Draft:So Ordinary

• Comment: No claims in the article have cited sources; References section just contains text. Rambley (talk) 22:04, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

• Comment: Rewrite the prose in neutral tone per WP:NPOV; #Criticism contains tons of quoted comments, please reduce this by rewriting their comments in your own words and concisely; don't just list the names of the websites you used as references, we can't know for sure if these websites truly support the information in this draft. See Help:Referencing for beginners for guidance. AstrooKai (Talk) 21:01, 8 June 2025 (UTC)

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So Ordinary

Introduction

So Ordinary is an omnibus-style webtoon that presents extraordinary and extreme situations faced by ordinary couples. A man finds out that his girlfriend’s ex had AIDS. A woman, who began a relationship by sharing sadness with a lover, realizes all his words were lies. A man in a marriage without love or complaints meets someone he’s intensely drawn to.

<So Ordinary> is an omnibus webtoon that lays bare the rawness of various kinds of love. Even after realizing love is no longer beautiful, can lovers still continue to love?

Webtoon Information

Item	Details
Author (Script/Art)	Carrot
Publisher	Kakao Webtoon Studio
Serialization Period	February 18, 2017 – May 19, 2024

Episode List

Episode Title (Korean)	Episode Title (English)	Episodes
무슨말을해도	Whatever You Say	Ep. 1–21
어느 밤 그녀가 우주에서	One Night, She from Space	Ep. 22–43
티타	Tita	Ep. 44–61
티타 이야기	The Story of Tita	Ep. 62–71
너의 서른번째 조각	Your Thirtieth Fragment	Ep. 73–96
헝겊 위의 아기 원숭이	Baby Monkey on the Cloth	Ep. 97–118
불륜만화	Infidelity Comic	Ep. 119–145
눈물은 언제나 투명	Tears Are Always Clear	Ep. 147–163
사랑하는 물	The Water I Love	Ep. 164–175
혐오하는 물	The Water I Hate	Ep. 176–193
안녕 죠	Goodbye, Joe	Ep. 194–213
그녀와 그녀의 그 것	She and Her Thing	Ep. 214–242
남 얘기	Someone Else's Story	Ep. 243–275
화상 입은 선인장	The Burned Cactus	Ep. 276–330
양다리만화	Two-Timing Comic	Ep. 331–381
흐린 거울을 함부로 닦지 말 것	Don’t Carelessly Wipe a Cloudy Mirror	Ep. 382–408
체온의 나무	The Tree of Body Temperature	Ep. 409–452
뼈말라의 사랑	The Love of Bony	Ep. 453–496

Plot Summary

Whatever You Say (무슨말을해도)

K and Seon are in love. Seon has a habit of calling the name of someone she depends on when she feels suffocated in closed spaces. This habit becomes a source of difficulty, but she eventually meets a boyfriend who becomes a great source of comfort and support.

However, that boyfriend tests positive for HIV and breaks up with Seon. Later, Seon meets K and falls in love. One day, K and Seon begin talking about the saddest moments of their lives. Seon says it was the day she found out her ex-boyfriend was HIV positive.

After hearing this, K begins to feel distant from Seon. He starts to wonder if Seon herself may be HIV positive, and if she might have infected him. Troubled by K's reaction, Seon breaks up with him. After separating from Seon, K starts a new relationship with someone else.

However, during a conversation with the new partner about their saddest memories, K begins to talk about Seon—just as Seon once spoke of her ex. The episode ends here.

Author Interview on This Episode

“It’s probably because the character is so different from me. Seon is strong enough to protect her lover even in terrifying circumstances. She adjusts to his emotional state and never lies when she doesn’t want to. And when it’s time to break up, she makes the decision right away. I, on the other hand, was always weak in most situations, always ready to run away. That’s why I really like Seon. I admire her.” – Source: Channel Yes

Musical

Production Information

Item	Details
Producer	Park Company
Directors	Kim Tae-hoon (2019), Kim Tae-hyung (2021), Hyun Ji-ya (2023)
Original Work	Carrot
Lyrics	Park Hae-rim
Music	Lee Min-ha
Theater	YES24 Stage Hall 3
Performance Period	Premiere: 2019.09.07 – 2019.11.10 Re-run: 2021.09.14 – 2021.11.21 Third-run: 2023.08.29 – 2023.11.12
Running Time	90 minutes

Characters

• Jay: Works at the Aerospace Agency. He has long dreamed of space exploration and finally gets the opportunity.
• Eun-gi: A robot repair technician. She dreams of spending ordinary days with Jay.

Synopsis

The curtain rises. Eun-gi talks about myths and legends related to the stars, while Jay mentions the stars’ coordinates and says they are long gone—what we see is only their light.

Jay announces one morning that he is being dispatched for a one-year mission to explore a planet similar to Earth. Eun-gi, upset that he made the decision alone, runs out. She then gets into an accident.

Some time passes. Jay consoles Eun-gi, saying her accident was hard for him too. Eun-gi feels sorry that Jay couldn’t go to space because of her. Jay then proposes they go to Nice, the place Eun-gi always wanted to visit.

While walking on the beach, Jay injures his ankle. Eun-gi worries, but Jay says it’s just a light sprain. Eun-gi, looking up at the starry sky in Nice, asks Jay if he’s okay not going to space. Jay says he is content.

After returning home, a stranger shows up and takes Jay away. Then Jay suddenly reappears, saying the one taken away was a clone and that he himself had been in space for a year.

Eun-gi, angry and confused, searches for the clone. They embrace, knowing he will be formatted soon. The clone loses his memory. Eun-gi introduces herself as "First" and names him "Again."

In reality, Eun-gi had died in the accident a year ago. The nightmare of drowning was a memory embedded in the cloned Eun-gi. Jay had gone into space hoping to find someone identical to Eun-gi and left behind a clone of himself to stay with cloned Eun-gi.

The clone, limping from his injured ankle, gets his part replaced by "First," and they live on.

Jay, now alone, gazes at the night sky in Nice, remembering Eun-gi. The story ends in a museum, where two characters—perhaps Jay and Eun-gi or others—look at a Chagall painting and talk about why the people in it are holding hands.

Musical Numbers

No.	Title
1	So Ordinary M/V
2	If Only We
3	Nightmare (Pre-release)
3a	Nightmare part 2 (Live Clip)
4	Nice
5	I Really Don’t Know
6	Over the City M/V
7	The You I Know
8	My Universe
9	The You I Know part 2
10	As Much As I Love You
11	So Ordinary (Reprise) M/V
12	Somewhere in Another World
13	Nightmare (Reprise)
14	Again, First
15	So Ordinary (Final Reprise)

Casts

2019

• Jay: Choi Yeon-woo, Lee Ye-eun
• Eun-gi: Sung Doo-seop, Jung Wook-jin, Jung Hwi

2021

• Jay: Choi Yeon-woo, Kang Hye-in, Lee Ji-soo
• Eun-gi: Son Yoo-dong, Jung Hwi, Shin Jae-beom

2023

• Jay: Choi Yeon-woo, Kang Ji-hye, Kim Ye-won
• Eun-gi: Lim Jun-hyuk, Jung Hwi, Hwang Hwi

Print Publications

Volume 1

Item	Details
Title	So Ordinary
Author	Carrot
Publisher	Munhak Therapy
Release Date	February 12, 2018

Book Description

A deep and honest question about “so ordinary love”: “What shape did your love take?” The story begins with a profound inquiry into what love is, and where its boundaries lie. The author attempts to find answers by putting characters through small obstacles: easy distrust, arrogant conviction, and lies that feel real. The omnibus contains three stories. The first story, “Whatever You Say,” features AIDS as a theme and meticulously observes how anxiety affects seemingly perfect relationships. The second, “One Night, She from Space,” is set in the near future and explores themes of human beings and their robot clones, emotions, memory, and love. The third, “Tita,” is a deep exploration of falsehoods that feel true and loves that feel false.

Table of Contents

• Prologue / p.8
• 01. Whatever You Say / p.12
• 02. One Night, She from Space / p.144
• 03. Tita / p.284
• Epilogue / p.468

Season 2 Vol.1: Your Thirtieth Fragment

Item	Details
Title	So Ordinary Season 2 Vol.1: Your Thirtieth Fragment
Author & Illustrator	Carrot
Publisher	Wisdom House
Release Date	September 25, 2020

Book Description

With over 120 million accumulated views, the hit webtoon “So Ordinary” Season 2 has been released as a printed volume. Each episode is published individually as part of a three-volume set, preserving the depth and quality of the author’s storytelling and illustrations.

Reader Reactions

• “I was left speechless from the powerful impact... Shockingly good.” – _ye***
• “Now it’s my turn. Like the characters who move on with life after love ends, I need to find myself.” – pap***
• “So grateful I found this piece.” – ach***
• “I hope everyone reads this multiple times. It's difficult, but becomes less so upon rereading. It’s our story.” – kh_***
• “A strange story that makes you think.” – yei***
• “A webtoon that pierces the heart and bares your soul with its calm expressions.” – _su***
• “At the end of intense relationships, I always knew myself better. This comic seems to read my heart.” – sol***

Awards & Recognition

• #1 Daum Webtoon ranking
• 52 million accumulated views
• Selected for “2018 Notable Webtoons” by Digital Comic Archive
• Author Carrot named a 2018 “Cultural Rising Star” by Dong-A Ilbo

Criticism

1. Lack of Gender Sensitivity

Although Carrot portrays characters such as AIDS patients, sexual minorities, women, and minors, the work is often criticized for its lack of understanding of these marginalized groups. In particular, there is consistent criticism that women are sexualized across almost every episode. The episode titled “Infidelity Comic” is where such criticism was most evident. Some of the reader comments include:

> “This isn’t just a problem in this episode. It’s always women who boost mediocre men’s egos. Not extremely pretty, not genius-level smart, but with some special sexy trait only the male lead notices… They’re always wounded and waiting for love, and the men always feel the urge to protect them. The author shows women in such stereotypical frames. This is just like any ordinary Korean male’s perspective. Any woman who’s experienced discrimination will know what I mean. This is the limitation of...

> “Typical Korean male depiction. The men seem passive, but suddenly get assertive in ways that say, ‘What’s this guy up to?’ The language and plot are pretty, but in every single episode, women are put in passive roles. If the webtoon wants broader appeal and stronger coherence, the author should reflect on their own gender consciousness.”

> “This is the peak of sexual objectification.”

> “I hate how women speak formally while men speak casually. It makes me wonder about the author’s mindset. Is it intentional, or unconscious?”

> “Dear author, please take a look. You’ve illustrated your voyeuristic and lowbrow habits regarding women so clearly. This episode compiles every discomfort I’ve felt so far. You apologized before, but nothing seems to have changed.”

> “The protagonist feels like a creep in this episode. Like a pervy editor analyzing young women.”

> “I’ve read this from the start and never left a comment, but this episode crossed the line. The objectification of women is too much. I know the author is male, but how can anyone be so lacking in gender awareness in this day and age?”

While the author sometimes apologizes in afterword posts, no explicit corrective action has been taken. Many readers continue to raise concerns about the author’s lack of gender awareness.

2. Pacing and Panel Density

Carrot was previously criticized for excessively wide spacing between panels, which some interpreted as an attempt to stretch the content. Readers debated whether this was a legitimate stylistic choice or artificial inflation of content length. However, such criticisms have largely disappeared in more recent episodes, indicating that the author may have taken the feedback into account.

Author’s Response

In an interview with Channel Yes, Carrot directly mentioned the reader responses and shared insights about the creative process:

> “After I finish every episode, I go through a time of torment asking myself, ‘What did I just draw?’ ‘Do I have the right to say this?’ ‘Did I think enough about it?’ Readers seem to notice this—they leave kind comments, but also harsh ones. One comment that really struck me was, ‘You’re just justifying yourself.’ And I think that’s probably true. The people I draw are ordinary individuals in exceptional situations, and they harbor emotions that are often hard to justify or deserve criticism. Yet,...

> “When I think about what my characters are saying, I feel like it’s this: ‘Please understand me. And if you can’t, then at least pity me. And if that’s too much, then just hear me out.’ Even so, the fact that they’re still craving love—that feels deeply human to me. I think I always want to tell those kinds of human stories.”

The interview reveals that the author is well aware of the contradictions in the characters and sees these contradictions as essential to the human condition. Carrot emphasizes love as the fundamental force that drives him:

> “The reason I love is simple. I really like people. That’s the biggest driving force behind everything I do, and I’ll probably love until the day I die. But we all have the right not to love, too. So I’d say: Love is still a good thing. But everyone also has the right not to love. My stories aren’t trying to say, ‘Let’s love.’ They’re just about love. If someone read my work and ended up having a conversation about love with someone, or came to understand someone they previously couldn’t, then that...

– Source: Channel Yes

References

• Channel Yes Interview with Carrot
• Daum Webtoon Official Page
• Musical Production Programs
• Kyobo, Yes24, Aladin Reader Reviews
• 2018 Digital Comic Archive “Notable Webtoons”
• Dong-A Ilbo 2018 “Cultural Rising Stars”

Category:Korean webtoons Category:Romance webtoons Category:Webtoons adapted into musicals Category:Webtoon controversies