kind of guy who can offer any deep critique of Shark's art. I will say the art is pretty alright most of the time, even if there is the occasional instance where the fight choreography isn't easy to follow. There are a couple instances here and there where the art looks pretty rough, but it doesn't take away from the experience for me personally. Overall I think the art is PROBABLY the weakest point here (other than the really wonky english fantl), but it's not bad by any means. Now, I have peeked at some of the untranslated chapters that are coming out recently, and wow the artist really does get better at his craft as time goes on.
Overall
Shark is a great martial arts webtoon and I highly recommend it if you're interested in the genre. Shark is a series with great characters, great fights, and a legitimately positive message to tell the audience. If you're looking for a martial arts webtoon, then this is definitely one of the best ones out there. It's a shame that most of the series isn't translated into english right now (and the previous scanslator dropped it a year ago), but maybe it'll get picked up by a different scanslation group down the road or get an official localization. Overall, solid 9/10,
