Study Group (Webtoon)

* S1
* S2

**Staf**

* Sanghoon Lee
* Jisu Ha

## Image Gallery

**Study Group** is a Korean **YLAB** webtoon and the 3rd Blue String webtoon. The story is written by Hyungwuk Shin and illustrated by Seungyeon Ryu. It is published by YLAB.

## Synopsis

"Nicknamed the “school for future criminals,” Yusung Technical High School isn’t exactly the ideal place to study. A rarity among his peers, Gamin is a student with just one goal: to get into university. At a school where it’s every man for himself, he is rejected from countless study groups before he decides to form his own. When Hankyeong, Gamin’s former tutor, joins his high school in hopes of earning her teacher certification, it seems like they’re both reaching for the impossible. Can they defeat the odds and achieve their dreams?"

## Release Schedule

It serialised every Saturday on Naver Webtoon from January 4, 2019. Season 1 began on January 4th, 2019 and ended on April 9th, 2021. Season 2 began on August 6th, 2021 and ended on December 16th, 2023. A season 3 was confirmed and the webtoon is currently on a hiatus. For official English, it was released on November 14th, 2021 and is currently ongoing. Every episode for English is on saturday.

* From April 14, 2019, the series was translated on the Thai page of WEBTOON, Naver Webtoon's overseas service.
* From May 6, 2019, the series was translated on the Indonesian page of WEBTOON, Naver Webtoon's overseas service.
* From July 21, 2019, the series was translated on the Chinese (Taiwanese) page of WEBTOON, Naver Webtoon's overseas service.
* From December 29, 2019, the series was translated on the simplified Chinese page of Dongman Comics, Naver Webtoon's overseas service.
* From August 24, 2020, the series was translated in Japanese and serialized on LINE Manga, Naver Webtoon's overseas service and a Japanese published comic e-book service.
* From October 21, 2022, the series was translated on the French page of WEBTOON, Naver Webtoon's overseas service.

## Reading Order

You do not need to read other Blue String Webtoons. However, considering that Youngha Jeon appears, it is recommended that you read **Hanlim Gym (Webtoon)** to see his life as a teen and how he learn his martial arts.

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

## Where to Read

**Official Links**

* Korean (Hiatus): https://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list?titleId=721948
* English (In-progress): https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/study-group/list?title\_no=3595

**Unofficial Links**

***WARNING***:These links are provided for viewers to read and as references for editors. As they are 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!

* English (Hiatus): https://mangadex.org/title/24c8e2f3-f515-4e58-bfdd-c423ab00499a/study-group

## Background

There are a total of 2 seasons with a season 3 in the works.

Below are the two seasons divided by major arcs:

**Season 1**

* Ep. 1-8: Welcome to Yusung Tech High
* Ep. 9-12: Apartment Break-In
* Ep. 13-21: USB Debacle
* Ep. 22-31: White Lead Recruitment
* Ep. 32-37: Midterm Preparation
* Ep. 38-47: Transfer Commotion
* Ep. 48-68: Framing of Sunchul
* Ep. 69-73: Gunyeob's Vengence
* Ep. 74-96: Chinatown
* Ep. 97-102: The Construction Site Dispute
* Ep. 103-117: Songdo Raid
* Epilogue

**Season 2**

* Ep.1: Season 1 Summary
* Ep.2-6: Studying in Seoul
* Ep.7-12: Disappearance of Miss Lee
* Ep.13-16: Traces of Miss Lee
* Ep.17-29: Heukchang High School
* Ep.30-43: Saving Minhee Jang
* Ep.44-77: Cheongma High School & Tauran
* Ep.78-116: Saving Hansol Pi & the Chandler International School Play
* Epilogue

### Characters

**Season 1**

* Gamin Youn
* Hankyeong Lee
* Hanwul Pi
* Yeonbaek Pi

**Season 2**

* Gamin Youn
* Gunyeob Park
* Younghyun Ji
* Yeonbaek Pi

Full Character List

**All Characters with Pages**

**Asung Hong****Changsung Woo****Dohun Jung****Dojin Woo****Gamin Youn****Gunyeob Park****Gyujin Kim****Hankyeong Lee****Hansol Pi****Hanwul Pi****Heewon Choi****Homin Kim****Hoonjae Lee****Hyeonu Lee****Jeongho Youn****Jiwoo Lee****Jun Lee****Junghwa Oh****Mihyun Jeon****Minhwan Ma****Minseong Pyun****Moogyu Choi****Nari Shin****Sehyun Kim****Siwan Cheon****Sobo Jang****Sunchul Kim****Taehwan An****Taeman Na****Taeo Kang****Useong Shin****Yeonbaek Pi****Youngha Jeon****Younghyun Ji**

### Organizations

**Season 1**

* White Lead (YB)
* Yusung Tech High School
* Fukugakukai
* RSY Entertainment - an agency that Siwan joins.
* Korea University
* The Booked Store - a store of books
* Maeha Real Estate Agency - Located in Seoul.
* Ministry of Education -
* ABS News - News outlet.
* MeTube -
* HW Apartment Construction - Sehyun's Father work here.
* Schools
	+ Daegang High School - One of the schools Minhyun gave to Gamin to choose. Is known without many issues. It is hard for students from specialized schools to get into this.
	+ Sehwa Middle School - Gamin Youn attended before.
	+ Sehwa High School - One of the schools Minhyun gave to Gamin to choose. Is known without many issues. It is hard for students from specialized schools to get into this.
	+ Songdo Tech High School - One of the schools Minhyun gave to Gamin to choose. Is known without many issues.

**Season 2**

* Northern Alliance
* White Lead (YB)
* RSY Entertainment
* Hairu Capital
* New Daeseong Gang
* Fukugakukai
* Haegwang
* Dowoon Games
* Chungcheong Workers
* Yusung Alliance
* Chaehwa Girls’ High School

### Setting/Locations

**Season 1**

The main setting of the webtoon is Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. There were some mentions of the USA when Gunyeob temporarily lived. In addition of the Gobi Desert & Mongolia mentioned by Gamin.

**Season 2**
*TBA*

## Blue String Universe

The events of Study Group appear to be unfolding around the same time as the events of To Not Die season 2 by virtue of the discussion between Yangcheon Wi and his subordinates where Haegwang is confirmed to be engaging in human trafficking. Furthermore, due to this connection, the events of To Not Die season 1 occur around a year before Study Group. Additionally, as a result of the 1 year gap from Gyeom Ma's confinement to his appearance in Get Schooled season 1, it can also be said that Get Schooled season 1 takes place around the same time as To Not Die and Study Group.

**Crossovers**
**Season 1**
* In ep. 4, where someone states, "*The world is all about money and power , but here it’s all about fists*!" An easter egg of The World is Money and Power.
* In Ep.27, Gamin Youn's uncle, Youngha Jeon, appears for the first time.

**Season 2**
* In Ep.2, Hankyeong Lee mentions Chaehwa Girls’ High School, which appears in Friendly Competition.
* In Ep.13, Gamin Youn's uncle is fully revealed to be Youngha Jeon from Hanlim Gym.
* In ep. 24, Jangho says, "*that in the end , the world is about money and power*." An easter egg of The World is Money and Power
* In Ep.39, Daeseong from To Not Die reappears as the New Daeseong Gang.
* In Ep.43, Junbin Lee from Get Schooled appears.
* In Ep.80, the Hired Guns from Get Schooled are mentioned.
* In Ep.94, Yangcheon Wi from To Not Die appears.
* In Ep.94, Haegwang is mentioned by Yangcheon Wi.
* In season 2, ep. 96, Younghyeon Ji says, "*you have to be careful when dealing with people with money and power*." An easter egg of The World is Money and Power
* In Ep.110, the Non-Existent Martial Arts, Origin, from Hanlim Gym is mentioned.

**Appearance in other Webtoons*** In the final episode of Friendly Competition, Gamin Youn makes an appearance.
* In Ep.4 of Student Peace Council, Dooho Kang mentions Master Jang, who was first mentioned in Study Group.
* In Ep.21 of Student Peace Council, Yeoncheol Ma mentions Incheon Chinatown, which appears in Study Group.

## Criticism & Evaluation

All criticism and evaluation are from korean readers.

### Evaluation

**Study Group** is a unique webtoon that combines the school action genre and the subject matter of studying. It receives favourable reviews for its clean drawing style, exhilarating story and action, and outstanding sense of subject matter. Although the main character, Gamin, is a munchkin with overwhelming combat power, the story is characterised by the fact that they can not and do not solve everything alone, but instead, with each of their allies serving in outstanding roles. Additionally, it showcases excellent character utilisation as supporting characters appear continuously and change rather than being used once and being never reappearing.

In addition to fighting, it also teaches lessons about life through characters like Hankyeong Lee, Gunyeop Park, and Sunchul's late grandfather, which may be why it receives great reviews among the Blue String webtoons. Furthermore, unlike most webtoons featuring high school students as main characters it lacks romance. Of course, there are some depictions of excitement between main characters, but it is difficult to call this romance.

Additionally, although it is an action-orientated and male-orientated webtoon, it is also popular among female readers thanks to attractive characters such as Gamin Youn, Gunyeop Park. Hanwul Pi, and Minhwan Ma. As of Season 2 Episode 83, the webtoon is performing well, ranking 6th in overall popularity on Saturdays and 5th in popularity among males. However, as most of Blue String's webtoons are male-orientated, it is ranked 19th in popularity among females.

Since Gamin's combat power is very high, expectations for his opponents are lacklustre. However, it seems the creators attempted to solve this by removing Gamin from the action.

### Criticism

#### Gamin & Youngha's Power Gap

Some readers say the power balance was manipulated in an attempt to boost Gamin as "Youngha is the unrivalled strongest of Blue String and that he is so talented he can even fight and win against dozens of people." However, as an adult, Youngha was easily injured by a knife and ganged up on by gangsters. This makes no sense as Hanrim and Hwajin prove to be more capable in similar situations.

However, some argue that this is simply the result of differing directing and that Youngha did not lose. The controversy was expected to intensify after Gamin inflicted serious injuries, including organ rupture, on Youngha, who was a fully grown adult. As a result, some believe that Youngha is portrayed weakly to make Gamin stand out (*However, YLAB has never officially released a ranking and it is all readers' guesses*).

The main reason these controversies arose is due to the clear disparity between Youngha's portrayal in ****Study Group**** and **Hanlim Gym**, that is so signficiant the two can be viewed as separate characters. But naturally, in **Study Group**, Gamin, the protagonist, must stand out, meaning Youngha must be pushed aside. Meanwhile in Hanlim Gym the opposite is true, resulting in conflicting results among fans of either webtoon.

However, it is possible that Youngha never treated Gamin sincerely when sparring with him. Put simply, he may have matched Gamin's skills when fighting. Although this does explain the issue to some extent, it cannot explain the incident where Gamin saved him just before he was beaten by the gangsters.

Overall, the comments from **Hanlim Gym** & ****Study Group**** regarding Youngha's portrayal are conflicting.

#### Release Dates

Here are some "behind the scenes" facts that may be useful in relation to the controversy above:

1. **Study Group** began serialising on January 4, 2019 and **Hanlim Gym** began serialising on May 25, 2020.
2. Youngha's forbidden tactics, a major source of controversy, were first revealed on July 5, 2019 when Episode 27 of **Study Group** Season 1 was serialised, meaning the forbidden tactic existed about a year before **Hanlim Gym** began serialising.
3. Youngha's character in Study Group was most likely based on his appearance in **Reawakened Man** as it was the only webtoon he had appeared in before **Study Group** was serialised.
4. According to an interview with the author posted in July 2023, the writers seem to think that Gamin & Youngha are on the same level.

## Media & Merchandise

### Media

* **Drama** - This TVING original drama is directed by Lee Jang-hoon and the main characters Gamin Youn and Hankyeong Lee are played by Hwang Min-hyeon and Han Ji-eun respectively.
* **OSTs** - There are four songs:
	1. The first was released on June 4th, 6pm. Titled "***DIE DIE,***", created by Giriboy and featured Choi LB.
	2. The second was released on 9 PM, July 10th. Titled "**This Song"**, created by Skinny Brown and Kim Seung-Min.
	3. The third was released on August 14th. Titled "**Fast**", created by Gaeko and Coogie.
	4. The fourth was released on 6pm, October 3rd. Titled "**GOOD KID**", created by BOI and Penomeco.

### Merch

* **Paperback** - Volumes 1 to 3 were funded through Tumblbug from Nov. 8th, 2023 to Dec. 5th, 2023. It is not yet available for purchase and is unclear if it will be released in English.
* **YLAB store** - On the YLAB store, you can buy a range of merchandise like acrylic stands, mouse pads, calendars and more.
	+ https://smartstore.naver.com/ylabstore/category/3e0131fb1f9a4ef4a9b484728811beea?cp=1

## Trivia

* One of the few Blue String webtoons to have merch.
* On April Fool's Day 2020, the thumbnail was a drinking party.
* There are couple of Super String Easter Eggs:
	+ In s1, ep. 2, someone is reading a **Blade of the Phantom Master** manhwa.
	+ In s1, ep. 105, Jungle Juice logo appears on Heewon's laptop. Interestingly, Study Group was serialized before **Jungle Juice**. As well as Kuku from Westwood Vibrato.
	+ In s2, ep. 20, Minhee Jang mentions **Jungle Juice**.
* There are numerous easter egg reference of other series
	+ In s1, ep. 67, the appearance of Eikichi Onizuka from **GTO** & Kim Jooyoung from "**Sky Castle"** appears.
* The webtoon ost, DIE DIE, used for Episode 36 of Season 2 received favourable reviews from Korean readers in conjunction with the action scene of the episode.
* At the 2021 Naver Webtoon April Fool's Day #TrueFacts event, the webtoon joined **The World is Money and Power**. The introductory text was "*He is sincere about his school life.*" You can see Gamin Youn and Jiwoo Lee trying to put Gunwoo Dahn into a study group based on the story of his average score of 52 in all subjects, drawn by Dohee Lee, and Gunwoo & Gamin playing a card game, drawn by Seungyeon Ryu.
* At the 2022 Naver Webtoon April Fool's Day #SurpriseTwist event, a special cut with a period drama concept was released.
* Goods related to Gamin and Hanwul were so popular that they had to be restocked due to female fans.
* Fan speculate that Study Group will become Blue String's representative work like Super String's **Terror Man**. This is because the two webtoons are similar in that:
	+ they are the most popular webtoons of their strings.
	+ they have the most connections to other webtoons in their strings.
	+ they participate in the first crossover work of their strings.
	+ the combat powers of their main protagonists, Gamin Youn & Jungwoo Min's, are close to the strongest in their webtoons, but are close to the semi-strongest in their overall universes.

## Gallery

Korean PaperbackWallpaperCollage WallpaperFull Gallery Page
## References

1. ↑ Study Group, S2, Ep.2
2. ↑ https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/study-group/list?title\_no=3595
3. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/스터디그룹(웹툰)#s-3
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Study Group, Season 1, Ep. 96
5. ↑ Study Group, Season 1, Ep. 9
6. ↑ Study Group, Season 1, Ep. 40
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Study Group, Season 1, Ep.38
8. ↑ http://ylabcomics.com/bbs/board.php?bo\_table=02\_02\_eng#2
9. ↑ Study Group, Season 1, Ep.38
10. ↑ Study Group, Season 2, Ep.94
11. ↑ Get Schooled, Season 1, Ep.31
12. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/스터디그룹(웹툰)#s-7
13. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/스터디그룹(웹툰)#s-9.3
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 https://namu.wiki/w/스터디그룹(웹툰)#s-10
15. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/스터디그룹(웹툰)#s-9