There is an anime that aired a few years ago where the core of the story was about fictional characters coming to life into our own modern world. Not only did they have to come to terms with the idea that they were now in a different world with different rules and laws, but some of them also had to come face to face with their creators. The anime in question was Re:Creators and I had an absolute blast watching it back in the day. The concept of fiction and reality blending like that and especially the line between characters and people was a very interesting one to explore. We get to explore that line between fiction and reality once again with the topic of today’s review: The Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint.

The Webtoon follows Dokja Kim, an ordinary office worker who is doing his best to get by in the busy work culture of Seoul. We find Dokja on the metro home where he is reading his favorite webnovel. This webnovel – Three ways to survive the apocalypse – has been running for over a decade and although it started out having a moderate fanbase, by the time they got to chapter 100 there was only one weekly reader left. Dokja is the only person still reading this story every week and when the story suddenly ends he gets an e-mail from the author. The e-mail is a little bit vague but it more or less tells him that TWSA has won an award and is now becoming paid content. We get better hints at what this actually means later on in the story, but for now it just seems like the author has finished his work, won an award and is showing his gratitude to Dokja for being a loyal reader. That’s where it all should have ended if not for the sudden appearance of a Dokkaebi in the metro. Dokja recognizes what is going on – albeit in disbelief for a while – pretty quickly. This scenario happening in front of him is the same as the opening scene of TWSA. And Dokja is the only person who knows what is about to happen.

What follows is a complicated narrative. Dokja knows much more about what is going to happen than us as readers – because he’s already read the story – but he also knows that there are a lot of scary moments on the horizon. The main character of TWSA is a regressor. Junghyeok Yu is currently on his third life, having died and regressed two times already. In the actual story he ends up regressing many more times, but it is in Dokja’s interest that he doesn’t do this now that the story and the real world seem to have merged. That is mainly because Dokja doesn’t know what will happen to himself and his friends from before this shift in his life if Junghyeok were to die. Would they also get regressed, would they just vanish or would their timeline simply move on without Junghyeok. Not to mention that as a fan of TWSA he really wants to see Junghyeok and himself both make it to the ending he has in mind.

The driving force behind the narrative are the Dokkaebi who are basically running a Twitch stream for reality content. They set up different scenarios that the people in their respective worlds – or channels – need to clear. The people stuck in these scenarios can get some support from a supporting constellation. Think about a Hunger Games scenario where the people who want to support you can give you coins, powers and all sorts of things. But make no mistake, as much as they care about their favorite character in a show, if they stop being entertaining then they will probably move on. So it is in the Dokkaebi’s best interest to put on a good show so their viewership numbers go up, it is in the constellations best interest for their chosen people to do well and it is in the people’s best interest to entertain the constellations. 

Although the story feels a bit convoluted at times – partially to blame by the fact that Dokja knows what is coming and sometimes feels like an overly powerful participant due to basically getting his hands on all sorts of rare stuff simply because he read about it – it also has a lot of very good ideas. For example, early on in the story there are a group of prophets who are amassing power. The reason for this is that they were the people who were initially reading this story as well, before eventually dropping it. They only know what happens up to a certain point. And what makes that even more interesting is the fact that they turn into characters when the story progresses past the knowledge they have. Up until now I haven’t really talked about Dokja’s powers in this new world. He has the titular power of having an omniscient reader’s viewpoint but this also comes with the Fourth Wall ability. This ability allows him to separate himself from a lot of things mentally and eventually allows him to even merge with people or take their abilities like bookmarks. Dokja makes full use of his powers and in this we also see that the world around him is changing to the point that although he still recognizes a lot of the main plot points from the book he read, there obviously wasn’t a “Dokja Kim” in the original novel he read, and there is one here.

Lastly, the thing that really elevated the story for me is the relationship between Dokja and Junghyeok. Initially the two can’t stand each other and Junghyeok almost murders Dokja just for being in the way of his plans. As time moves on they grow closer and closer because Dokja really seems to understand Junghyeok. This also turns into a great running gag that one of the constellations is a big fan of both of them and supports their budding homoerotic relationship that she definitely isn’t projecting onto them. My main complaints for the series is that due to the rapidly shifting of scenarios it can sometimes feel like some of the side characters get put on the backburner for too long and I kind of ended up losing interest in some of them. But overall I still think that this is a very good story that deserves your time and attention and since it is currently on a short hiatus, now is the best time to pick it up and catch up before it continues its runtime. From what I could find online, the Webtoon has covered around 1/3rd of the Webnovel, so there is still lots of content to come. Thanks for reading!