Hanlim Gym (Webtoon)

* Cover 1
* Cover 2

**Staff**

* Sunghyun Min
* Younghun Lee
* Hyehwon Hwang

## Image Gallery

**Hanlim Gym** is a Korean **YLAB** webtoon; being the 13th Super String webtoon and the 4th Blue String webtoon. The story is written by Hyeseong, illustrated by Sukjae Lee, and produced by Yongtaek Chae. Published by YLAB.

## Synopsis

*"Tired of being picked on, Yeongha, the new transfer student, decides to fight back… and discovers he can pack a punch. He soon becomes the top of the food chain, savoring his new title as the toughest guy at school. But he meets his match when Suho Kang, the Champion of the PVP games, single-handedly takes down him and his crew. To earn back his honor, Yeongha decides to join the PVP games. Will he finally get the satisfaction of beating Suho up? Or will he gain something more?"*

## Release Schedule

On Naver webtoon, season 1 was serialized on May 26, 2020 and completed on May 30, 2022 with every episodes on a Tuesday. There is an English release starting on June 20, 2021 and currently ongoing with episodes released on Saturdays. The second season was serialized on January 2, 2023 and is currently ongoing on Naver webtoon.

* From June 21, 2020, the translation serialization of Simplified Chinese started in Dongman Manga , an overseas service of Naver Webtoon. However, after episode 62, it is deleted from the web and only serialized in the app.
* From June 28, 2020, serialization started on the official traditional Chinese (Taiwan) WEBTOON.
* From August 12, 2020, serialization started on the official Thai WEBTOON , an overseas service of Naver Webtoon.
* From September 6, 2020, serialization started on the official Indonesian WEBTOON.
* From November 23, 2020, Japanese translation serialization began on LINE Manga , an overseas service of Naver Webtoon and a Japanese published manga e-book service.
* From June 19, 2022, translation serialization began on the French WEBTOON , an overseas service of Naver Webtoon.

## Reading Order

You don't need to read any of the other Webtoons in order to understand Hanlim Gym. Though Yeongha technically plays a major role in Reawakened Man, Hanlim Gym is basically Yeongha's back story, so not reading Reawakened Man won't affect your understanding of Hanlim Gym.

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

## Where to Read

**Official Links**

* Korean (In-progress): https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list?titleId=743139
* English (In-progress): https://www.webtoons.com/en/sports/hanlim-gym/list?title\_no=2850&page=1

**Unofficial Links**

***WARNING***: These links are provided for viewers to read and reference purposes for us. Due to being unofficial, exercise precaution at your own risk, as we cannot guarantee the security of these sites although we do use them without issues. However, this is mainly for any links besides English as English scans are usually safe. Regardless, be careful!

* Korean (in-progress): https://funbe314.com/%ED%95%9C%EB%A6%BC%EC%B2%B4%EC%9C%A1%EA%B4%80
* English (in-progress): https://void-scans.com/manga/hanlim-gym/

## Background

The story is mainly about Yeongha Jeon's past of how he became a formidable martial artist in both the Bluestring and Superstring universe.

There are two seasons: The first season is Yeongha learning how to become stronger and fights in PVP for the first time and rise to the ranks. In the second season, Yeongha has become a legendary and is now competing in the PVP island with other legendries to win first place which rewards the player a wish that will come true from PVP.

**Season 1**

* Ep.1-6: World of PVP
* Ep.7-11: Yeongha's Major Battle
* Ep.12-22: Usurp of Geumgang High
* Ep.23-33: A Friendly Rivalry
* Ep.34-42: The Way of Jeet Kune Do
* Ep.43-52: The Pride of a Gym
* Ep.52-62: Seongbuk Takeover
* Ep.63-70: Championship Elevation
* Ep.71-81: Pentakill Addiction Arc
* Ep.82-88: A Fighter's Resolve
* Ep.89-97: An Unknown Coup d'état
* Ep.98-104: A Battle to End All Battles

**Season 2**

* Ep.1-5: The Championship Begins: Round 1
* Ep.6-14: The Culling of Players: Round 2
* Ep.15-23: Origin of Fighters & PVP: Round 3
* Ep.24-32: Hanlim Master's Beginnings
* Ep.33-43: Closer to Victory: Round 4
* Ep.44: The Quarter Finals: Round 5

### Characters

**Main Characters**

The Main Characters in both seasons are pretty much the same:

* Yeongha Jeon -
* Hanlim Lim -
* Seoyeon Yoo - originally part of Crazy Dog's Dropout Crew, but later decided to help Yeongha and Hanlim and later joined Yeongha's team, helping him climb up PVP providing crucial information.
* Suho Kang -
* Charles Kim -

Full Character List

**All Characters with Pages**

**Bongpal Park****Chan Kang****Charles Kim****Chibum Kang****Chorong Kim****Daeho Kim****Dagger****Death (PVP)****Deccan****Dohyeon Jeon****Dokyung Shin****Dowon Cho****Doyun Kim****Elrim Seo****Gitae Lee****Gwangcheon Lim****Gyeol Han****Hanlim Lim****Hyeongeun Lee****Jaehyeon Ryu****Jeju Island Champion****Juyeong Choi****Kangyoon Ji****Kichang Lee****King (PVP)****Kwangyong Park****Leader (Unknown)****Lovey****Pioneer****Seonggyu Choi****Seoyeon Yoo****Sihwan Eun****Suho Kang****Taejin Suh****White Shadow****Wonjae Shin****Yeongha Jeon**

### Organizations

**Season 1**

* PVP -
* Hanlim Gym -
* Royal -
* Unknown -
* Dowon Group - though not stated directly, PVP's Highest Chairman is the Vice President of the Dowon Group.
* Korean Police Force
* Gangs and Crews
	+ XD Crew
	+ FXDX Crew
	+ Yongsan Crew
	+ Kuun Mongolian - Deccan's personal gang.
* Highschools
	+ Haseong Technical High School - a highschool in Daejong. The No.1 of the school tries to beat King and steal his invitation to the PVP Championship, not knowing he is the Daejong Champion.
	+ Hansan Engineering High School - the school that Irezumi attends.
	+ Keumkang High
	+ Daeseong Industrial High
	+ Ilhwa High School - one of the schools that Deccan's crew strikes when they are in Seongbuk. PVP No.12 Wan Lee attends this school and is trying to take it over.
	+ Shinhwa High School - the school Kichang Lee attends.
	+ Hyungsung High School– the school Sihwan Eun attends where he is No.1.
* Incheon High Schools
	+ Sorok High School - The high school PVP fighter Red Socks attends. They participate in the Exhibition Match of the Incheon schools.
	+ Hojin High School - The high school PVP fighter Incheon Gamja attends. They participate in the Exhibition Match of the Incheon schools.
	+ Hwasu Engeering High School - The high school PVP fighter Zebra Hair attends. They participate in the Exhibition Match of the Incheon schools.
	+ Iseong Hish School - The high school PVP fighter Tiger Skin attends. They participate in the Exhibition Match of the Incheon schools.
	+ Songdu High School - The high school PVP fighter Yellow Brush attends. They participate in the Exhibition Match of the Incheon schools.
	+ Kuun Engineering High School – the high school that Deccan belongs to. They clash with Yeonghaʻs High School on the trip to Jeju Island.
* Girl Highschools
	+ Leesam Girl's High School - a school where Sieun Baek, a girl who Chan Kang persistently pursues, attends.
	+ Ilhwa Girl's High
	+ Seoha Girl's High

**Season 2**

* PVP - since Season 2 is mostly the PVP Championship, PVP plays the most important role.
* Unknown -
* Kuun Mongolian -
* Sean Hwa's Taekwondo Dojo -
* Toe Master Dojo -
* MBA English Academy
* Dowon Group - a mafia group in Korea that sponsors the PVP. They makes an official appearance in Season 2.
* Hanlim Gym -
* 5000 Snack Store - a small shop where Yoojin Kim, Gwangcheon Lim's wife, worked at and where she met Gwangcheon and fell in love.
* MSJ News - one of the news outlets that was going to reveal the corruption of the Dowon Group. However, the reporters recanted, but were still disposed of by the Dowon Group.
* Keumkang News - one of the news outlet that released a press release revealing the corruption of the Dowon Group.
* Mafia Groups
	+ Daegil Group - one of the nation’s 4 major gangster groups before it was defeated by the pre-Dowon Group, by the hands of Gwangcheon Lim.
	+ Flying Dragon Clan - the number 1 mafia clan in Gwangju to which the Gwangju Champion is the successor to.
	+ Baekho Clan - one of the enemy clans of the Flying Dragon Clan

### Setting/Locations

**Season 1**

Most of Season 1 is set in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, with a few episodes in Incheon (when fighting Deccan) and Jeju Island.

**Season 2**

Season 2 is mostly set on the PVP Cruise Ship as well as the Chamma Island (a fictitious island on the outskirts of Korea). Halfway through the Championship, the fighters are sent back to the Korean mainland.

## Super String Universe

Hanlim Gym occurs some time before Reawakened Man Season 0, as by then Yeongha is already a senior in highschool and Scarface is already part of Dream Come True. Furthermore, in Season 2, it is revealed that the Dowon Group is only about to get listed. In addition, considering that Yeongha and Jungwoo has the same age, that means this webtoon is 5th in the main timeline tied with Terror Man Season 1.
**Crossovers**
**Season 1**
* Hanlim Gym from Reawakened Man Season 1 makes an appearance.
* Gwangcheon Lim from Reawakened Man Season 1 makes an appearance.
* Kangyoon Ji, aka Scarface, from Reawakened Man Season 0 makes an appearance. He is one of the team members of Punishment Dream.
* In Ep.26, Detective Oh appears as he detains both Yeongha and Scarface. This is presumably the same detective in Reawakened Man to whom Hwan reports Yerin's kidnapping as they have the same name and similar facial features (except with different haircut and fatter in Reawakened Man).
* In Ep.37, Yeongha performs the "Dragon Kick," in a same pose that his older self perform in Revival Man (This attack was first introduced in Revival Man but is not named).
* In Ep.47, Wonjae Shin explains how the amount a player can make in PVP is beyond what even an adult can make in real life. Just as Wonjae proceeds about how many adults have to end up pleasing their superiors just to get minimal pay, there is a cameo of Yeongha make the gorilla face to get a bonus, in reference to his future job in the factory during Reawakened Man where his manager often humiliates him.
* In Ep. 52, Seonggyu Choi, the Dowon Group Vice-President from Reawakened Man Season 1, makes his appearance and is revealed to be the founder and owner of PVP.
* In Ep.82, Dohyeon Jeon is seen reading Housekeeper in manga/manhwa format.

**Season 2**
* In Ep.15, Charles Kim made a joke of how Yeongha shouldn't do stuff while in the dark if he wants to weaer glasses. This may be a reference to Yeongha in Reawakened Man of how at time he wears glasses.
* In Ep.25, the Dowon Group (Reawakened Man Season 1) is explicitly mentioned and Seonggyu Choi is mentioned as the Vice President of the Dowon Group.
* In Ep.25, it is mentioned that Gwangcheon Lim used to be the top cleaner of the Dowon Group.
* In Ep.26, Dowon Cho, the first president of the Dowon Group, makes an appearance.
* In Ep.31, it is revealed why Gwangcheon Lim attemped to kill Dowon Cho that was left a mystery in Reawakenend Man. Which was to make him leave him alone forever.
	+ However, it is possible that this it isn't the case as if our timeline is correct, his attempted assasination should had existed earlier than this season. Furthermore, Dowon says he will finally leave him alone but in Reaakened Man, he sent a hitlist on him.
* In Ep.32, The USB that Dagger has contain dirty secrets of Dowon Group that will destroy them forever. Which is the exact USB that happen in Reawakened Man. However, whether this is the same USB is unclear.
	+ Also, since Gwangcheon has this USB as leverage against Dowon Group, it wouldn't make sense for him to not use when Hwan Seok was in trouble.
* In Ep.32, it appears that Dowon Group is officially listed, which seems to be what was stated in Reawakened Man. However, if our timeline is correct, this is should be incorrect. Furthermore, it was said that Dowon Group was officiall united, not listed. Unclear which is the case.

**Appearance in other Webtoons**
* Hanlim Gym and Gwangcheon Lim appeared in Reawakened Man.
* Yeongha Jeon also appeared in Reawakened Man and Terror Vs. Revival.
* Scarface appeared in Reawakened Man.

## Bluestring & Superstring Confusion

The Hanlim Gym Webtoon has a unique circumstance where it appears in both Superstring and Bluestring. Due to this, people may be confuse if both strings are in the same dimension or in a separate dimension. What is most certainly clear is that both strings are separate. The most logical evidence is through the concept of different dimensions which is the main idea behind Superstring. Superstring contains supernatural elements while bluestring is normal and the opposite. Which means that both strings contain events of Hanlim Gym but branch into different routes. Therefore there is two different Yeongha Jeon.

If you still don't understand, refer to this video for a simple explanation.

Of course this means that we will not include (as of now) any bluestring info besides Hanlim Gym as this wiki is only about Superstring. An example is that we won't include inclusion of Yeongha's nephew and sister in "Study Group."

## Criticism & Evaluation

Points from Korean readers;

* **Timeline Inconsideration** - there are criticisms that it does not properly take into account the time period and background within the work because only the characters' ages change and the changes in the times are not noticeable with Reawakened Man.
* **Mixed Review on Art Style** - Generally, the fighting scenes are superb but other than this, there are some critcism of how characters are portrayed. Male characters look like grown adults despite being teenagers while female characters has exaagrated large breasts. Although, this criticism is half-serious.
* **Superpowers?** - There are feats and strengths that seem to be more superhuman than regular humans. Such as breaking boulders or columns in pieces. Due to this, when Yeongha Jeon appears in Study Group, his strength felt nerfed in compared to the protag of the webtoon.
* **Character Plagiarism** - Seoyeon Yoo's first appearance was believed that the character design was plagiarized from a Korean illustrator named "Shal E." Specifically a character named "Visla." Although it could had been coincidence or borrowed design, many find the atmosphere and hairstyle of Seoyeon to be too similar.
	+ On February 22, 2021, either the author or illustrator had supposedly admitted plagiarism. With an official apology in season 1, Episode 34 at Naver. Thus Seyeon's hair color is changed.Supposedly this controversy was also directly mentioned in Shal E's YouTube video.
		- Shal E's Visla illustrating video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOfwQ7FQpFA

## Media & Merchandise

### Media

* **OST** - There is an official OST titled, "Different From You," created by Yohan Han(JUSTHIS)

### Merchandise

In the official Ylab Store, there is a couple of merchandises such as mousepads and acrylic stands:

* https://smartstore.naver.com/ylabstore/category/fedf66ac05284aed89a5c287341a2f4f?cp=1

## Trivia

* In season 1, ep. 25, an the Unknown Executive tells Kangyoon Ji that he knows about his little brother, but in Season 2, it turns out that Kangyoon has a sister instead of a brother. This is a mistranslation from the translators as the original language put, "동생," which is a general saying for "sibling" which could refer to either female or male.
* The webtoon has been criticized/joked about how most of the male PVP players looks more like grown adults then teenagers. Another similar critique/joke is how most woman in the webtoon has large or exaggerated breasts.
* Super String and Blue String are most certainly parallels dimension as the the main concept of Ylab's String Unvierse are connected with multiple similar dimensions. This means the Bluestring dimension has some settings and characters from Superstring.
	+ Thus, all characters, organizations, and events of Hanlim Gym appears in both Super String and Blue String.
* In season 1, Ep.35, the video tape that Dohyeon Jeon gives to Yeongha has the name "Dohyeon Kim" written on it instead of "Jeon". It seems to be a typo.
* *"Return of the Dragon,"* a martial arts film featuring "*Bruce Lee*," appears on season 1, ep. 37.
* This may be a coincidence but there is a gym named "Hanlim Gymnasium" in Jeju Island.
* In season 1, Ep. 53, Yeongha and his 2 friends made the "reaction guys" meme.
* There were multiple easter eggs of other Blue String webtoons:
	+ In s1, Ep.53, either Doyun Kim or Youngha says the title of **My Bad Boyfriend** as they look at the horses. This easter egg is not noticable in the official English.
	+ In s1, Ep. 84, on the PVP phone, someone tells Daeho to teach Youngha a lesson. This easter egg is not noticable in the official English but in the Korean version where "참교육" was use. This is the title of "**Get Schooled**."
	+ In s2, Ep. 24, Dohyeon's hangover rememdy is name after the webtoon "**To Not Die**" in Korean. However, this easter egg doesn't carry over to the official English.
* Hanlim Gym is one of the few to have merch for Super String and a couple for Blue String.

## References

1. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.18
2. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.34
3. ↑ http://ylabcomics.com/bbs/board.php?bo\_table=02\_02\_eng#2
4. ↑ https://www.webtoons.com/en/sports/hanlim-gym/list?title\_no=2850
5. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.104
6. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.63
7. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.1
8. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.56
9. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.57
10. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.26
11. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.57
12. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.57
13. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.57
14. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.57
15. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.57
16. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.60
17. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.6
18. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 1, Ep.53
19. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.20
20. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.20
21. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.20
22. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.31
23. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.24
24. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.25
25. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.25
26. ↑ Hanlim Gym, Season 2, Ep.49
27. ↑ http://ylabcomics.com/bbs/board.php?bo\_table=02\_02\_eng#2
28. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%9C%EB%A6%BC%EC%B2%B4%EC%9C%A1%EA%B4%80(%EC%9B%B9%ED%88%B0)#s-5
29. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%ED%95%9C%EB%A6%BC%EC%B2%B4%EC%9C%A1%EA%B4%80(%EC%9B%B9%ED%88%B0)#%EC%83%AC%EC%9D%B4%20%EC%9D%BC%EB%9F%AC%EC%8A%A4%ED%8A%B8%20%ED%91%9C%EC%A0%88%20%EC%82%AC%EA%B1%B4
30. ↑ https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail?titleId=743139&no=34
31. ↑ https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/detail?titleId=743139&no=25
32. ↑ https://linguasia.com/dongsaeng
33. ↑ https://terms.naver.com/entry.naver?docId=2627372&cid=51955&categoryId=55547