CAUTION: REVIEW CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR DARK MORTAL AND DEATH NOTE. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. Oh dear yet another webtoon Id never thought I would be writing a negative review for but here we are once again. Sometimes a series starts off with a great big bang but then somewhere along the way the writer lost their inspiration or the trail of the storys plot and the ending is just a big meh. I dub this phenomenon the Death Note Syndrome because thats the iconic example of this in fiction. It is not a compliment. Heres my criteria for this literary affliction: Extremely promising first half often culminating with a death of a key character AKA the first climax. Lack of significant conflict by the second halfs middle. Destruction of previously carefully crafted characters important relationships and key worldbuilding posts in favor of the main new goal of the story. This includes inconsistencies with the characters behavior lore and gaping plot holes. Protagonist takes a backseat letting other more boring characters take the spotlight for no apparent reason. Rushed ending that feels wholly unsatisfactory. If I could rate Dark Mortals two seasons individually I would give Season 1 a 8.5/10 and Season 2 a 3.5/10. Yep thats how rapidly this story declined in a span of 35 chapters. All the plus points of the first half of the story are not enough to excuse the trainwreck that happened in the last half. Due to the recency effect Im obligated to judge this series more harshly just for disappointing me with every aspect of its abysmal second season. Its not about how you start its about how strong you finish. Pulling off a great ending makes all the difference. The story opens with a seven yearold boy whose whole family perished in a fire. His name is Gangnam. He is the sole survivor of the apartment fire that claimed the lives of his parents but he didnt escape completely unscathed. He was blinded in both eyes and suffered horrible burns to the left side of his face permanently disfiguring him. An old man passing by had heroically barged into the flames and rescued him from certain death. He tells Gangnam to let him know if he ever has a hard time and hell try his best to help should he ever need it. The resilient child replies that he is okay and he hopes his parents are happy wherever they are and wishes they dont worry too much about him. The old man is surprised at the boys courage and mental fortitude for someone so young and he tells him he believes that he will be able to overcome what life throws at him. The old mans prediction proved to be correct but hed never have guessed that Gangnam isnt alone even though hes just recently lost his entire family. He has a small black blob who hes affectionately named Kkamjang that only he can see despite being blind. Kkamjang serves as his friend tutor and seeingeye blob to guide him through his everyday life so even with Gangnams vision impairment he can function relatively normally all things considered. However this doesnt resolve all of the troubles Gangnam faces when he has to interact with other people who react to his burned face with disgust and horror. Some of them shun him and some of them bully him. He faces all of this with a forced smile determined to make the most of a bad situation. Unfortunately this only creeps people out even more as theyre unnerved by his unflinchingly calm attitude that persists no matter what sort of obstacles they throw at him. People fear what they dont understand and that is Gangnam in this case. He becomes increasingly isolated and the bullying gets worse. During one of the episodes of particularly nasty bullying the old man who saved Gangnam from the fire saves him once again. He hesitantly asks if Gangnam would like to be his family and Gangnam accepts becoming his adopted grandson. Gangnam lives a relatively happier life with his new Grandpa and Kkamjang and several years pass. He has just entered high school but not much has changed in terms of human behavior. Vicious bullying from his peers is still one of the major sources of grief even now. Whilst lying against the walls of a deserted alley badly beaten down and in pain Kkamjang coaxes Gangnam to finally acknowledge that life is hard for him and if he does he will grant him power to change his life. This is where the main story really begins. Its long been suggested that Kkamjang is not a figment of Gangnams imagination to cope with intense loss and tragedy but rather a real being that is able to influence the world around him. Imagination is only capable of producing results that are permutations of ones existing knowledge. You cannot imagine what you dont know. Kkamjang knows many things and often keeps them a secret from Gangnam leaving him in the dark about his true intentions. While Kkamjang often acts cute and silly there are moments that hint at something much darker belying his innocentseeming nature. It makes you think of Kyubey from Puella Magi Madoka Magica is he actually sinister entity moonlighting as a kawaii pet? Such as when he surrounds Gangnam with tendrils of darkness telling Gangnam let go of his stubborn refusal to admit to himself that he is indeed struggling. Once Gangnam has done so Kkamjang swallows his body with the black goo which restores vision to Gangnams eyes as well as removing all the burn scars on his face effectively converting him into a totally regular teenage boy. You may call this a copout as Ive seen others do since this eliminates Gangnams primary source of conflict as well as failing to explore the impact of his disability on his mental and emotional health. Although this seems to be the case I would point out that the existence of Kkamjang eliminates most of the obstacles blind people face so the realism of his condition was clearly not the key focus here. In my review of Under the Oak Tree I lamented at its insensitive depiction of the heroine with a stutter as unrealistic at best and nefarious at worst as it conjured an image of a damaged woman who needed to be saved by her handsome hot AF husband. With Gangnam I do not feel the same sense of disgust at the magical handwaving away of his blindness. In Under the Oak Tree stuttering served solely as a character trait to force pity points from the reader whenever she opens her mouth but in Dark Mortal the blindness and subsequent miraculous recovery have some redeeming factors in that it is not and never has been the defining trait of Gangnams character. It is his inner strength which defines him and his coping with a sudden blindness due to an accident is a source of that strength. Additionally the cure is pivotal to the plot so I will give this some leeway in terms of believability in what the story wishes to tell me. Ive also seen some people mention that this makeover of Kkamjangs raises a very problematic issue which does rear its ugly head almost immediately later on. Gangnam was shunned and bullied because he looked ugly due to the burn scars. As soon as he gained back his normal face he and the Grandpa move to another location to restart his life in a place where no one knows them and hence dont know that Gangnam used to be frightfully disfigured. This allows him to meet people without triggering the initial visceral fear of him and he quickly makes friends with several classmates at his new school. So here we have to address the elephant in the room. The webtoon suggests that Gangnam would have never been able to befriend anyone if he hadnt been beautified by Kkamjang and if extrapolated to apply to real life its message is that ugly people would not be able to have any friends. You must look beautiful or at least not unsightly to have people see and accept you as a person a fellow human being. Otherwise you are destined to be forever alone and isolated from society much like Quasimodo was in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This is a hurtful implication to people who are selfconscious about their looks who are born with some sort of physical imperfection or disfigurement or those who like Gangnam have suffered trauma or an event that has irrevocably altered their appearance. All of these cannot be helped its not like a person chose to look the way they do. Stories should try to make more of an effort to promote body positivity not shame people into believing they are less lucky than others who are more attractive than them and therefore having a slimmer chance at happiness. I would say the best way to correct this probably unforseen bad messaging on the authors part is to either leave Gangnams face alone and only correct his blindness although it wouldnt make too much sense with the lore as I will discuss later or not have him scarred in the first place. If one is simply looking for an excuse or rather I should say reason for Gangnam being bullied at school his blindness is enough. Children can be very cruel to people who fascinate them in a sickly curious way because they are so other as seen with the bully from A Silent Voice who viciously targets a girl simply because she is deaf. Even with Kkamjangs help there are still ways Gangnams blindness will be manifest in a visible form to others which will in turn raise both an understandable fascination with his disability as well as a sadistic desire to see him suffer depending on the individual in question. Perhaps the author just wanted the visual factor in order to cement the fact that Gangnam is worth pitying which Im leery of forgiving if this were indeed the case. Hes already suffered enough we dont need him scarred on top of that if youre just going to magically disappear them later in the next two chapters. Regardless it makes little sense to solve the issue of his burned face in this manner if it neednt be there at all. After being flipped over by this little debacle of questionable insinuations about the notsohidden requirement behind forming successful new relationships the story rights itself up proving to be a very enjoyable read. Gangnam has three major friends in his circle now the brother and sister martial artist duo who live next door to him and a foreigner girl who was his first love. He also gains an ally in a school delinquent named Jang Seoho who will prove to be important later. Despite their relatively peaceful and cheery hangouts together the group of friends constantly find themselves in the thick of trouble and mysterious violent incidents keep cropping up around them. When Gangnam digs deep to investigate the source of their constant new grievances Kkamjangs existence takes the dark turn as was foreshadowed from earlier on. Gangnam actually had a brother who died because he was involved in an experimental scientific project called the Dark Mortal Project named after the black shapeless dead people entities who were killed and converted to be used as shields onto which potential lifethreatening injuries are transferred from its users. As a result the user also gains enhanced physical strength and speed faster recovery abilities and a faint notion of attaining immortality as these Dark Mortals can be easily replaced if one is used up. Dark Mortals can also be used to stave off a deadly illness like terminal cancer which is what Gangnams brother was afflicted with. However because Dark Mortals are fueled by grief and anger at the unfair loss of their lives all users must wear a ring which will serve as a limiter on the Dark Mortals powers. If the ring is taken off the user will surely die because the Dark Mortal will overwhelm them instantly. So it is easy to identify if someone is a sponsor of this project simply by looking at their hands. If theyre naked they are innocent. If they wear the ring its time to fight Woohoo. Why they couldnt wear this metal object on another part of their body I dont know. Its not like the Dark Mortal is contained in one finger. And why must it be a ring? It could be a nipple piercing much safer since people dont generally walk around their shirt off. Well except in fantasy martial arts manhwa filled with impossibly buff men and their 16packs. Im getting off track. With this revelation we learn that Kkamjang is also a Dark Mortal albeit he seems less bloodthirsty than the others since Gangnam doesnt need a ring to keep him at bay. But theres another more sinister Dark Mortal inside Gangnam and whenever this one surfaces Gangnams eyes turns green and he experiences frequent black outs as he is no longer in control of his own body. Theres quite a lot of interesting plot twists and turns slowly revealing bit by bit the shady history of the Dark Mortal Project and how it lead to not only his brothers death but it was the primary reason Gangnams parents were killed in a staged accident because the secret could not be unleashed publicly to others. Gangnams brother possessed a unique ability to control more than one Dark Mortal at a time even without using a ring. The researchers attributed this to his sheer willpower and strong desire to live which obviously runs in the family as Gangnam has this trait too. Later we find out that the Grandpa who had saved him was no innocent bystander he was also actively involved in the Dark Mortal Project. In fact hes the one who introduced the idea to Gangnams brother in the first place and he has felt guilty because this project has led to the death of many people close to him. In the climax of the first season Kkamjangs true identity is revealed. He is Gangnams dead brother Ganggeon. He wiped out Gangnams memories of him to protect him and hes been by his side ever since continuing to watch over him and act as his guardian blob. Hes also been the one to keep the Dark Mortal dubbed Green Eyes at bay which is one of the strongest of all the Dark Mortals in the project because he has the ability to control other Dark Mortals and thereby the humans that possess them. I have to say I was not the least bit surprised by this twist because I saw the trail of clues leading to this which I believe was intentional on the authors part. It wasnt aiming for a dramatic outoftheblue revelation but more of a Oh I see no wonder moment. If you look back youll notice how Kkamjang gets noticably jealous when Gangnam calls the next door neighbor Hyung meaning brother. The way Kkamjang looks after Gangnam is overtly familial and his fierce sense of pride of Gangnam is something only a family member would express not a friend. In the final confrontation between Gangnam and the man who killed his family Kkamjang sacrifices himself so that Gangnam can absorb all the Dark Mortals and defeat the enemy. At the same time his Grandpa is killed and dies right in front of him. In one fell swoop of cruel fate Gangnam has lost his entire family yet again. This concludes Season 1 with the future looking very bleak a Dark Mortalinfested Gangnam resolving to become a monster to destroy the creator of the Dark Mortal Project. To defeat a monster you too must become a monster. Its important to note that the first season of Dark Mortal is far from perfect. It suffers from many common laughable stereotypes of shounen style tropes like the convenient boosts of power the Chosen One heroes and the unstoppable power of nakama. I recall one person describing this webtoon as the result of a 13year olds wet dream complete with cringeworthy edginess and glowing colorchanging eyes. While I wouldnt go that far I admit that Dark Mortal isnt trying at all to set a new bar for this genre which is a bit disappointing to say the least. What it does do well is entertain and I stayed up all night bingereading all of Season 1 in one sitting. The plot is compelling and makes me want to keep reading more despite its flaws. The relationship of Gangnam Kkamjang and Grandpa was the keystone to the storys foundation as its becoming increasingly rare nowadays to see stories focus so heavily on platonic relationships. While several girls had a crush on Gangnam romance was put off as a side note because it wasnt important. What is important is the mystery of Kkamjang a character who has been present since Chapter 1 and the uncovering of his true identity was as satisfying as putting the last piece of the puzzle together neatly tying many loose ends together. By the conclusion of the first arc I was wondering how could the author possibly top this off. When a series reaches a memorable climax that is subsequently guided to a such a clean finish you begin to fear that the author has already pulled too many good tricks out of their sleeves too fast and theyd have nothing left to show for the rest of the storys runtime. And so we now have Death Note Syndrome. Kkamjang is easily the main reason why Season 1 of Dark Mortal is such a good story. And its not because I have a soft spot for him because of how cute he is. Ah who am I kidding Ive written a blog post about how much I adore him. Ive taken so many screenshots of him for use in text conversations because theres so many moments of him doing everyday things that are both universally applicable and heartwarming please release some stickers of him... Alright alright in all seriousness while Kkamjang has high marketability which Im sure the author is aware of hes not just a simple mascot. Hes a big part of Gangnams life and also was his whole world when he was a blind boy who had nobody else. Kkamjang is a friend a confidant a mentor a guide and also Gangnams compass. Their relationship is symbiotic and comfortable often filled with silly banter that can only be found amongst two people who really understand each other. No one else knows Gangnam as well as Kkamjang does not even Grandpa. The decision to wipe out Kkamjang from Season 2 is the crucial impetus as to why the series deteriorated as quickly as it did in the second half. Oftentimes a good story is based on the backbones of a strong relationship between two characters. You want to see how they interact influence and change each other. Characters are less defined by their individual traits but rather a gestalt of all their interpersonal connections that come into play as conflict arises. Some bonds will be broken some will be formed. In Death Note the iconic relationship is obviously the one between Light and L. They are simultaneously enemies but also friends. In another world or parallel universe where these events hadnt occured as they did here they could have been the best of allies but fate has pitted them against each other. Only one can live and the other must die. The mental tugofwar between them drove the story forward at a nailbiting pace because you wanted to see who would be the victor. Will it be Light or will it be L? However this painstakingly meticulous weaving of their relationships to lay out the crux of the story is the same reason for Death Notes eventual undoing. Once Light killed L he had absolutely no one to fill in this empty space left behind and this is precisely why Light becomes a shadow of his former brilliant self in Part 2. Near and Mello are not even close to being called suitable ghosts of L even if they supposedly match him in intelligence. Again this is why a characters central traits are not as important as their relationships with one another. Light has no emotional ties to either of these two successors of L and he lacks heart and conviction to fight as hard as he did previously. Hes already mentally given up subconsciously he just doesnt know it yet. He becomes uncharacteristically sloppy and this leads to his own demise which I saw from miles away. In Dark Mortals Season 2 we see the same exact thing. With Kkamjangs death as well as Grandpas Gangnam has essentially given up. What is it that he gave up? His humanity. The once kind and caring boy whod step in to protect both friends and strangers without any hesitation is gone. In his place we have an amalgamation of Dark Mortals and an empty shell that exists only for vengeance. The reason for this drastic change? It turns out having no emotions grants you the ability to control several hundred Dark Mortals at once with the help of Green Eyes. He also has a Red Eyes that is the more skilled fighter in his cohort. At this point Gangnam is nigh unstoppable. The stale Chosen One trope rears its ugly head again. Gangnam is so special that he can control tons of Dark Mortals without the dead giveaway ring allowing him to masquerade as a normal human. He posseses a special Dark Mortal that everyone is afraid of and it has the ability to puppeteer people after he comes in contact with a Dark Mortal user making his job even easier. He has no need to worry about ANYTHING at this point because the enemy doesnt know he exists doesnt know hes coming for them and doesnt know that all the sponsors are being mindcontrolled. Wow. Can you guess if hes going to succeed? Well duh do you even need to ask? And that delinquent guy called Seoho I mentioned several paragraphs ago? He also has a special Dark Mortal that can fight super good so hes got Gangnams back Jack. After murdering a bunch of people or at least beating them half to death Gangnam and Seoho take over the entirety of the Dark Mortal Projects group of wealthy sponsors. This is completely nonsensical to me. They should just go after the evil director because thats the guy who caused this whole mess in the first place. His existence means that there will always be more Dark Mortals as hes the creator of them. Wouldnt it be the logical step to eliminate him first and then root out the sponsors later? Its not like the director posseses some OP Dark Mortal that Gangnam needs to cannibalize all the other mini ones to defeat him. Its not a video game like Pacman alright? Instead I believe their rationalization was to make him suffer as much as all the humans who died for his project suffered. Some sort of poetic justice hogwash Id say. This is a flipping shounen webtoon just go beat him up. Why are you trying to change genres now when the series is halfway over? Sure Gangnam and Seoho beat up some other evil Dark Mortal users along the way but theres no sense of urgency or danger seeing as how stacked they are. Its precisely when a story starts to milk things out and have a drawn out plotline with little to nothing happening and absolutely zero stakes thats when you know the author effed up. Oh wait there was also some tidbit about how the investors would flee at the first sign of trouble. So? Its not like all the investors killed people to get their Dark Mortals some of them are probably innocent. This intense burning desire for revenge should be targeted to one person only whom the location of IS known. There hasnt been enough evidence to suggest all of the other people involved in the funding of the project are evil so theres no reason to take that stance. It is still not a priority no matter how you swing it. It would have made more sense if they didnt know who the director was what he looked like and where they could find him so then and only then would they need to hunt down other sponsors to dig him out. But that cant happen because the director is Seohos father. Unlike Gangnam Seoho doesnt have amnesia so he knows exactly who he should be looking for. Even better the mountain came to Mohammed the director shows up at their high school happily calling him his son like he hadnt personally killed his own flesh and blood ten years ago for the sake of science. At some point the author regretted the decision to kill off Kkamjang so guess what? Hes baaaaaaaaack. I would throw confetti but I stopped myself since I knew it wasnt going to be implemented well. Now we have the typical KDrama trope of amnesia and Kkamjang doesnt remember anything about himself nor about Gangnam nor about the Dark Mortals. Hes regressed to a babylike state. I mean hes still cute and all but whats done cannot be undone. The relationship between Kkamjang and Gangnam the pillar stone of this series is crumbled to dust. This is like bringing L back from the dead except hes a shinigami now. Uh say what? Such mixed feelings. Youre happy hes back but this revival doesnt change the story. So take it out Bad storytelling alert Even with Kkamjang doing more silly antics in the background the tone of the story has changed. Gangnam has changed. He cant even smile anymore. His personality is gone. Kaput. I no longer cared if he failed or succeeded. My emotional investment in this series died with Kkamjangs first death. Oh crap Im getting ahead of myself. Ahem. The attention then randomly turns back to Gangnams group of friends remember them? The girl next door still has a crush on him her brother is working hard to prepare for a professional boxing tournament and the foreigner girl who is the only person to like Gangnam back when he was scarred thinks that Gangnam is in madly love with her. She confesses her feelings to him and he returns them. Is this really the right time for this? Seriously this boggles my mind. Even Green Eyes asks Gangnam WTF is he doing. You know theres a problem when the most inhumane Dark Mortal questions your actions. Oh and Seoho has an unrequited crush on the girl crushing on Gangnam. Now you know how messy everyones relationships are we can move onto how the author plays at raising the stakes having the bad guys come after the ordinary friends of Seoho but not with Dark Mortal users. Instead they hire some newly released prison convicts to frighten Seohos love interest. Errr why? Shouldnt you just go after your victims yourself since you have a Dark Mortal? Its not like they knew how OP Gangnam was and therefore were afraid to confront him. They have absolutely no idea the extent of his powers. Anyway the martial artist girl beats up her normal thug attackers then her professional boxer brother beats them up some more and no one goes after the foreigner girl who is the only one who cant fight for shit. Man the villains are useless idiots. Blah blah blah some more nonsensical and unexciting crap happens and finally mercifully were close to the finish line. We are launched into this weird tangent of Green Eyess backstory and the creation of the original Dark Mortals that made no sense whatsoever. So it turns out his whole village was wiped out la Kul Elna from YuGiOh elucidating why he hates humans so much. Im convinced at this point the author had an acid trip of watching too many horror movies because we have a masked man with glowing green eyes covered in bandages making countless masks like hes possessed. When he finds everyone else gone all of them taken away to be turned into Dark Mortals he starts to eat the masks one by one and hes grinning with a bloody mouth by the end of this freakish display. Then he explains he made himself into a Dark Mortal with his maskeating powers and bloodlust. I am at a loss for words. I honestly dont know what I just read. So Ill pretend I didnt see it. In a last ditch effort to draw cheap sympathy from us Kkamjang is AGAIN killed off. Jeez poor guy has died a total of three times. There was some very forced contrivance about how only Kkamjang can release all the Dark Mortals from Gangnams body to free them from their bindings to the mortal world or some such other BS that I have no patience for processing because the established lore has gone to the crapper at this point. Theres some attempt at pleading for a different outcome on Gangnams part thank god he regained a shred of humanity back when it counted most I suppose. Green Eyes says either Kkamjang must die or Gangnam will become a Dark Mortal too which essentially means dying. Then Gangnam says he can do the same thing back in Season 1 but Green Eyes says he cant because hes not SPECIAL anymore since he has emotions now. Oh great so being an emotionless robot gives you super powers good to know. Oh and Kkamjang got all his memories back. Dawww. Look at the mad rush to remake the same scene of the first season with Deus ex machina. Gangnam tearfully says goodbye to his brother one last time and while this moment is slightly touching my annoyance at the awful quality of the entirety of the second season made my heart turn to stone and I wasnt all that sad to see Kkamjang go. His last death isnt even about him its about Green Eyes. Just keep reading fellow human. Lets get a move on he says. With Kkamjangs sacrifice all the Dark Mortals are now liberated from the fleshy prison of Gangnam. So we see Gangnam and Green Eyes and Red Eyes confront the fallen director at last they all punch him with the Dark Mortals through his chest and they make him wear each and every single mask that Green Eyes has created. What is this unhealthy obsession with masks author? Green Eyes even makes a mask of Kkamjang and Grandpa. How cute to remind us that better characters used to exist before you. After the directors been punched full of holes and had his face rubbed raw by putting on thousands of masks the Dark Mortals all disappear leaving only the masks behind which now serve as a graveyardlike memorial for all the dead people who had vanished mysteriously over the past couple of years. Theres a freaking time skip because of course you need that in a shounen series and we learn how all the barely existent couples are now happily married or somesuch ridiculous undeserved drivel. Gangnam is now a teacher and he asks his students to draw their favorite thing. He draws one too and its Kkamjang. Yeah you really had to count on milking out his memory one last time to have the audience ignore all the other BS that happened in the last 35 chapters. Not going to happen. Youre insulting Kkamjang what a cruel thing to do. Im so done. In terms of the art its badly good. In which case I mean that the art itself is substandard with very simplistic lines and coloring as well as lack of detailed backgrounds but the panelling is above standard. The use of multiple similar panels to create suspense is reminiscent of what I see in webtoons by Kim Carnby and Ha Ilkwon although nowhere near their level of mastery. Its like in those horror movies where the painting is innocuous when the character is looking at it directly but as soon as the character turns away the paintings eyes move that sort of effect. Similarly this webtoon has many welldrawn scenes that are unnerving and creepy basically anything to do with Green Eyes as Im convinced hes a violent psychopath. Any panels with Kkamjang in it gets extra points from me because I am not ashamed of my bias for him. I would say Kkamjang is 90 of the reason why I enjoyed this webtoon until the end of Season 1. His presence wasnt able to salvage the abysmal wreck of Season 2 no matter how hard the author tried. I still took a lot of screenshots of him though so at least I got something out of it. Dark Mortal is a story rooted in the deep bond between Gangnam and Kkamjang and the extent of their relationship being uncovered gradually in Season 1 is made it good though not great. Already riddled with the often overused tropes found in shounen genre media these problems are further exacerbated after an unmatchable powerful climax and arc resolution in the first half of the series bringing up more questions than answers as Season 2 progresses. Just like in Death Note having a strong first half culminating in the death of a key character irrevocably destroys both the heart of the protagonist as well as the heart of the story itself. Once youve hit your peak you can only go downhill from there. There is only one highest point in a roller coaster not two. Overall Breakdown: Characters: 5/10 Story: 4/10 Art: 6/10 Lore/Worldbuilding: 4/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 220https://i.ibb.co/wKFT94q/20210619014153.jpg