These are self-portrait characters drawn by webtoonist Maanchwee. (Maanchwee)

By Wu Jinhua

Where did the idea of "seeing, not smelling" come from? "A Girl Who Sees Smells" is a crime investigation and romance webtoon by the webtoonist who goes by the name Maanchwee. The protagonist can see smells and experiences a series of events to capture perpetrators of crimes.

Maanchwee debuted in 2009 with "Mongjupe," a fantasy work centered on characters with supernatural abilities. "A Girl Who Sees Smells" was popular enough to run for nearly three years from July 23, 2013, to June 28, 2016. It gained cumulative views of 10 million per month after its debut and was made into a TV drama.

The webtoon was also translated into eight languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Spanish, French and German. Afterwards, Maanchwee from 2020 to last year ran "Locker and Opener," which like her previous works features characters with supernatural powers who chase or run away from each other.

With an ingenious and simple story that avoids clutter, the webtoon showed Maanchwee's distinct characteristics. Having dreamed of becoming a comic artist since childhood, the artist in a written interview with Korea.net on July 24 said webtoons "make me look forward to seeing a story before my eyes that makes my heart pound."

The following are excerpts of the interview with the webtoonist.

Why do your works "Mongjupe," "A Girl Who Sees Smells" and "Locker and Opener" all have characters who possess supernatural powers?
I'm quite interested in the stories of people with special abilities living in modern society. I tried making webtoons in other genres but surprisingly couldn't even think of lines to make the story flow. I get ideas for characters from things other than people.

For instance, the protagonist in "Mongjupe" draws with a mechanical pencil on the ground a picture that can erect three dimensionally, an idea I got from "Sketch Up," a 3D program popular at the time. As soon as I saw the screen with 3D pillars going up, I thought, "Ah, I can use this power for this character."

These are scenes from Maanchwee's serial webtoon "A Girl Who Sees Smells," which ran from July 2013 to June 2016. (Maanchwee)

The protagonist Yoon Sae-ah has the unique ability to see smells. How did you get this idea?
What inspired me at the time was the popularity of works on Naver Webtoons that had moving images on screen. That made me think of a different approach to "senses." I started to think, "What senses have webtoons ignored?"

At that moment, I remembered smell. This gave me the idea of what if someone could see smells, and to better express this, I chose the crime investigation genre.

Your popular webtoon "A Girl Who Sees Smells" ran for nearly three years. When producing this long-running work, what aspect consumed most of your effort?
Putting out a crime investigation webtoon twice a week wasn't easy. I worked from morning to night (smiles). The readers went through my stories quickly and I had to keep producing new episodes as a result.

To convey the atmosphere of "smell" expressed only through words, I placed items with fragrances next to the computer and wrote the script as I smelled them. To maintain the story's main flow and ensure professionalism, I added information about smells at the bottom of every episode. The webtoon is about detective work but I was careful not to deviate from the setting of "seeing smells."

You webtoons have been translated for foreign readers. "A Girl Who Sees Smells" is a hit especially in Greater China, where fans say they've read the series multiple times.
I think its biggest appeal is a unique story. Smell is something that fades away and cannot be used as solid evidence, and I think that contributes to the overall story's atmosphere of tension and mystery. The minor characters are as distinctive as the main ones, and I think that is how readers remained interested in the webtoon until the end. 

The live-action TV drama "A Girl Who Sees Smells" was aired in 2015 from April 1 to May 21 on SBS. The protagonist as she appears in the webtoon is shown on the left and actor Shin Se-kyung playing her in the live-action SBS series is displayed on the right. (SBS' official Facebook page)

As the creator of the work, what do you think is the difference between the original webtoon and TV series of "A Girl Who Sees Smells?"
The TV drama tells a complete story through 40-minute episodes, a totally different type of work. This changed my view of adaptations. Webtoons have a bit more freedom in production. You can freely adjust the number of cuts, skip certain scenes as needed or delete all of them except the ones you want to emphasize. Production planning isn't easy but I enjoy this process of thinking (smiles).

You wrote the scripts for "A Girl Who Sees Smells" and "Locker and Opener." Briefly describe the scriptwriter's role for Korea.net readers.

Simply put, a scriptwriter writes the webtoon's story and makes the visual continuity. He or she must make a picture storyboard with production and facial expressions and pass it on to the webtoon artist. The latter absolutely requires a long time as drawing each hair and such is incredibly meticulous work.

You joined the Korea Copyright Protection Agency's campaign to protect webtoon copyrights. As a professional in the field, what would you ask of Korea.net readers?
When I produced "Locker and Opener," I as a victim sued a website that illegally posted webtoons. The site was eventually shut down but dozens of small illegal websites still distribute webtoons illegally.

Certain artists have seen their incomes drop 33%. Please don't search for websites that offer webtoons free as an "economic choice" and remember that the few hundred KRW are like bread to webtoonists. 

The growing popularity of Korean webtoons has attracted more people to the field. What advice would you give them?
I'd tell them to approach things that make their hearts beat. If you're thrilled to draw simple images of ordinary daily life and share them, you can do that. If you're excited to add a twist to a structured story, you can grow into a writer.

Don't force yourself to pursue works or genres that are popular now. I want to tell you that if you walk your own path, you can eventually become a professional writer in a field.

jane0614@korea.kr