Ji-a Son is a twenty-year-old woman forced to live a life starkly contrasting with that of her peers. Instead of having the opportunity to pursue a university education and enjoy time with her friends, she works tirelessly eighteen hours a day, driving her to physical and mental exhaustion. Her only motivation? To earn enough to give her little sister a better life.
However, all that is about to change when a simple school trip suddenly turns into something much more sinister. Her younger sister, along with her entire class, is kidnapped and transported to mysterious, isolated facilities, which are under the control of unknown individuals with chilling and ambiguous intentions: to "care" for them.
Desperate, Ji-a Son turns to many people for help, but upon perceiving their indifference to the situation, and unwilling to wait for someone to finally take action, Ji-a must embark on a mission not just to find her sister, but to rescue her from the clutches of these kidnappers. Driven by fierce determination and an even greater sense of guilt, she decides to get to work without any idea of the unimaginable dangers and dark secrets that await her.
Fake Humans Characters
Ji-a Son
Our twenty-year-old protagonist who’s struggling financially and emotionally, yet remains fiercely dedicated to her sister.
Su-a Son
The little sister of our main protagonist, and the reason Ji-a tries to keep a smile on her face even through all her struggles.
Opinions on Fake Humans
Beyond the premise being interesting, the story wastes no time, immediately setting up a scenario full of mystery involving missing children, an apathetic atmosphere where everyone starts to seem suspicious of what happened, and conspiracies that point to a cult much more influential than it appears at first glance.
The drama intensifies once you realize that Ji-a Son seems to be the only one with any urgency to retrieve her sister from facilities where shadowy figures claim the child has been "blessed" and will be "cared for." This dangerous situation and Ji-a Son's unwavering determination to unmask the disturbing truth are precisely what made the story so compelling and, ultimately, a read worth checking out. However, there’s something to be said about the final chapters and the overall conclusion of the story—and believe me, I have nothing positive to write about it because there’s no denying that the entire thing went completely off the rails.
The Inconclusive Failure of Fake Humans
The overwhelming feeling I'm left with after finishing the webtoon Fake Humans is pure disappointment. Honestly, I feel completely frustrated, for lack of a better word, to explain how much time I wasted reading this while believing it would be a long-running series, or at least one with a satisfactory conclusion.
I think everything started to decline when the games began, as the narrative went from having a structure to feeling improvised. The purposes of the games were for our protagonist to get closer to the cult leader so she could finally rescue her sister.
However, at times during these tests, the author chose not to show us the process, but only the final result, which felt unearned and was much less comprehensible.
There are some characters who were definitely sacrificed in terms of development and context by being made "dumb" just to advance the plot, thereby forcing Ji-a Son toward that critical encounter with the cult leader.
And finally, when she achieves her goal? After 45 chapters of build-up, things just end. Yes, it ends just like that. It's like writing an essay, and when you finish, someone comes along with scissors and cuts the whole thing up. It's that abrupt. The ending is severed, leaving loose ends everywhere, sidelining the protagonist's motivations as if the manuscript had been a simple draft written by a novice who truly didn't know where to take their own story.
You’re left confused because many things happen in terms of story, characters, and so on, but we are given no answers. What will happen to Ji-a Son? How can people be brainwashed to such an extent? What happened to Ji-a Son’s friend in all this? There are many more questions than answers, which will now never be resolved.
What Happened with Fake Humans’ Ending?
There are many rumors about what happened, but the most popular consensus is that the series was canceled (axed) due to low figures, forcing the creative team to cram an entire ending into just a couple of pages. This isn't the only problem; it turns out that the webtoon was an adaptation of an original novel that is also unfinished. It seems to me that the manhwa was tragically destined for failure from the beginning because of this, since if not even the original work has an ending, an adaptation certainly wouldn't.
So, if you're thinking of starting this series, take all of this into account before diving in. There is no real conclusion and certainly no payoff that makes the read worthwhile. I wouldn't want anyone else to invest 45 chapters just to feel this frustrated.
Tragically, Fake Humans had the potential to be so much more, but it turned out to be a waste of time. The abrupt, and open ending squandered all of its potential. It is the definition of a failed execution: a genuinely interesting premise that collapsed long before the finish line, leaving us with pure frustration. 💔
