If I ever had to choose a webtoon where I would want to live inside, not as an MC- that’s a hassle – but as a side character, Mystical probably would be in the top 3.
Wanna know why?
If so, then shall we dive into the mystical world of webtoon Mystical created by Van. J.
Before we dive in though, I would like to mention that there will be some spoiler-ish stuff in this review. As I want to talk about everything that I loved or didn’t in the webtoon. But if you don’t want to read this spoiler full/lengthy review, you can check out my review of Mystical on IG. It is shorter and spoiler-free. Just click here.
With that out of way, let’s jump straight right in!
- Story: 9.4 out of 10
- Art: 10 out of 10
- Genre: Supernatural, Romance.
- Status: Completed
- Overall rating: 9 out of 10
Mystical is a supernatural/romance webtoon created by Van. J. If you have been reading webtoons for a long time, then you might have known the creator as they are the artist behind the webtoon Winter Wood – one of my favorites.
*Spoiler- both Mystical and Winter Wood are in the same universe. And there is a very cute WW cast cameo in Mystical!
Mystical is originally a Korean webtoon, that is available in Never Webtoon under the name 신비 – Sin-bi, which means mystery/magical/mystic(al).
It was released in Naver Webtoon on February 16, 2020, and got translated into English the following year on August 23rd. With an average of 9.96/9.97 per episode on the Korean site and a whopping 9.85 (date July 2022) on Line Webtoon. Which is really high considering the amount of webtoon that is available on the site. And Mystical honestly hasn’t been promoted as much as a few other ‘popular’ webtoons in Line. There is a total of 94 chapters. 2 spin-off chapters and an Epilogue.
With that not-so-important info dump, let’s check out the synopsis of Mystical.
Garam has always loved to draw, but his dreams of being an artist have been on hold ever since his mother passed away. Wanting to become more independent and focus on his art, he moves into his grandmother’s empty house by the ocean. There, he meets his greatest muse: a mystical water creature with no memories of her past. Now it’s up to Garam to help her uncover what she has forgotten.
Source – Webtoon
When I think of Mystical, the art is the first thing that pops into my mind. Every time I talk about webtoons, I would say that I don’t have a favorite art style. But I can honestly say it now that I LOVE the art in Mystical. The colors, the backgrounds, the lighting, the color pallet, and the whole atmosphere that it creates, elevates the storytelling and the story.
Not every art style works with every type of story. The art has to support the story as a webtoon is more visual than reading a book.
A great example where the art has a great emphasis on storytelling is Beetle Hands created by Humu/ herhumanist (I reviewed it a few months back, you can read it here).
And the same happened with Mystical.
The art has a dream-like feel to it. It is rosy and blushed like a beautiful summer dream, that you would never want to wake up from.
And there are two timelines in the story. One is the present where we start from. And the color is slight -and I mean very slightly- tined in blue. But when we switch back to the past, it is busting with these pretty pastel colors as Garam reminisces his past where he found his muse, himself, the love of his life, and got a second chance to be close to his family.
And the art conveys it so beautifully.
Plus it is absolutely a treat for the eyes.
Now for the writing. I will divide it into two parts. Characters and the actual storyboarding of the webtoon.
From the beginning the story had a certain tone to it – I won’t talk about it cause it’s kind of a big spoiler- and as the story progresses, you can feel it increasing. But the ending is the total opposite of it. Which I think was a very clever /bold decision from the creator’s side.
Though I neither hated nor loved it. It did surprise me as it kinda -not kinda, but definitely got me caught off guard. It suited the story and the direction it was going.
But apart from a few hiccups, it was very well written. As you read you can feel the character’s pain and their happiness from their expressions to their thoughts. Again, the art was just absolutely on point. I have read very few stories where I loved and understood all of the characters. They were fleshed out and their turmoils felt real.
And it added to their personality. Cause of this when a certain character was left out…it felt as if something was missing.
The story only focuses on the main two characters, maybe that is why when it came to the other characters only bits that included the main characters were shown.
And for the characters that were written for this series, I can’t pinpoint one single character that I loved cause I liked them all. They all felt real.
The number of characters in Mystical is very limited. There is probably a total of 10 or 12 characters that we meet throughout the webtoon.
And each of these characters had an objective and sadly they were only there to serve it. And when it was done they were gone. This is the part of the writing that I particularly didn’t like at the first. Specifically with one particular character who was just left out at the end cause he had done his bit.
And when I wrote my IG review right after finishing Mystical, I rated the story/writing an 8.9 cause of that.
But as I write this post after letting the webtoon, the characters, and the story marinate in my head for the last couple of weeks, I finally understood what the creator was going for.
The story is shown only from the viewpoint of Garam as he is the one who is remembering the past and living in the present, telling us about it.
If I think about it like this, since it is from Garam’s viewpoint and he is the one narrating the story to us, so he didn’t feel the need to tell about others cause they were not part of his story anymore… then maybe I was a bit too hard on the writing when I was rating it at the beginning.
Cause if this is the reason…then it deserves a 10 on writing as well. It is kinda brilliant in that way IF that is what the author wanted to do from the beginning and not me overanalyzing it.
In the end, Mystical is definitely one of the better-written and planned-out stories out there. That I can say without a doubt.
I actually binged this with the ever lovely Becca aka we.be.toons! And it was a race against time as we started reading days before Mystical goes to be Daily Pass.
I will include a little review from Becca here. Make sure to follow her on IG. She gives out fantastic recommendations for both English readers and for Webtoon Latam!
“At first, I felt a bit deceived since I thought the gorgeous art would lead to a bright simple story, but it is more than that, you can see a glimpse of sadness right in the first episode. Through the joyful episodes, there is a slight grim trail that naturally takes you to the flabbergasting finale. The whole experience of the story flow is like daydreaming, then realizing you might actually have a nightmare, and then it feels like it was all a fever dream.
Fear not, my dear friend, for this is a story full of cute and fun scenes, the art is a step beyond gorgeous and it unfolds in a lot of amazing and unexpected ways.”
Becca truly has a gift with the way she writes. So check her out and her review for Mystical on IG, by clicking here.
Mystical is under Daily Pass since June 2022. Since it has 91/94 chapters it won’t take much longer to read even with the Daily Pass.
Click here to read.
And take care of yourself! I see you are trying some new stuff in life. Hope they all work out! Until next time, Happy Reading!
Literary Hana 