The best short manhwa is Bastard: 94 chapters, completed, and the tightest thriller on WEBTOON. If you only have one evening, read The Horizon, which is over in 21 chapters. And if you want something that finished this year, On the Way to Meet Mom ended in Korea in July 2026 and is complete in English.
Pick if you want:
- A thriller you can't put down: Bastard.
- One evening, one gut punch: The Horizon.
- Something short with a Netflix adaptation: The Sound of Magic (Annarasumanara).
- A realistic college romance: Nevertheless.
- Something new and gentle: On the Way to Meet Mom.
- A dark fantasy premise: Death's Game.
- Horror at school: Shotgun Boy.
- A sweet BL school story: Heesu in Class 2.
- Vampire action with a female lead: Unholy Blood.
- A romance fantasy with a twist: Kill the Villainess.
How we picked: every series is marked finished on AniList and completed on its official English platform, and the longest stops at 102 chapters. Chapter counts below are AniList's, which include extras; English episode totals can differ by a few. This October we cut Legend of the Northern Blade (202 chapters) and Kill the Hero (153), which aren't short, and added seven series, including On the Way to Meet Mom.
One platform note: Tapas ends service on March 31, 2027 at 23:59 PT. Two picks here sell on Tapas, and both are also on Lezhin or Tappytoon, so buy them there.
Best short manhwa at a glance
| Series | Chapters (AniList) | Genre | Where to read |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Horizon | 21 | Post-apocalyptic drama | WEBTOON, Yen Press print |
| The Sound of Magic | 28 | Drama, magic | WEBTOON |
| Nevertheless | 40 | Romance | WEBTOON |
| On the Way to Meet Mom | 53 | Fantasy adventure | WEBTOON, Yen Press print |
| Death's Game | 66 | Dark fantasy | WEBTOON |
| Shotgun Boy | 69 | Horror | WEBTOON |
| Heesu in Class 2 | 90 | BL romance | Lezhin, Tappytoon, Tapas |
| Unholy Blood | 93 | Action, vampires | WEBTOON, Yen Press print |
| Bastard | 94 | Thriller | WEBTOON, Seven Seas print |
| Kill the Villainess | 102 | Romance fantasy | Tappytoon, Lezhin, Tapas, Yen Press print |
Short manhwa you can finish in one sitting
The Horizon
The Horizon by Ji-Hun Jeong. Cover via AniList.
The shortest read here and the heaviest.
Completed on WEBTOON, 21 chapters. Ran in Korea in 2016.
An apocalyptic event has wiped out most of the population. A young boy meets a girl in a sea of dead bodies, and, bound by shared trauma, the two keep walking in hope of a safe haven, in a world that may not have one left. Nothing in it is wasted.
Read it if you want something short that stays with you. Skip it if you need hope by the last page.
The Sound of Magic (Annarasumanara)
The Sound of Magic: Annarasumanara by Il-Kwon Ha. Cover via AniList.
A short coming-of-age story with a Netflix adaptation.
Completed on WEBTOON, 28 chapters. Netflix adapted it as a series in 2022.
As a child, Yun Ai dreamed of becoming a magician. Now she's a high school student who can't afford new socks. Then she meets a mysterious magician at a carnival and decides to follow the dream anyway. It's about growing up too fast, and it was drawn in 2010, so it looks nothing like a modern webtoon.
Netflix K-Content's official trailer for The Sound of Magic.
Read it if you like quiet, bittersweet stories. Skip it if older webcomic art puts you off.
Nevertheless
Nevertheless by Jeong-Seo. Cover via AniList.
The most honest romance on the list.
Completed on WEBTOON, 40 chapters. Adapted as a live-action drama.
Nabi wants to date but doesn't believe in love. Jae-eon likes to flirt but thinks relationships are a drag. They're art students who meet in college, and the story follows the early, messy stages of attraction without pretending either of them has it figured out.
Read it if you want a grown-up, realistic romance. Skip it if a noncommittal male lead will make you angry.
Best short manhwa for a weekend
On the Way to Meet Mom
On the Way to Meet Mom by Gomyang. Cover via AniList.
The best new short manhwa, finished in 2026.
Completed on WEBTOON; English Episode 1 went up March 23, 2025. AniList counts 53 chapters, including 22 extras, and marks the Korean run finished on July 7, 2026. Yen Press prints it.
A rescue team finds Mori in an abandoned house, and he ends up in a children's protection center, where he learns a new way of life. When his closest friend is reunited with her mother and leaves, Mori learns for the first time that every child has a mother, and sets out to find his own. It's gentle and sad in equal measure.
Read it if you want a short, warm adventure. Skip it if stories about lost children hit too hard.
Death's Game
Death's Game by Won-Sik Lee and Kkulchan. Cover via AniList.
The darkest premise in 66 chapters.
Completed on WEBTOON.
Yijae Choi is unemployed, broke after a bitcoin scam, and decides to end his life. Death is insulted by how flippant he is and makes him play her game: he has to die over and over through 13 other lives, and if he can survive the death coming for one of them, he gets to keep that life. Each life is its own short story.
Read it if you like high-concept dark fantasy. Skip it if suicide as a theme is hard for you to read. Our Death's Game reading guide has more.
Shotgun Boy
Shotgun Boy by Carnby Kim and Pil Hong. Cover via AniList.
School horror from the writer of Bastard and Sweet Home.
Completed on WEBTOON, 69 chapters.
Running for his life in the woods, bullying victim Gyuhwan finds a shotgun with just enough shells for his classmates. Then he goes back and finds those classmates under attack by brain-eating creatures, and he's the only one with a gun. The moral knot is the point.
Read it if you like horror with a hard question in it. Skip it if you want a likable lead.
Heesu in Class 2
Heesu in Class 2 by Lily. Cover via AniList.
The sweetest pick, and the short BL to start with.
Completed: 91 episodes on Tapas, also on Lezhin (COMPLETED) and Tappytoon. AniList counts 90 chapters, including a prologue and ten side stories.
Heesu's world revolves around his best friend and secret crush, Chanyoung. Then a rumor goes around school that Heesu in Class 2 can fix anyone's love problems, and suddenly everyone wants his advice. He has no idea what to do about his own crush.
Read it if you want a gentle high school romance. Skip it if you want drama with high stakes. Buy it on Lezhin or Tappytoon, since Tapas is closing.
Unholy Blood
Unholy Blood by Li-Na Lim. Cover via AniList.
The action pick with a female lead.
Completed on WEBTOON, 93 chapters. Yen Press prints it.
Vampires wrecked Hayan's chance at a normal life, and now she has to draw on her darkest secret to rid the world of the merciless hunters that took it over ten years ago. A rising officer in the local police helps her face her past and take revenge.
WEBTOON's official trailer for Unholy Blood.
Read it if you want vampire action that finishes. Skip it if gore bothers you. More heroines like her: manhwa with a strong female lead.
Bastard
Bastard by Carnby Kim and Yeong-Chan Hwang. Cover via AniList.
The best short manhwa overall.
Completed on WEBTOON, 94 chapters; the Korean run ended in March 2017. Seven Seas prints it.
WEBTOON sums it up in one line: "There is a serial killer in my house!" Seon Jin is a sickly, bullied high school boy nobody notices, and his secret is that the serial killer is his father. The story is about what living with that does to him. It's short, cruel and finished, which is exactly what you want from a thriller. See our Bastard review.
Read it if you want a thriller that never wastes a chapter. Skip it if abuse at home is a hard no.
Kill the Villainess
Kill the Villainess by Wol-Saeng Sa and Haegi. Cover via AniList.
The romance fantasy that wants to end.
Completed: 102 episodes on Tapas, also on Tappytoon and Lezhin, with print from Yen Press. AniList counts 102 chapters, including six extras.
Eris Miserian just wants to die. Overworked in the real world, she wakes up as the villainess of a romance novel and figures that dying in the story might send her home, but the story won't let her. So she sets off with a witch, a knight and a high priest to find a way out.
Read it if you like villainess stories but want a different goal. Skip it if you want a slow-burn palace romance.
Our take
Read Bastard first. If it clicks, read Shotgun Boy next, since Carnby Kim wrote both. If you want something softer, On the Way to Meet Mom is the one we'd hand to anyone, including people who don't read manhwa.
Related Reading
- Best Manhwa for Beginners: ten places to start, five already finished.
- Best Completed Manhwa: longer finished series.
- Sweet Home review: Carnby Kim and Yeong-Chan Hwang's horror series, 141 chapters.
How We Checked This
Completion status comes from each series' official WEBTOON, Tapas or Lezhin page, checked October 14, 2026. Chapter counts, end dates and credits come from AniList, whose counts include prologues and extras. Print editions come from AniList's English links. Trailers were checked through YouTube's oEmbed. This pass added The Horizon, The Sound of Magic, On the Way to Meet Mom, Death's Game, Shotgun Boy, Unholy Blood and Kill the Villainess, and removed Legend of the Northern Blade and Kill the Hero.
Last reviewed: October 14, 2026
References
- The Horizon on WEBTOON and AniList
- The Sound of Magic on WEBTOON and AniList
- Nevertheless on WEBTOON and AniList
- On the Way to Meet Mom on WEBTOON and AniList
- Death's Game on WEBTOON and AniList
- Shotgun Boy on WEBTOON and AniList
- Heesu in Class 2 on Tapas, Lezhin and AniList
- Unholy Blood on WEBTOON and AniList
- Bastard on WEBTOON and AniList
- Kill the Villainess on Tapas and AniList
- Tapas End of Service FAQ
