Spotlight#88: No Scope

Yeah so remember in Scorching Romance where I mentioned my trip to Hawaii? Well, prepare yourself dear viewers because this is going to be a spiritual successor to that trip since there was still one other webtoon that I got interested in. Sit back, gamer gals and pals, because I'm turning up the brightness on the webtoon No Scope by ZOYANG.

Summary

Whether you are a total noob or pro gamer everyone in their stepmom has heard of the hot new sci-fi/fantasy fps game that's taking the world by storm: PSI Bond! With its popularity growing by the day everyone is trying to aim for the top, including the epic gamer geek Suho Kang. However, in his school, he happens to meet up with a living legend: the powerfully potent player Psychopomp, a moniker held by the narc Doonyoon Lee. Realizing that Doonyoon has the talent of a pro player but lacks everything else, he hopes that with his gaming know-how and Doonyoon's potential can glitch them into the professional circuit and leave the competition pwned.

Characters

Doonyoon: Our little cinnamon roll Doonyoon despite having amazing reflexes and dexterity is a complete dunce when it comes to the finer details. Overall though he is embarrassingly nice, polite, timid, and submissive, however through Suho, he is able to get enough XP to grow out of his former position as an IRL NPC.

Suho: Doonyoon's best friend Suho is pretty much the brains behind the brawn. While he may look like a typical jock and type a student Suho is very passionate about gaming to the point of almost obsession. Despite this, he is still friendly, protective, and supportive to all, especially Doonyoon. He is a man who grinds to be the best but isn't willing to nerf anyone down to get it.

Juri Han: Suho's supporting girl who is a friend Juri has a massive one-sided crush on Suho. Overall though Juri despite her constant controversies and naive knowledge of the game Juri still keeps trucking along with her high self-esteem. She's the literal embodiment of lagging behind, but having spirit.

Overview

No Scope is easily one of the most creative webtoons I've seen in my 4-year career. 2020 did make me open up to an appreciation of sports anime and shows like Haikyuu and Kuroko No Basket. I also already am well versed in gaming-style webtoons or shows with lots of gaming elements like HCLW and Let's Play but No Scope is actually a full-on webtoon dedicated to the life of professional gamers. Which is good considering we need more repetition for the most oppressed minority in the world.

No Scope's biggest overall advantage is its usage of gaming lingo in an encouraging way. To exhausting detail, No scope tries to educate on various slang in a way that doesn't feel cringy or trying to relate to the fellow kids yo. It also puts much respect on the life of professional gamers which I relate to even if I'm not one. Like I hate it when people look at someone's job or passion and assume it's lame because oh it's too geeky or looks easy. In my opinion, respect the effort even if you don't like the craft all that much but I digress. And while the art of the webtoon isn't the greatest considering the more cutesy art style some cinematic shots are generally wallpaper worthy. However, while the overall action isn't anything that special they don't nerf the tactics and team strategies on display with the well-established rules of PsiBond genuinely had me engrossed with how interactive it feels. Plus some of the one-sided beatdowns are funny as all hell and made me really want to see what that DPS score must've been like.

But if that's not all great enough then I think you'll love the character interaction. This series just really leaves you with that fun feeling that comes from being on a sports team or really any group of friends, a feeling that I'm already nostalgic for now that I've grown up. Once the cast grows into the team Deathperdo (gold ass name) we get a lot of very fun and heartwarming moments that just make you feel good man. Plus the chibi expressions are priceless. However once the second half we truly get to see the difference between the players and athletes where we see the divide that comes from Doonyoon wanting to play but also win in the world he loves now.

Epilogue

Overall No Scope is a straight AAA webcomic that only gets more buffed with time and I definitely don't want to be AFK from it any time soon. But with that I will be taking a short cooldown from these unique April Webtoons and let's see where the spotlight will be booted up next time.