‘Sweet Home’ webtoon writer “No. 1 synchro rate is lotus root monster, Jung Jae-heon surpassed the original”

Kim Kanbi (39, real name Kim Min-tae), the original webtoon author of the drama’Sweet Home’, which was first released last month and swept the top spot on the Netflix charts in 13 overseas countries including Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam. The webtoon was also serialized on Naver Webtoon from October 2017 to June of last year, and as a result of the release of nine overseas language versions, it recorded 1.2 billion views worldwide. Hyeon-su, a reclusive, lonely high school student, lost his family in a car accident and moved alone in an apartment to face the sudden outbreak of monsters.

Story writers Kim and Hwang Young-chan (38) have joined together for the second time following the webtoon “Freja Shik” (the character appears in the scene watching a webtoon in this drama), a webtoon depicting a high school student with a psychopath killer father. After the release of the Netflix drama, overseas webtoon fans responded to overseas movie sites such as Rotten Tomato and IMDB.
“I received congratulations from acquaintances and Instagram increased followers of foreigners.” (Kim Kanbi) “The drama was always like a different world story, but (it became reality) I was happy” (Hwang Young-chan) in a video interview on the 13th. met.

Kanbi Kim (hereinafter referred to as Kim): “I saw it after two days.”
Hwang Young-chan (hereinafter referred to as Hwang): “After a week I passed. I felt like I was working for some reason. (Laughs) I saw it all at once.”

Kim: “The green home (apartment) landscape as the background seems to be much more devastated than the original. I wanted to go to the set, but I couldn’t go because of the corona. I wasn’t surprised that the content of the second half was different from the original.”
Hwang: “I didn’t expect the (government) army to come out directly. And I liked the excellent representation of the criminal group.”

Kim: “I was reassuring to watch both dramas. However, I was worried because it was the original work that was difficult to express in addition to the first attempted monster genre as a domestic drama.”
Hwang: “(Watching the finished drama) It was a tiring.”

Kim: “I rarely did. After passing the original copyright, he does not touch. Besides, at the time, I was busy publishing webtoons.”

Hwang: “The readers named it’Lotus Root Monster’ (a nickname given because the section of the head cut off resembles lotus root). It was hard to draw, but it is a character who is like a national contributor that helped the work to establish itself successfully.”

Kim: “All monsters were wonderful, but’Lotus Root Monster’ had the highest sync rate with the original.”

In’Sweet Home,’ each hidden desire is expressed and turned into various monsters, and these symptoms cover the whole world. Unlike other people, the protagonist Hyun-su maintains humanity by fighting an inner monster while using the powers caused by the symptoms of’monsterization’. Artist Kim said, “There was an antipathy for the unmerciful infection of existing zombies. If it was a setting that could overcome to some extent with my mental power and strong mind, I thought I could make hot scenes.”

However, the initial idea was different.

“It was a setting that the cancer cells that had formed inside the human body had an ego and tried to come out. It was a monster with an upside down body. So I chose the protagonist to be a reclusive loner. The character of the protagonist, who is afraid of the outside and hates to go out, influences the personality of the monster inside, so that he becomes immune to’monsterization.’” (Kim) Abandoning this idea is that the Japanese author Junji Ito’s manga has a similar setting. It was because the internal organs of the body were turned upside down outside the body. In consideration of popularity and deliberation, the scale was eventually raised with various monsters and completed as it is.

“The first monsters were not too alien, but they were deliberately dressed in suits and asked to draw them in a gigantic style, and more and more fierce and unrealistic monsters appeared. Little by little, we let our readers adapt to the monster’s appearance.” In the words of Kim Kim, Hwang added, “I focused on projecting each human’s desire on a monster design.”

Hwang: “Cha Hyun-soo. Watching the actor (Song Kang) play the protagonist, who has been drawing for several years, with a wonderful visual, I was very satisfied. Even small items like the ramen box were made with consideration to the original.”
Kim: “Jeong Jae-heon, played by actor Kim Nam-hee (Korean teacher who fights monsters with a real sword). It was a character with an impact that exceeded the original. The elevator scene (fighting with the guard monster) is good, but the scene that Jeong Jae-heon blocks when Pyun Sang-wook (Lee Jin-wook) gives up on himself and goes out of the shutter door was fresh because the relationship between the two, which was not in the original, began anew.”

Kim: “I also looked for fans’ reactions and contacted them through social media messages. Hyeonsu’s weight has decreased as if there was something lost and what was gained, but I think that a unique emotional monster came out thanks to the various relationships of various characters.”

Kim: “Household monster. I don’t think I’m coming out of the room.”
Hwang: “I think your brother will be a stabbing monster. In the past, the artist Kanbi Kim drew a caricature of a demon stinging my head.” (laughs)
Kim: “I think there is a sense of harm in handing over the manuscript (unilaterally). Hwang seems to be a monster carrying the fragrance of flowers. A little-hearted monster shed tears.” (Laughs)
Hwang: “I think I will become a healthy-looking muscle monster. I envy my muscles.”

The two are senior and junior at Chunggang University of Culture and Industry. Kim, who is one year old, debuted with the webtoon 『Professor Doll』 in 2006 and has been working as a writer in the webtoon creative group’Tim Get Name’. Hwang made his debut in 2009 with the webtoon 『Beehun』. Since the first time we were together with “Frejasik”, most of them have been collaborating on LANs through messengers. Artist Hwang said, “Kanby hyung comes up with an interesting story. I’m a bit simple, but it seems to have a good influence as I interlock with each other,” Kim said. “Hwang is sincere in everything. Although it is a unique painting style, it is popular and drawn in a favorable way. His popular taste blends with my minority and seems to create a work in the middle.”

Recently, in addition to’Sweet Home’, the original webtoon such as’The Goddess Advent’ and’Wonderful Rumors’ has been attracting attention, and Kim cited “proven scenarios and well-established fixed fan base” as a factor. He has been using thriller mainly, and he wants to create a unique thriller by combining various genres such as science fiction and sports, and expressed his ambition that he wants to challenge the game scenarios he usually interests someday.

Reporter Na Won-jeong [email protected]