Manhwa and webtoons are increasingly dominant among comic readers worldwide, and with the popular isekai genre extending out of manga and anime, there are plenty of new worlds for enthusiasts to escape to. Many of the best series like to blend fantasy and RPG elements in multiple instances of game UI’s to help the protagonist through their adventures. However, the distinctive art style, narrative flow, or outright quality of some are often overlooked in favor of more trendy series, resulting in even the best-underrated isekai manhwa going unnoticed tragically.

It’s easy to fixate on more famous examples of the best isekai manhwa in recent memory, especially as the medium is saturated with more webtoons every day. As anime adaptations continue to push manhwa to the mainstream, readers will want to know the hidden gems so they’re not caught off guard when the next worldwide sensation emerges to sit alongside Solo Leveling and Tower of God.

But the journey is fulfilling, loaded with eclectic artwork and engaging stories found in underrated isekai manhwa and webtoons.

10

Concubine Walkthrough

Becoming the Final Boss of a VRRPG

Concubine Walkthrough captivates as a unique-looking manhwa due to its subdued visuals depicting a drab real world before the protagonist, Yona, seeks an escape from her turbulent life. While preparing for the college entrance exams, she finds an escape in a new VR format for her favorite game, Concubine Walkthrough, where the player must take down the royal concubine and ascend to the queen. However, she quickly finds herself stuck in that game world, as the concubine and NPCs powered by deep learning AI in a world splashed with strikingly more life and elegant color than in her real world.

9

I’ll Save This Damned Family!

Turning Isekai Manhwa Tropes on Their Heads

Tara Elias is a member of the noble Elias house, her body an unwitting host to reincarnation. However, much to her inhabiting spirit’s chagrin, Tara is not the typical isekai archetype, although she encounters familiar tropes including “enemies to lovers” manhwa plotlines. Instead of a gorgeous villainess or a powerful mage archetype, Tara is a shut-in, usually the inverse of heroes in these stories. In I’ll Save This Damned Family! Tara quickly seizes her sense of agency, knowing how the story goes, training like a soldier and embarking on a self-improvement journey while keeping her noble house from collapsing.

8

Ellin’s Solhwa

An Isekai Escape from a Dead-End Job

Plenty of isekai manhwa readers crave the escapism of being whisked away to another world where they are more powerful, and in Ellin’s case, she gets to do so while telling off a customer at her job. In the process, Ellin becomes Solhwa, a concubine to a king of the Xyaran Empire. While investigating how she got to this world, she finds difficulty discerning who to trust: the gorgeous childhood friend Jin or equally handsome Kiha, advisor to the king in this incredible historically-inspired romance manhwa.

7

The Divine Surgeon

Another Career Jeopardized by a Sudden Isekai Reincarnation

Jinsu Han is a promising prospective surgeon who has a habit of overstepping his bounds to do the right thing, and it never winds up paying off, at least in his original life. Unlike other isekai manhwa featuring a mysterious death and convenient resurrection, Jinsu’s death is linked to a direct perpetrator, and his resurrection results from his good deeds outweighing the bad. However, his choice to resurrect with the most patients possible sends him to a new life in the Three Kingdoms era in China, with new opportunities thanks to his training in modern medicine in The Divine Surgeon.

6

As You Wish, Prince

An Author Sent to Another World by Her Creation

Yoonsoo’s life as an office worker is spiced up by secretly being a popular author under the pen name Vasser, famous for her beloved “Prince” series. However, the third prince in her created world shocks her by appearing in her world before kicking her down a mysterious fissure he makes by splitting the earth with his sword. Yoonsoo wakes up in the world she created, seen as a witch for her prescient knowledge of the characters and ability to rewrite reality, tasked by the initially villainous third prince, Einzen Kyte, with helping him become an emperor.

5

Ending Maker

It’s Not Just a Game — It’s a Lifestyle

Kang Jin-ho and Hong Yoo Hee are the top-ranked players of Legend of Heroes 2, the fictional ten-year-old game in Ending Maker, before they’re resurrected as their characters in this isekai manhwa. Their collective expertise in the game world makes for a natural chance to cooperate despite their long-standing rivalry in their past lives. The artwork is gorgeous in this series, with the resurrected avatars Jude Bayer and Cordelia Chase having a natural and compelling chemistry as they ascend to cosmic-scale roles throughout the story.

4

Princess Wars

The Ultimate Isekai Manhwa Bachelor

Han Moli is a typical office worker, although she drives herself to the extreme in pursuit of wealth and sustenance when she overworks herself to death after a 72-hour streak. Her resurrection, however, pits her against six other prospective princess brides to compete for Prince Vincent’s hand in marriage. Now, in her new life as Princess Pea, the protagonist is given the peculiar power to sense danger while finding that her fellow competitors are more cutthroat than expected.

3

Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom

Isekai Manhwa Explores an Iconic Evil Stepmother’s Story

Not-Sew-Wicked Stepmom follows a familiar premise, a villainess-centric isekai manhwa where Baekhap Lee becomes Abigail Freidkin, the evil stepmother in Snow White. Hated by her husband, King Sabrian, the reincarnated Abigail must win back the trust and affection of her stepdaughter, Princess Blanche. She contends with an untrusting husband, an inherent “resting villainess face” smile, and more, as this story blends wholesome moments as a stepmother connects with her child and enemies to lovers manhwa tension with Sabrian.

2

Overgeared

Becoming a Legendary Blacksmith in the Game World

Shin Youngwoo is one of the most lovable isekai manhwa protagonists while inhabiting one of the best-executed game worlds in Overgeared, one of the best manhwa around, despite being often less discussed than other contemporary hits like Solo Leveling. Shin is obsessed with “Satisfy,” the story’s hit VRMMORPG, who undergoes a surprising metamorphosis when his character is given a class change, dropped to level -1, but given the skills to match the game’s legendary blacksmith. This results in him being able to outclass anybody of an equivalent level and craft increasingly exquisite weapons and gear for battle and profit.

1

The Greatest Real Estate Developer

Reincarnated as Human Scum

Many isekai manhwa demonstrate self-awareness, but The Greatest Real Estate Developer pushes this to unusual levels with a fantastic first chapter, with a reincarnation of Suho Kim turning him into a character with the unique skill, “Human Scum.” The protagonist in this case uses his expertise from his previous life as a civil engineering student and supporting character in “Knight of Blood and Iron,” a novel he previously read. He uses his knowledge of this world and his talents to empower himself despite his character’s limitations in this series that isekai manhwa readers can’t miss.