I’m sorry but if this story actually gets punished for plagiarizing, I will seriously flip my shit. No matter how similar these two manhwa may appear, it is absolutely not plagiarism. If something of this level is called plagiarism, no one would ever be allowed to publish a psychological thriller where we have Stockholm syndrome, kidnapping, toxic relationships, and sexual abuse because it’ll always be linked to KS, which is total BS. In fact, I can name a few manhwa which also have similar themes but never got called out for their plots, for example, The Warehouse.
Just because Killing Stalking was released first doesn’t mean all of a sudden they hold all the rights to such a story. It is undeniable that people will draw comparisons between the two which is fine, but if someone officially states this is a plagiarized story, I don’t even know what to say. The main reason why people have the impression this is KS is because of the art, which if you read the author’s previous work “Behind the Desk” you will see it was originally her art style but drawn darker on purpose to fit the theme. Other than that, you can’t call it copying. Sangwoo obsessed over his mother and was mentally unstable whereas the seme here respects his “teacher” or the uke’s sister and is trying to commit revenge for her sake. He is mentally sane and not a psycho who enjoys killing and tormenting people like Sangwoo. Bum had a twisted love towards Sangwoo whereas the uke here absolutely gives no fucks about the seme, only praises him as a god or savior, simply wants the sex because he’s bored, and wants to escape his life as a prostitute. The seme just happened to be there and is taking revenge for the uke’s sister and he locked the uke up with that blonde ass, which already is a completely different story because he isn’t even kidnapped alone. The most I can say is this story was probably inspired by KS, but knowing the author’s other work, they aren’t new to the toxic psycho boyfriend trope. It really isn’t plagiarism to me.
I’m sorry but if this story actually gets punished for plagiarizing, I will seriously flip my shit. No matter how similar these two manhwa may appear, it is absolutely not plagiarism. If something of this level is called plagiarism, no one would ever be allowed to publish a psychological thriller where we have Stockholm syndrome, kidnapping, toxic relationships, and sexual abuse because it’ll always be linked to KS, which is total BS. In fact, I can name a few manhwa which also have similar themes but never got called out for their plots, for example, The Warehouse.
Just because Killing Stalking was released first doesn’t mean all of a sudden they hold all the rights to such a story. It is undeniable that people will draw comparisons between the two which is fine, but if someone officially states this is a plagiarized story, I don’t even know what to say. The main reason why people have the impression this is KS is because of the art, which if you read the author’s previous work “Behind the Desk” you will see it was originally her art style but drawn darker on purpose to fit the theme. Other than that, you can’t call it copying. Sangwoo obsessed over his mother and was mentally unstable whereas the seme here respects his “teacher” or the uke’s sister and is trying to commit revenge for her sake. He is mentally sane and not a psycho who enjoys killing and tormenting people like Sangwoo. Bum had a twisted love towards Sangwoo whereas the uke here absolutely gives no fucks about the seme, only praises him as a god or savior, simply wants the sex because he’s bored, and wants to escape his life as a prostitute. The seme just happened to be there and is taking revenge for the uke’s sister and he locked the uke up with that blonde ass, which already is a completely different story because he isn’t even kidnapped alone. The most I can say is this story was probably inspired by KS, but knowing the author’s other work, they aren’t new to the toxic psycho boyfriend trope. It really isn’t plagiarism to me.