From the moment I heard about His Barcode Tattoo, I knew I had to read it. And last month I finished reading both the Webtoon and the Novel it is based off.
In this review, I will be talking about the webtoon. There are separate reviews about the novel and one comparing – it is more of a which one is better then the other – both the novel and the webtoon together on this site.
You can read, The Mess Called His Barcode Tattoo- Novel Review and Novel vs Webtoon adaptation of His Barcode Tattoo by clicking on them.
The Novel His Barcode Tattoo is written by author Ivy Song, which got published in October 2016 under Tapas as an original. In July 2017, artist Wishroomness brought the characters alive with their art. They are also the reason I read His Barcode tattoo in the first place.
Wishroomness is also the author and artist for the Line Webtoon Original Nice To Meet You. You can check my review about it HERE. It was our Valentine Special this year. I gave Nice To Meet You an overall of 9.5. A sweet well-written romance that leaves its readers full of joy.
Unlike the one, I am going to talk about now. So let’s get on to it!
- Title: His Barcode Tattoo
- Author & Artist: Ivy Song & Wishroomness
- Story: 4 out of 10
- Art: 8.5 out of 10
- Genre: Romance
- Status: Completed
- Overall rating: 6 out of 10
I was very and I mean VERY generous with my overall rating in this one. Solely because of the art. No matter how ridiculous the story was the art redeemed half of it. The color and the design of the characters were good. And I really liked that part of it. If I could just ignore the lack of everything the story offered and only focus on the sweet stuff, it was a good read. The art really made those sweet moments meaningful.
But no matter how good the art was it couldn’t hide the lack of story that plagued His Barcode Tattoo.
If you are one of the few who haven’t heard of what His Barcode Tattoo is about, then reading the synopsis won’t give you any idea either. You think you got it but honestly, you don’t.
The synopsis for both the Novel and the Webtoon is the same.
“I wondered if people noticed it, the numbers. It wasn’t long before I realized I was the only one who saw them.
I found out what the numbers meant when I was fifteen. The numbers that appeared on the neck of every person I met…predicted when and where they would die. I was the only one who knew when someone would expire.
But Sehun was different from the others.
He didn’t have a bar code.” – Source Tapas.
Of both versions, the webtoon is more popular. With 1.7M views, 108k subscribers, and 141.9k like it is in the Top 50 of the Popular Romance Premium Comis list even though it came out in 2017.
Do not trust those numbers. As something that has been out for almost 4 years, and one of their most popular series those likes indicate a different story.
Let me compare it with a new random story that came out in April 2021 which has about 43.1k views, 4.2k subscribers, and 5k likes.
So a work that is out for almost 4 years vs almost 15 days – as I write this.
His Barcode Tattoo is a premium story in Tapas as in, if you want to read it you need INK- a currency in Tapas that is needed to unlock chapters and support creators within the app. And for INK you either need money or watch a ridiculous amount of ads(10 per ad) or participate in the events – though the numbers given are low.
So instead of waiting days to earn those INKs, I just brought it to unlock all the chapters, to binge.
I spent almost 8 dollars in total to read both the Webtoon.
So what happened that made me rate His Barcode Tattoo so low? First of all, there are plot holes, ridiculous fast pace, and zero character development. Inconsistency within the story itself.
In the webtoon version, these flaws are less distinctive. As you can see what is happening easily through the art. In the Novel, however…
Though the webtoon didn’t survive the clutches of the insanely fast pace and a few. But it wasn’t the artist’s fault. How can you develop a 1D character?
I went to read the novel after finishing the webtoon because I thought, maybe the webtoon is made for the novel readers. Hence the lack of explanation in places and fast pacing. Maybe it skipped parts. It is only 45 chapters.
But the webtoon actually does a better job of making the readers understand what is going on in the story instead of the novel. With the 35 chapters the novel has, the characters and the story goes nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I mean, by the end of the second chapter the main characters were in love.
It is so cheezy. In the webtoon, however, the lights and the blushes make it somewhat sweet.
It was such a unique concept but the author couldn’t properly execute it. The artist tried their best.
In the end, the webtoon does a better job at expressing the story than the novel did.
With the help of beautiful art, the webtoon provided us with a better reading experience than the novel could. But the core problems that plagued the novel -fast pace, no character development, lack of secondary characters or their purpose, cliched and dramatic plot twists that changed halfway in the story changing into something new and lack of consequences in anything- leaves a bitter aftertaste as one reads any of them.
So if you want to check out the webtoon for the beautiful art done by the artist, click here. Just not expect much from the poorly written story, especially the novel that it was based on unless you enjoy half-baked ideas, then you can click here to read that.
Maybe I went a little hard on this one. I had huge expections and it just failed. Well, this are all my personal opinion. It might be something of your taste. So do check it out and decide for yourself.
Until next time, happy reading. And stay safe. See you guys on our next update!
Ps. You guys can follow Hana Reads on Instagram and Twitter. Not all of the webtoons that we read makes to the blog. So we are sharing about them there. Hope you guys check us out!
Hana out!
Literary Hana 
I’m checking out the novel after reading this review. Thank you
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