Lookism, another Taejun Pak manwha received an adaptation around a year ago. It was so bad I was ashamed, a pathetic attempt which I'm glad to have forgotten so fast, and the episodes had neither the engagement nor the faithfulness to the original story to grant the watcher a true insight into the brilliance of the original work. I think while I say "brilliance" that is not considering that Lookism was Pak's earliest major work and that the early storytelling is somewhat lacklustre anyway, but they ruined the show completely, changing character names and designs so badly I could not see the original work in this episode. So now we come to Viral Hit, a more contemporary work which I've read from release. Despite my disappointment with the Lookism adaptation, I was still excited for this. I felt this could be adapted far better. Was I right? Well it's only taken one episode for me to conclude so.
While I'm not going to tell you this was some transcendence for anime in the adaptation quality, from the very beginning I saw promise in this episode. The direction it had taken to adapt manwha was very simple but something not many shows dare do - it relied on similar frames to the original work but in doing so designed the characters well, while also creating smooth and simple movement needed to animate the characters. The comedic tone for the opening was SPOT ON. SPOT ON. The facial expressions, the music and the voice acting coalesced into some deeply engaging and funny moments while also succeeding in doing what any first episode should do in introducing us to the main characters of the early show. While the show was "Japaneseified" slightly the plot was a perfect copy, probably paced at the right speed for a manwha adaptation. The actual episode was objectively fine, the animation was definitely good for the budget I expect the show to work on but then again this early episode does not have the test of animating the aspirational fights Pak always puts in delinquent manwha. The real thing that pleased me was just seeing the episode do the manwha justice. I sat there for the whole episode with not a moment of lapse in my engagement, brought back to first reading the original work and I just KNEW that this was what I was looking for. I saw that the studio really had worked to understand the characters they have in it, and adapted very faithfully with a very unique license to the pacing and storyboarding, as well as the angles chosen in each moment. As a result, the original story as well as the studio's licensing shone through in what was a great debut episode.
I can assure you guys this does get even better and hope people will give the show the respect it deserves. I am a sucker for a delinquent manwha though so bear with me!