Now, this may (not) surprise you but I’m not a big reader — of books, that is. I’ve read 1.4 books this year. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice (sorry, I don’t get why everyone loves Elizabeth Bennet so much when she’s a woman-hating cow with a poor taste in men for the entire book), the first few chapters of a book that I stopped reading when it described a distance down the street as “down the block” in like 1800s Scotland, and the first 3rd of Vegetarian by Han Kang which hasn’t exactly captivated me.
Reading prose became difficult for me over the years and, aside from Mary Renault’s Alexander trilogy, I’ve really struggled.
Enter a nerve-wracking cliffhanger at the last Debut or Die! webtoon episode. It was of vital importance that I find out if that sticky situation gets resolved. The webnovel is on Tapas just like the webtoon, only it has a pretty intimidating 380-odd episodes.
Not particularly expecting to make it very far through the webnovel on account of the fact I can’t read, I started with the first chapter/episode. And then I kept reading and reading. For two weeks I have been entirely consumed with reading on and finding out what happens next. And now I’ve caught up to the most recently translated update and I am of the same mind of the person commenting on every episode begging for daily updates. The story is complete in Korean so it’s just a case of being drip-fed the remaining 300ish episodes until the end. And I hate that for me.
Without any exaggeration, I must say that DS. Back is a genius. The characters within Debut or Die! are not only distinct but authentic to themselves throughout every scene. The reactions, aspects of situations they notice, and interpersonal relationships are as sturdy as those same features of any real person. The motivations of characters, whilst opaque in some scenes, eventually reveal themselves to have perfect logic for that character at that point in time. I truly envy the skill involved in creating and depicting these very real and honest characters.
Not only are the characters brilliant but the events of the story themselves are skillfully woven together. I think I only really appreciated this once the survival show ends. If you’ve seen one survival show, you can take it that they all have such structures in terms of challges and ranking announcements/eliminations alternating until the end. Once that scaffolding is removed and Moondae’s routine is no longer dictated by the shooting schedule, it becomes clear that DS. Back had done more than simply follow an expected formula.
When both reading the webtoon and the webnovel, there was a certain event which left a bad taste in my mouth. It was resolved way too easily without any input from a main character who has leveraged his situational awareness, interpersonal and technical skills, in addition to his knowledge of the future and how things work in order to get the best edit possible on the survival show — for him this is about life or death survival, not simply surviving to the last episode. Yet that one problem just going away by itself was beyond unsatisfactory. However, like 200 episodes later (very rough estimate, after I’d written that scene off and almost forgotten about it, it turns out I was wrong. It didn’t go away by itself.
The calculative intelligence of Park Moondae seems almost unbelievable, but it turns out he’s living in a world where he will encounter people capable of setting up equally sticky gambits.
Debut or Die! is exciting. It is such a thrilling read. Unfortunately I love it to the point that I am now very biased and cannot find a single aspect that lets the work down. All I want to do is shout about it from the rooftops and finish it. Unfortunately I’m confined to the reality that I don’t have anybody to discuss it with and must now be patient for the triweekly uploads.
All I can say is that anybody with the slightest interest should check it out.
Whilst I think I am firmly in love with Debut or Die! and other idol webtoons, if anybody has any recommendations which are about girl groups, I would be much obliged.
Hush Nili 
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