Misaeng Webtoon Review: The Same Office, a Different Reader

Hi, it’s Min. Misaeng is the webtoon I’ve carried with me the longest. Calling this a review feels slightly strange: I followed it during serialization, and it became part of the texture of my days.

This review is about Yoon Tae-ho’s original webtoon. I liked the television drama too, but the comic’s quieter rhythm is the one I prefer.

Spoiler level: The office premise and broad character dynamics. No later employment outcomes, character departures, or ending details.

Content note: Workplace exclusion, bullying, and gender discrimination.

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My Short Verdict

If I had to choose one work that has stayed with me, I’d choose Misaeng without hesitating.

I enjoyed it, though its pleasure wasn’t the kind that made me laugh out loud. It made an ordinary working day feel worth paying attention to. Sometimes a report or a meeting held more tension for me than a much larger event in another story.

What makes it special to me is that I returned to it and found myself reading from a different place.

The Same Comic, Two Different Readers

When serialization began, I was still new at my first company.

After lunch, I’d open a new installment in a corner of the break room. There were days when my eyes began to sting and I went to get water. A chapter could help me get through the week, while the wait for another felt unusually long.

I remember readers in the comments recognizing their own team leaders and workplaces. It felt as though other people were living through similar days. That made the experience a little less lonely.

Much later, with more working experience behind me, I reread it from the beginning.

As a new recruit, I’d read from Geu-rae’s side. This time, I noticed the people working with newer colleagues and deciding what to entrust to them. The same scenes felt different because I had changed.

It was the first work I’d experienced so distinctly as two different readers. That second reading is a large part of why I remember it so strongly.

The People I Understood Differently

I liked Jang Geu-rae for how he stayed with what he didn’t yet understand. He listened through unfamiliar conversations and tried to fill the gaps afterward.

When I was new, I sometimes pretended to know things because I was afraid of being found out. Watching him remain present while still being inexperienced made me uncomfortable with myself. The suspicion around how he entered the company, and the judgments attached to his education, made his position painful to read.

Oh Sang-sik interested me in a different way as I gained experience. I didn’t read him as a manager who expressed care through constant reassurance. What mattered to me was the trust involved in handing someone work.

Being asked to take responsibility for a task can feel like recognition. I came to understand how difficult it is to give a newer colleague room and wait without taking over. An attitude that had seemed rather distant began to look considerate to me.

With Ahn Yeong-yi, I felt admiration and frustration together. I was upset by the way being a woman could become the first thing others saw, even when she was capable. Her choice to answer through results impressed me, but I also wondered how exhausting that expectation must be.

Jang Baek-gi and Han Seok-yul initially irritated me. As their own concerns became more visible, my feelings changed. They began to seem like people I might actually work with, rather than figures placed there to perform a role.

An Office I Recognized in the Panels

The art felt plain and rough-edged to me, with expressions that rewarded a longer look. A quiet panel could seem to contain more than a speech.

I recognized an atmosphere in the attention to credentials, assumptions about connections, the watchfulness around after-work gatherings, and thoughts of the last train. Those details brought back my own associations with Korean working life.

That recognition belongs to my experience. I wouldn’t use the comic as a description of every Korean company, or assume its office habits are unchanged today.

Where It Could Be Hard to Enter

The trading-company terminology was unfamiliar at first. I sometimes moved past a term without fully understanding it; the comic doesn’t explain everything for a newcomer.

Reading installments as they arrived also felt different from reading them together. On a reread, I noticed stretches where a problem arose and people worked through it in a similar rhythm. I occasionally wanted a change of pace.

Some office customs may feel dated to a new recruit reading now. The restrained artwork can also take a little adjustment. For me, the people became familiar enough that their expressions mattered more than the initial impression of the style.

One Move at a Time

The title is a baduk, or Go, term for stones whose life isn’t yet secure. That image became the way I understood the whole comic.

I read it as people trying to get through another day, one move at a time. I found comfort in that scale.

I also remember panels and lines being passed around, including in group chats. On difficult days, I think a quiet acknowledgment was sometimes all I could offer. Those small exchanges are part of what I associate with the work, alongside the installments themselves.

Who I’d Recommend It To, and Where to Begin

I’d recommend it if you’re finding your way through a first job, thinking about leaving one, or feeling the weight of another Monday. It may also interest you if you want to imagine what a parent’s working days might have felt like.

If you want fast developments and a clean burst of triumph, or simply need an evening away from office concerns, this may feel heavy. Try an opening installment or two when you have room for it.

For the Korean webtoon, use the official Kakao Webtoon listing or KakaoPage listing. Check the service’s current access conditions and the full product title when choosing between publication sections.

The Misaeng hub explains the original and its adaptations. The workplace explainer looks specifically at the 2014 drama’s opening, rather than serving as a chapter guide to this comic.

I hope you find a good moment to begin. And if today has been difficult, I hope you can still feel that you’ve placed one worthwhile move.