Kangtawoo (Webtoon)

## Image Gallery

**Kangtawoo** is a Korean **YLAB** webtoon and the 10th Super String webtoon. It was produced by YLAB, author is, Hyungwuk Shin and illustrated by Kyungil Yang. Furthermore, this webtoon is a new reboot to the original Kangtawoo by Jeongmoon Lee.

## Synopsis

Hyeon Kang, a self-centered high school kid, has to bear the burdening fate of being the master of Kangtawoo, the only robot that can stand against Spelta Empire, which seeks to conquer Earth.

## Release Schedule

On Naver Webtoon, it began serializing Season 1 on August 15, 2018 and completed on April 10, 2019 with episodes every Sunday. With Season 2, it was planned to serialized on the first quarter of 2021 but has yet to be officially released. People had speculated that it could had been canceled or optimistically on a hiatus. There is currently now official English release

* From May 11, 2019, it was serialized in official simplified Chinese in Dongman Manga , an overseas service of Naver Webtoon.
* From June 25, 2021, Japanese translation serialization started on LINE Manga , an overseas service of Naver Webtoon and a Japanese published manga e-book service.

## Reading Order

Because Bongchun is a major character, would recommend reading Terror Man before reading Kangtawoo, as Bongchun is also a major character in Terror Man.

For recommended reading order of the Webtoons click **here**.

## Where to Read

* Korean (official/complete): https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=714293&weekday=thu
* Chinese (official/complete): https://www.dongmanmanhua.cn/FANTASY/bingchuantiejia/list?title\_no=1381
* English (Unofficial/complete):https://rackusreads.com/manga/kangtawoo/
	+ *Note: small portion of ch. 17 is not translated but contains nothing much of importance.*
	+ *Note: in ch. 2, there is incorrect translation that states Kawooka let a dangerous robot killing people. Refer to Manga Dex for correct transaltions*

## Background

There is only one season but there were rumors that there will be season 2. However, it has been in a hiatus for four years.

**Season 1 - The Beginning**

* Ep.1-4: Artic Expedition
* Ep.5-10: Attack on Busan
* Ep.11-17: Retrieval of Okta Particles
* Ep.18-19: Declaration of War
* Ep.20-28: High School Fight Arc
* Ep.29-33: Reveal of a Hero
* Ep.34: Epilogue

### Characters

* Hyeon Kang
* Kangtawoo
* Kawooka
* Bongchun Kim

Full Character List

**All Characters with Pages**

**Bongchun Kim****Boyoung Ahn****Deta****Echo****Hyeon Kang****Hyunok Choi****Jungwoo Min****Kangtawoo****Kawooka****Kyung-I Choi****Mini Kangtawoo****Minsu****Nana****Pepe****Spelta Commander****Taekyung Baek****Woosang Jeon**

### Organizations/Groups

**Earth**

* Disaster Preparatory Committee
* NASA
* Daehan Group - Bongchun requests the help of the Daehan Group to fix Kangtawoo.
* Korean Police
* UN Security Council - after the incident in the artic, there were many protests urging the government to give an explaination and urging the UN Security Council to get involved and investigate.
* Norwegian Royal Delegation - after the incident in the artic, the Norwegian Royal Delegation was raising suspicion of it being a potential North Korean terrorist involvement.
* Busan naval base unit 28465 - Tracks anything in the sea with the radar.
* Busan Marine Science Department Artic Research Institute - Allows highschool students to travel with them to gain expereince of researching. Has the icebreaker, "Arion."
* KP Swat Team - the Korean Swat Team that engages Avagoron.
* Ministry of Public Safety and Security - they deliver a emergency broadcast to all citizens to find refuge when Avagoron attacks.
* JBS News - one of the news channels reporting on the incident outside the school where Hyeon Kang is fighting the Spelta-infected human.
* Haeun High School - the school where Hyeon Kang attends.
* OOBuffet - the restaurant that Hyeon Kang's mom was trying to book for her and her son when all the sudden she sees on the web about her son is actual "Okta" warrior.
* GoM - A mart in Haeundae, Busan. Its contents were wiped by people buying it as surplus in case of alien invasion.

**Extraterrestrial**

* Okta
* Spelta

### Setting/Locations

* Busan, Korea -
* North Pole, Antarctica
* Svalberg, Norway

## Super String Universe

The events of Kangtawoo most certainly occur after Terror vs Revival, as it had no mention of Okta or Spelta invasions until the reveal to the public in this webtoon. In addition, the existence of Okta Particles is known during The Queens, which is way before Terror Vs. Revival. Also, the Kaiju fights that happen in the webtoon is too large and a pivotal historical moment for people to not had mention in previous Superstring work. Interestingly, it was mentioned that it takes place during the summer and before September. This means that the webtoon take place from either June to August. Which mean this is the 14th on the main timeline.
**Crossovers**
* In Ep.5, there was a brief panel that shows a board sign with a title, "Red Swan." This is an easter egg to the character, Red Swan, from Terror Man.
* In Ep.6, the Disaster Preparatory Committee makes its appearance as it discusses how to deal with the current alien disaster.
* In Ep.6, one of the directors of the DPC mentions how her division was already sent to Las Campanas, Chile, which the location of the Giant Magellan Telescope mentioned back by Seokyoung Min in Terror Man Season 1.
* In Ep.6, Bongchun Kim appears a member of the research team for the Disaster Preparatory Committee. He is a major character aiding Hyeon Kang.
* In Ep.10, the DPC director mentions the president of South Korea of knowing Kangtawoo. This is certainly Hyunok Choi from Terror Man.
* In Ep.14, the Daehan Group also makes their appearance and Bongchun Kim requests their aid to help restore Kangtawoo.
* In Ep.20, the product from Housekeeper, the Hasty Choco Bar, appears as the only item left in the store in Busan.
* In Ep.30, upon putting Minsu at gunpoint, Taekyung Baek tells him that the DPC is essentially part of "us", which could refer to either (1) NASA, which is a bit odd, as the DPC seemed be an international organization independent of the government and for NASA to have such authority would be questionable, or (2) White, which could allude to the corruption of the DPC under White's influence.
* In the Epilogue, Jungwoo Min hunts down and defeats Deta, a Spelta warrior, at the request of Bongchun Kim.

## Criticism & Evaluation

The story development is still in the early stages of serialization, so there is not much to say about it, but the drawing is receiving positive reviews**.** The scene where the monster and Kantau fight during the prologue is breathtaking. The drawing quality is one of the best among Naver webtoons.

There are some criticism but not related to story or illustration aspects.

* **Kangtawoo's Design** - In it's Mark 2 design, it was severely criticized as the unqiue design previously is gone.
* **Accusation of Plagiarism** - Due to similar themes, people thought it plagiarized Pacific Rim but it bears little aspects of it besides general characteristics. Furthermore, it is a reboot of the original which is before Pacific Rim. Thus the accusation fell flat.
* **Small Errors** - There were errors of realism such as the Busan railroads and military weapons like the Hyunmoo-7 is depicted wrong. In addition to the dialect was wrong.

## Trivia

* Supposedly, the main reason for the long hiatus is that the illustrator, Kyungil Yang had left Ylab. Thus this may prove a reason as to why there is a hiatus. Other than this, nothing else is really known why the hiatus is long.
* At the Superstring Showcase, Inwan Youn, announced that he would remake an old comic "Kangtawoo, the Iron Man" into a webtoon. As he had a dream of robot comics since he was young . HOwever, he himself won't be the author for some reason as it was Hyungwuk Shin.
* On August 10, 2018, a preview of the serialization of the work was posted on the official Y-Lab **Facebook** page.
* In the last episode, Bongchun was holding a manga called "Mazinger Z." It is a Japanese super robot manga written and illustrated by Go Nagai.
* With only 34 episodes, it is the second shortest Superstring work with Burning Hell being the lowest.
* This webtoon is a sort of a reboot from the original named "Ironman Kangtawoo" by Jeongmoon Lee. Some aspects from the original are in the reboot.

## Gallery

Original ComicBehind-the-Scenes 1Behind-the-Scenes 2Behind-the-Scenes 3Behind-the-Scenes 4
## References

1. ↑ Kangtawoo, Ep. 1
2. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.5
3. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.5
4. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.5
5. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.6
6. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.6
7. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.30
8. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.30
9. ↑ Kangatwoo, Ep.30
10. ↑ Kangtawoo, Ep.14
11. ↑ Kangtawoo, Ep. 1
12. ↑ Kangtawoo, Ep. 5
13. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%BA%89%ED%83%80%EC%9A%B0(%EC%9B%B9%ED%88%B0)/%EB%85%BC%EB%9E%80%EA%B3%BC%20%EC%98%A4%EB%A5%98
14. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%BA%89%ED%83%80%EC%9A%B0(%EC%9B%B9%ED%88%B0)#s-6 Serialization Section
15. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%BA%89%ED%83%80%EC%9A%B0(%EC%9B%B9%ED%88%B0)#s-9