Chan Gu, a 20-year-old who works hard to support his younger siblings and frail mother, gets hit in the face with a baseball bat by a livestreaming "neotuber" named Zia Kwon on his way home from work. Eager to make up for her mistake, she brings him onto her channel for an apology video, but his natural charm leads to her suggesting the two of them start a new channel. Enticed by the money, he agrees, and the two start to grow close, but he worries his familial responsibilities will get in the way.

Couple Channel: Chan & Zia has a story by and art by Kim Kihyun. English localization is done by WEBTOON. Published by WEBTOON.Rated YA.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

It begins with an accident. Zia, a popular but not a superstar streamer, is mildly concerned about her stagnant viewer numbers. She decides to livestream herself walking in a sketchy area, dragging a baseball bat “just in case”. When showing her batting form, Zia accidentally nails a passerby in the face. That passerby is Chan Gu, a young man who is desperate to make as much money as he can to support his mother and younger siblings.

When Chan wakes up in the hospital, he panics. He doesn't have the money to stay in bed! He has to get back to work. As he reaches to pull out the IV, Zia enters, having paid his bills, apologizing for all the agita she's caused him.

After Zia helps Chan out of another hole, Zia proposes they go into business together as streamers. Her fans already love him, seeing as he was nice about being hit in the face with a baseball bat…and he's smoking hot. This manhwa is a comedy of real-life errors, miscommunications, and misunderstandings all rolled into what it means to be a romantic comedy.

I say “meant to” because we know Zia and Chan are actually attracted to one another and will, of course, make an adorable couple on-screen and off. So it is actually quite frustrating to have the “comedy” rely on utterly tedious gender stereotypes and conservative thinking. “They were roommates” is funny as a meme because it is not really a great plot. Chan and Zia are sharing an apartment, getting drunk together, ending up in bed together, but no, they aren't doing anything! It is incomprehensible to me that anyone still finds this hilariously funny. Which is a shame, because this is not a very cute meet-cute that you know is going to be great.

Fans of rom-coms will surely enjoy Couple Channel: Chan & Zia.

Bolts
Rating:

Can I just say that this story really overestimates just how much online content creators make. Maybe it's different in Korea, which I am seriously considering moving to. But as someone who has been doing content creation for almost a decade, the amount of profit margins that were on display here felt absolutely ludicrous. That's gonna be a pretty heavy suspension of disbelief to buy into if you want to continue with the story, considering how integral money is to a lot of the major developments that take place. That being said, when all of that is said and done, I did find myself actually being drawn into the innocent and wholesome romance that was born out of this incredibly contrived setup. However, the contrived nature of the setup is also kind of the point.

I was originally worried that this was going to be a story about manipulation and deception for clicks, but it's actually a lot more straightforward than I could've possibly imagined. An influencer named Zia Kwon gets caught up in a scandal after accidentally hurting somebody named Chan Gu in an accident. The two end up having really good chemistry with each other during a moment of reconciliation, and Zia Kwon suggests that they start a couples channel since the Internet really seemed to like that chemistry during live streams. I like the idea of a pretend couple eventually turning into a real couple, especially considering that it's clear that these two like each other. There's a lot of juicy drama that you could have with that story, especially when you start conflicting the business with the pleasure.

I'm not sure if this story wants to get too real with that, but the option is there. Based on these first couple of chapters, this is definitely a story that maybe leans a bit more into the wish fulfillment of everything. After all, Chan Gu is somebody who has no idea how social media works at all, but is also desperate for money because he is also the textbook definition of a bleeding heart with his family situation. So it's a little ridiculous, but despite the lack of realism, there is something really cute about seeing how these two characters interact. I want them to get together and see what that relationship would look like both in front of and behind the camera. Definitely a lot of pills you need to swallow, but I might keep an eye on this one personally, because I find the way it portrays certain things amusing on its own merits.