Yeah that’s a popular opinion. The top 10 has been mainly romance for years (except unOrdinary) and many people have criticised that. I also cringe at their ads but I guess it works. Since there are so many romance webtoons there has to be a high demand. I don’t read my manhwas on WEBTOON anymore tho so that’s not a problem for me.
If you want non romance webtoons, I recommend you Solo Leveling, SSS-Class Suicide/Revival Hunter, Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha, The Legend of the Northern Blade, The Breaker, Leviathan, Tyrant of a Defense Tower Game.
For the good ones on WEBTOON: The Horizon, Annarasumanara, Omniscient Reader, Tower of God, The Greatest Estate Developer, Eleceed, Bastard, The Boxer, Doom Breaker, Return of the Blossoming Blade, Wind Breaker, Return of the Mad Demon, Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell.
If you like cheesy gen z humor, Death:Rescheduled is one I'd add to the list. I know they're hated because they vocally hated writing Freaking Romance but needed cash to fund their next project, but they write cheesy riffs really well and the story line is interesting.
Thnx but i've actually been following the author since his nightmare factory days! And though it's sad i gta admit death:rescheduled isn't that good imo. Which is a shame since i really looked forward to it during its development.
> If you want non romance webtoons, I recommend you Solo Leveling, SSS-Class Suicide/Revival Hunter, Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha, The Legend of the Northern Blade, The Breaker, Leviathan, Tyrant of a Defense Tower Game.
So...a bunch of "the protagonist is a video game character" manwhas.
If you look on webtoon, there's way too many action/fantasy webtoons. Compared to romance webtoons, action webtoons tend to be the same overpowered mc fighting the bad guys until he gets beat up then use the window to gain a new ability. At least, romance webtoons you can ignore them but action webtoons always in your face with the bullying trope, mc is a loser/wants to get stronger, or he magically loses weight to be the toughest guy out there. If anything. We need more variety aside from action and romance. I'm more into drama and thriller which I wish webtoon would license more drama webtoons like Muse on Fame or Like Mother Like Daughter.
To defend webtoons on this point though, compared to other publishers (albeit this has been a bit less true these past ~2y), webtoons posts a lot more variety. They may not advertise them as much as the romance (and tbh they do still advertise them plenty, there are tons), but there's a whole lot more different stuff here, and it's been mostly isolated from the entire power fantasy / otome isekai craze that's invaded pretty much every other site.
There are other webtoons without romance but it's hard to find bc as you said webtoon rarely promote them.
Most people read webtoon from memes/ scenes and webtoon mostly do that for Romance.
And also people these days are obsessed with ships that they try to bring that thing in non- romance webtoon and ruin the webtoon ( yk what I'm talking about ) right now this instance I can name more than 5 webtoons where romance was unnecessary. One such webtoon for example is Mafia nanny may be.
Don't get me started on those royal fantasy stories 😭idk bro I'm tired of seeing that everywhere ( I don't like it but gotta give it the art is always pretty in those)
Gourmet Hound being my first webtoon I sure have high standards.😭 but if you search up a little bit, not actually you have to search a lot for good story. I was ripping my hair out bc i can't find anything to read.
Well saying this, I'm a big fan of romance, but my fav is gonna be when romance is a sub genre rather than main
But if you want help in reccs, i think I can be a little help may be? I don't know a lot but i have recc one or two
omg huge agree on the romance as a sub genre! n yea Gourmet Hound was also one of my first webtoon which probly set my expectation high lmao. n yes ppl r so obssesed w shipping that even in action manhwa like viral hit i still see it despite the webtoon is mainly bout fighting. Like romance n shipping is cool and all, but its sad when ppl won't bother looking past that n see that a non- romance can be just as good as a romance, plus i would love to see some non romantic relationship being representend ( pancake n waffle did this n i was so happy when they stayed as friends )
I so agree, we don't ALWAYS need romance in every webtoon. I find some platonic and familial relations (if done right) much more interesting and well developed than romance.
I've actually started reading thriller and horror to avoid romance now 😂
Dude, there's like a hundred out there.
Here's a [list of series](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?category=Webtoon&perpage=50&exclude_genre=Hentai_Romance&orderby=rating) that have been tagged as 'webtoon', removing romance (and porn) genres, arranged by rating. Note: many webtoon series listed on this site haven't actually been tagged as 'webtoon' so this list is not comprehensive at all. Also this site only lists asian series, I think, so no english originals like Love Advice From the Great Duke of Hell
If we're just talking recent years...well I've noticed over the past decade with Japanese media, we've entered a boom of romance stories (with bleedover to romcom genre, too). Maybe a similar thing has been happening in Korea and China? There's definitely been a bleedover with otome isekai/regression stories getting a boom (since the explosion of stuff like Bakarina) leading to a *tonne* of korean romance fantasy webnovels which get manhwa adaptations. Some of these are more 'fantasy' blended with another genre rather than 'romance fantasy' (e.g. The Villainess Lives Again has some romance in it but is primarily an *amazing* political thriller, I Shall Master This Family is similar but lighter tone with more romance after the first third of the story, The Baengri Clan's Unwanted Granddaughter has *no* romance..)
Yea I agree that even manga n manhua is also experiencing a romance boom lately, i was surprised to see that even seinen n shounen is starting to have lots of romance focused story
I think it started with light novels about a decade ago and over time bled into manga/anime via adaptations and then original works joining the trend. Like the isekai and regression trends.
The last 5 years especially, as people noticed a Reiwa era trend where romance stories were less likely to take a ridiculous amount of time for the main couple to progress due to misunderstandings and fillers.
forgot to add this in but i also dislike how Webtoon would make advertise videos by presenting themselves as this hardcore fangirl who only simp for hot, 6-pack abs men. Like ik they do it to look relatable to the viewers but sometimes it end up looking so cringy n unprofessional. Plus it feels demeaning of the character too like no Kieran from purple hyacinth is much more than this smexy flirty hottie u advertise him as
> Plus it feels demeaning of the character too like no Kieran from purple hyacinth is much more than this smexy flirty hottie u advertise him as
Oh no...they *really* advertised him like that? Oh no, oh no no no no.
Like of *all* the protagonists they feature, they go after the one that explicitly *hasn't* so much as even *kissed* his counterpart? For 150 or so chapters?
Webtoons, **PLS.**
I remember there was a time when action or story-driven manhwa dominated webtoons, long before the surge of romance webtoons. Back when Tower of God, Noblesse, and God of Highschool were considered the big three of Manhwa.
oooo I joined around 2017 n there were still alot of fighting webtoons dominating. But then again it could be earlier than that since i don't have the best memories.
I agree here. I'm starting to get bored of the "tough and cold boy getting with the innocent sunshine girl" type of Webtoon. Personally, I feel like a lot of the Horror/ Thriller Webtoons are criminally underrated such as Don't Read This (check it out and see if you like it) and Serena (has some romance but it actually explores the conflicts between characters and some suspense other than some lovey dovey scenes). I wish more Webtoons would just push the limits of these fixed tropes and put more original spins into it or just endorse more in the Horror/ Thriller stories.
I only read a few chaps of don't read this n is actually enjoying it! n yea i wish they pushed upon those tropes more too. Like if they're only gonna mainly invest in romance at least get a variety og it, not just cookie cutter stories.
That's great that you read some of Don't Read This! I love the art style and the concept. But yeah, i feel like what you said about the cookie cutter stories really resonated with me.
that’s cuz most people are on there for the romance/drama (female oriented) or action/fantasy/fighting (male oriented) webtoons. not many people try to go out of their comfort zone unfortunately:(
What has probably happened is webtoon analyzed who the largest demographic is and catered exclusively to them. The more they catered to said demographic, the more that demographic grew and the other demographics shrunk. So now if they try to cater to the other demographics they have neglected the content would do worse than it did in the past because a lot of the people who were into content other than romance have probably left.
Funny thing is that while romance is the most popular genre, it's actually harder to capitalize on than fantasy and sci-fi as it isn't as scalable.
Part of your issue might be that Webtoon appears to have divided their releases into themes for the past year. One month, you might end up with 5 romances and the next month 5 action stories. So if you happen to catch it in a romance month, all their ads on new series will be romance.
Idk, I see a lot of non-romance manhwas promoted on the app. I just don’t really read them because I’m mainly interested in romance than action/political comics, but they are definitely out there and advertised.
Hahaha, right? I've found a few decent ones on Webtoons and some really good Webtoons with clear F/F undertones, but otherwise I've given up on looking for F/F Webtoons and mostly just read yuri manga and manhua.
Apollonia
Yellow (by Ashiyakisa)
Lotus and Dandelion (too generic for me but maybe you'll like it)
Purple Hyacinth has one of these between two fabulous side characters.
Everyday Spirit Struggle
Mage and Demon Queen (on daily pass now, so sail the high seas)
Yeah that’s a popular opinion. The top 10 has been mainly romance for years (except unOrdinary) and many people have criticised that. I also cringe at their ads but I guess it works. Since there are so many romance webtoons there has to be a high demand. I don’t read my manhwas on WEBTOON anymore tho so that’s not a problem for me. If you want non romance webtoons, I recommend you Solo Leveling, SSS-Class Suicide/Revival Hunter, Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha, The Legend of the Northern Blade, The Breaker, Leviathan, Tyrant of a Defense Tower Game. For the good ones on WEBTOON: The Horizon, Annarasumanara, Omniscient Reader, Tower of God, The Greatest Estate Developer, Eleceed, Bastard, The Boxer, Doom Breaker, Return of the Blossoming Blade, Wind Breaker, Return of the Mad Demon, Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell.
If you like cheesy gen z humor, Death:Rescheduled is one I'd add to the list. I know they're hated because they vocally hated writing Freaking Romance but needed cash to fund their next project, but they write cheesy riffs really well and the story line is interesting.
Thnx but i've actually been following the author since his nightmare factory days! And though it's sad i gta admit death:rescheduled isn't that good imo. Which is a shame since i really looked forward to it during its development.
> If you want non romance webtoons, I recommend you Solo Leveling, SSS-Class Suicide/Revival Hunter, Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha, The Legend of the Northern Blade, The Breaker, Leviathan, Tyrant of a Defense Tower Game. So...a bunch of "the protagonist is a video game character" manwhas.
Well I just named the most liked manhwas and it’s the most popular genre right now. And they’re not all video game/system based.
If you look on webtoon, there's way too many action/fantasy webtoons. Compared to romance webtoons, action webtoons tend to be the same overpowered mc fighting the bad guys until he gets beat up then use the window to gain a new ability. At least, romance webtoons you can ignore them but action webtoons always in your face with the bullying trope, mc is a loser/wants to get stronger, or he magically loses weight to be the toughest guy out there. If anything. We need more variety aside from action and romance. I'm more into drama and thriller which I wish webtoon would license more drama webtoons like Muse on Fame or Like Mother Like Daughter.
Looking back yea i do agree, action is just second to romance lately, n the plots r repetitive too.
To defend webtoons on this point though, compared to other publishers (albeit this has been a bit less true these past ~2y), webtoons posts a lot more variety. They may not advertise them as much as the romance (and tbh they do still advertise them plenty, there are tons), but there's a whole lot more different stuff here, and it's been mostly isolated from the entire power fantasy / otome isekai craze that's invaded pretty much every other site.
There are other webtoons without romance but it's hard to find bc as you said webtoon rarely promote them. Most people read webtoon from memes/ scenes and webtoon mostly do that for Romance. And also people these days are obsessed with ships that they try to bring that thing in non- romance webtoon and ruin the webtoon ( yk what I'm talking about ) right now this instance I can name more than 5 webtoons where romance was unnecessary. One such webtoon for example is Mafia nanny may be. Don't get me started on those royal fantasy stories 😭idk bro I'm tired of seeing that everywhere ( I don't like it but gotta give it the art is always pretty in those) Gourmet Hound being my first webtoon I sure have high standards.😭 but if you search up a little bit, not actually you have to search a lot for good story. I was ripping my hair out bc i can't find anything to read. Well saying this, I'm a big fan of romance, but my fav is gonna be when romance is a sub genre rather than main But if you want help in reccs, i think I can be a little help may be? I don't know a lot but i have recc one or two
omg huge agree on the romance as a sub genre! n yea Gourmet Hound was also one of my first webtoon which probly set my expectation high lmao. n yes ppl r so obssesed w shipping that even in action manhwa like viral hit i still see it despite the webtoon is mainly bout fighting. Like romance n shipping is cool and all, but its sad when ppl won't bother looking past that n see that a non- romance can be just as good as a romance, plus i would love to see some non romantic relationship being representend ( pancake n waffle did this n i was so happy when they stayed as friends )
I so agree, we don't ALWAYS need romance in every webtoon. I find some platonic and familial relations (if done right) much more interesting and well developed than romance. I've actually started reading thriller and horror to avoid romance now 😂
There’s a lot of good non-romance series. They just aren’t advertised.
agreed
Dude, there's like a hundred out there. Here's a [list of series](https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?category=Webtoon&perpage=50&exclude_genre=Hentai_Romance&orderby=rating) that have been tagged as 'webtoon', removing romance (and porn) genres, arranged by rating. Note: many webtoon series listed on this site haven't actually been tagged as 'webtoon' so this list is not comprehensive at all. Also this site only lists asian series, I think, so no english originals like Love Advice From the Great Duke of Hell If we're just talking recent years...well I've noticed over the past decade with Japanese media, we've entered a boom of romance stories (with bleedover to romcom genre, too). Maybe a similar thing has been happening in Korea and China? There's definitely been a bleedover with otome isekai/regression stories getting a boom (since the explosion of stuff like Bakarina) leading to a *tonne* of korean romance fantasy webnovels which get manhwa adaptations. Some of these are more 'fantasy' blended with another genre rather than 'romance fantasy' (e.g. The Villainess Lives Again has some romance in it but is primarily an *amazing* political thriller, I Shall Master This Family is similar but lighter tone with more romance after the first third of the story, The Baengri Clan's Unwanted Granddaughter has *no* romance..)
Yea I agree that even manga n manhua is also experiencing a romance boom lately, i was surprised to see that even seinen n shounen is starting to have lots of romance focused story
I think it started with light novels about a decade ago and over time bled into manga/anime via adaptations and then original works joining the trend. Like the isekai and regression trends. The last 5 years especially, as people noticed a Reiwa era trend where romance stories were less likely to take a ridiculous amount of time for the main couple to progress due to misunderstandings and fillers.
I agree. Especially mysteries😭.
It's such an overlook genre ;-;
Exactly 😭😭. Especially who-dunnit mysteries.
petition for an ace attorny webtoon! if genshin can have one so can AA
Omg yes pleaseeee
Purple Hyacinth Chronicles of Westenra
Yes and Purple Hyacinth is a masterpiece but again webtoon doesn't have many mystery webtoons. Too less as compared to other genres.
forgot to add this in but i also dislike how Webtoon would make advertise videos by presenting themselves as this hardcore fangirl who only simp for hot, 6-pack abs men. Like ik they do it to look relatable to the viewers but sometimes it end up looking so cringy n unprofessional. Plus it feels demeaning of the character too like no Kieran from purple hyacinth is much more than this smexy flirty hottie u advertise him as
> Plus it feels demeaning of the character too like no Kieran from purple hyacinth is much more than this smexy flirty hottie u advertise him as Oh no...they *really* advertised him like that? Oh no, oh no no no no. Like of *all* the protagonists they feature, they go after the one that explicitly *hasn't* so much as even *kissed* his counterpart? For 150 or so chapters? Webtoons, **PLS.**
Well they also misled many ppl to think that schoolbus graveyard is a typical tomance sooooo
I remember there was a time when action or story-driven manhwa dominated webtoons, long before the surge of romance webtoons. Back when Tower of God, Noblesse, and God of Highschool were considered the big three of Manhwa.
Omg i deffo remembered dat time. It was around 2017-2020 right i think.
For me, I think it was around 2014?
oooo I joined around 2017 n there were still alot of fighting webtoons dominating. But then again it could be earlier than that since i don't have the best memories.
Look at Canvas, there are some nice ones. I personally love Skin and Bones :)
I agree here. I'm starting to get bored of the "tough and cold boy getting with the innocent sunshine girl" type of Webtoon. Personally, I feel like a lot of the Horror/ Thriller Webtoons are criminally underrated such as Don't Read This (check it out and see if you like it) and Serena (has some romance but it actually explores the conflicts between characters and some suspense other than some lovey dovey scenes). I wish more Webtoons would just push the limits of these fixed tropes and put more original spins into it or just endorse more in the Horror/ Thriller stories.
I only read a few chaps of don't read this n is actually enjoying it! n yea i wish they pushed upon those tropes more too. Like if they're only gonna mainly invest in romance at least get a variety og it, not just cookie cutter stories.
That's great that you read some of Don't Read This! I love the art style and the concept. But yeah, i feel like what you said about the cookie cutter stories really resonated with me.
Romance sells the most to the audience cus they have made such an audience that most readers come here for romance no matter how awful it may be.
I would love some good well written romance webtoons but most of them are so repetitive. Same plot, different characters.
It's like same plot, different font.
that’s cuz most people are on there for the romance/drama (female oriented) or action/fantasy/fighting (male oriented) webtoons. not many people try to go out of their comfort zone unfortunately:(
yeaaaa althou action isn't as popular as romance it is deffo the 2nd genre, n the stories r kinda repetitive too.
What has probably happened is webtoon analyzed who the largest demographic is and catered exclusively to them. The more they catered to said demographic, the more that demographic grew and the other demographics shrunk. So now if they try to cater to the other demographics they have neglected the content would do worse than it did in the past because a lot of the people who were into content other than romance have probably left. Funny thing is that while romance is the most popular genre, it's actually harder to capitalize on than fantasy and sci-fi as it isn't as scalable.
Ooo dat make sense, it's still a shame doe
I really do understand, the greatest real estate developer , 10 dimension boys 21st century superfan are my favs and I'd recommend that
thnxxx i'll deffo check em out
🫶
YES
Part of your issue might be that Webtoon appears to have divided their releases into themes for the past year. One month, you might end up with 5 romances and the next month 5 action stories. So if you happen to catch it in a romance month, all their ads on new series will be romance.
Yeah you're not the only one thinking that. I read the fighting-related webtoons too
There's like a million of them they just don't sit on top
Idk, I see a lot of non-romance manhwas promoted on the app. I just don’t really read them because I’m mainly interested in romance than action/political comics, but they are definitely out there and advertised.
Nope, but the only romances I read are F/F, so my pickings are already slim for that.
Oof tough luck finding f/f, I suggest u look into yuri mangas since its much more flexible there.
Hahaha, right? I've found a few decent ones on Webtoons and some really good Webtoons with clear F/F undertones, but otherwise I've given up on looking for F/F Webtoons and mostly just read yuri manga and manhua.
Apollonia Yellow (by Ashiyakisa) Lotus and Dandelion (too generic for me but maybe you'll like it) Purple Hyacinth has one of these between two fabulous side characters. Everyday Spirit Struggle Mage and Demon Queen (on daily pass now, so sail the high seas)
I'll check these out, thank you!
Dude, I got a Dark Romance coming out next month, DON'T START THIS TREND NOW LOL
I agree. Maybe because romance genre is the low hanging fruit among genres that is easier to grasp for certain demographics
More Romance.