Manhwa Like Copycat: 7 Psychological Thrillers to Read

TL;DR: The closest manhwa like Copycat is Bastard, followed by PIGPEN, Sweet Home, Shotgun Boy, Chasing Tails, The Savior's Time, and It's Mine. All seven have live official WEBTOON pages and AniList records marked FINISHED.

Copycat builds its thriller around a killer who stages corpses as self-destruction art. Failed artist Suchan Kim recognizes the concept as his own stolen work, so the investigation is tangled up with his need to be recognized. The useful recommendations share one of those pressures: authorship and identity, a killer close to ordinary life, or a protagonist whose obsession keeps making the danger worse.

The picks split into three groups. Bastard is the closest structural comparison. PIGPEN shares Carnby Kim's taste for identity puzzles, while Sweet Home and Shotgun Boy carry the same writer into supernatural or survival horror. The remaining three trade the creator connection for locked-room suspicion, online grief, or surveillance-driven obsession.

For readers searching for what to read after Copycat manhwa, that split is more useful than a generic list of dark titles.

Manhwa like Copycat: 7 picks at a glance

For one answer, read Bastard first. It is the nearest match for Copycat's human-scale serial-killer tension, and it comes from the same writer and artist team. PIGPEN is the next choice for identity horror. The other five widen the mood while keeping Copycat's pressure, investigation, or moral unease.

The chapter column uses AniList's source record. The English WEBTOON page may display a different number of numbered episodes because AniList records extra chapters and WEBTOON often shows a limited public page before sending readers to the app. A completed series can therefore look deceptively short on the web archive.

How to choose a manhwa like Copycat

Choose by the part of Copycat that hooked you. Pick Bastard for a killer embedded in family life, PIGPEN for memory and identity, Sweet Home for metaphorical body horror, or Chasing Tails for a closed-room investigation. The Savior's Time and It's Mine are better fits when the human investigation matters more than graphic horror.

Copycat's official synopsis gives three filters for this list. The crime is theatrical because bodies become a gallery product. Suchan is not a neutral detective; he wants recognition for the idea he believes was stolen. The story is psychological even when its imagery becomes disturbing. The recommendations below preserve as many of those pressures as possible.

The current Copycat page also carries a practical warning for new readers. At the September 28, 2026 check, WEBTOON displayed Episode 25 dated September 23, the label “UP EVERY WEDNESDAY,” and 11 newer episodes in the app. It also marked the series Mature 18+. This comparison uses that checkpoint instead of the older Episode 23 and eight-app-only note in the site's reading guide.

1. Bastard is the closest manhwa like Copycat

Bastard is the closest manhwa like Copycat because both make serial-killer tension feel domestic, personal, and impossible to escape. Carnby Kim writes both series, and Youngchan Hwang provides the art for both. Bastard is the better starting point if you want a completed story with no supernatural mechanism and no waiting between episodes.

AniList lists Bastard as FINISHED at 94 chapters, with country of origin KR and isAdult: false. Its synopsis centers on high-school student Seon Jin, who knows that the serial killer in his house is his father. The official WEBTOON page credits Carnby Kim as writer and Youngchan Hwang as artist, and the series archive is live in English.

The two series share a structure. Copycat ties an artist's need for recognition to murder. Bastard asks what a son becomes when survival requires silence around a killer. Knowledge is a liability in both stories. The protagonist stands too close to the crime, and the threat is frightening because it lives inside an ordinary relationship.

Bastard is a tightly contained completed thriller. Copycat is still releasing and is building a larger mystery around art, spectatorship, and a killer selling spectacle to wealthy collectors. Start with Bastard if you want the cleanest test of Copycat's psychological register.

2. PIGPEN turns Copycat's identity anxiety into a mystery

PIGPEN is the best manhwa like Copycat for readers who want the identity question to become the entire setting. It keeps Carnby Kim's fascination with damaged people and withheld information, but replaces Copycat's art-world crime with a man who wakes on a beach without knowing who he is and meets a family that may not be what it seems.

AniList lists PIGPEN as FINISHED at 68 chapters, from Korea, with isAdult: false. Its official WEBTOON page marks the series COMPLETED, credits Carnby Kim as writer and SICK as artist, and shows Episode 8 dated November 6, 2020 on the public web archive while directing readers to the app for more episodes. The public Episode 8 label is not a replacement for AniList's 68-chapter source count.

PIGPEN carries over Copycat's distrust of first impressions. In Copycat, a piece of art may be evidence, theft, or a performance designed to control the audience. In PIGPEN, the setting and the welcoming family create the same uncertainty. Every explanation raises another question. The series follows a trapped protagonist reconstructing a private identity instead of a killer staging a public masterpiece.

Read PIGPEN when Copycat's unreliable perspective interests you more than the specific killer plot. It is completed, but its mystery will frustrate anyone looking for a simple, linear crime procedural.

3. Sweet Home expands the same creative partnership into body horror

Sweet Home takes the Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang partnership in a different direction. It turns private desperation into physical transformation and moves from an individual crime puzzle to an apartment full of people fighting what they may become.

AniList lists Sweet Home as FINISHED at 141 chapters, country of origin KR, and isAdult: false. WEBTOON marks it COMPLETED, identifies Carnby Kim as writer and Youngchan Hwang as artist, and gives a synopsis about a reclusive student facing monsters after a family tragedy. The public page shows an Episode 14 dated April 2, 2018 and an app notice, so the visible web page is not a full 141-episode total.

The Copycat connection is authorship and spectatorship. Both series ask how an inner wound changes the way a person sees other people. Copycat turns the wound into a stolen concept and a gallery-ready crime. Sweet Home turns desire into monsters. The mechanism changes, but the psychological premise remains recognizable: the horror is meaningful because it expresses something a character already carries.

Pick Sweet Home for a wider cast, body horror, and a supernatural metaphor. Pick Bastard for the closest non-supernatural tension. Our Sweet Home review covers the completed series in more detail.

If your Copycat interest is primarily horror rather than creator lineage, compare these picks with our , which separates psychological dread from body horror and survival horror.

best horror manhwa list

4. Shotgun Boy keeps the pressure but changes the crime into survival

Shotgun Boy fits when the part you want to preserve is Carnby Kim's interest in frightened people making ugly decisions under pressure. This is survival horror, not a murder investigation. A bullied student finds a shotgun in the woods and returns to classmates under attack by brain-eating creatures.

AniList lists Shotgun Boy as FINISHED at 69 chapters, from Korea, with isAdult: false. The official WEBTOON page marks it COMPLETED, credits Carnby Kim as creator and Hongpil as artist, and displays Ep. 6 dated April 14, 2021 on the public page with an app notice. AniList's record notes two extra chapters, another reason not to equate its 69-chapter field with the visible episode labels.

The shared quality is moral pressure. Copycat makes Suchan's hunger for artistic recognition part of the investigation. Shotgun Boy makes Gyuhwan's history of bullying and isolation part of the survival story. Neither lead is a blank action hero. Their past changes what they notice, whom they trust, and what they are willing to do when the safe choice disappears.

Shotgun Boy suits readers who want faster danger and more physical survival than Copycat currently provides. It is also completed, which makes it a finished bridge between the psychological thriller and supernatural horror sides of Carnby Kim's catalog.

5. Chasing Tails is Copycat's closest locked-room mystery

Chasing Tails is the strongest non-Carnby Kim match for readers who want a crime puzzle built from testimony, missing information, and a group that cannot agree on what happened. Its horror is grounded in a collapsed building and a survivor investigation, not in art or monsters.

AniList lists Chasing Tails as FINISHED at 107 chapters, from Korea, with isAdult: false. The official WEBTOON page marks it COMPLETED and shows Episode 10 dated December 2, 2021 on the public listing. The synopsis says nine college students were trapped under a collapsed building for 14 days, six emerged alive, and police must decide whether the mangled bodies point to homicide. The platform credits BASHI as creator.

Chasing Tails overlaps with Copycat through the pressure of interpretation. Suchan reads a crime scene through art and ownership. In Chasing Tails, detectives and a neuropsychiatrist parse witness testimony while every witness is also a suspect. Both stories make the audience compare competing versions of a scene instead of waiting for an action reveal.

Chasing Tails is a completed locked-room mystery with a larger ensemble and less creator-centered obsession. Pick it when you want to theorize about testimony. Bastard or PIGPEN will give you the more intimate psychological trap.

For the wider crime and suspense category around these picks, see our .

best thriller manhwa guide

6. The Savior's Time makes the investigation about grief and an online community

The Savior's Time suits readers who want the investigative engine of Copycat without its gallery violence. A brother investigates his younger sister's death, following the record of her messages on an online community called Savior. The mystery is social and digital, with grief shaping every question.

AniList lists The Savior's Time as FINISHED at 59 chapters, from Korea, with isAdult: false. Its official WEBTOON page marks the series COMPLETED, credits Song Geukjang as creator, and displays Episode 7, “Clublord (2),” dated May 10, 2021. The platform synopsis confirms that the brother's investigation begins with the sister's messages on Savior.

Compared with Copycat, this series is less interested in the spectacle of the crime and more interested in the network around it. Copycat's killer creates an audience of wealthy collectors. The Savior's Time creates a digital community where people ask for salvation from reality. In both cases, an investigation follows a trail left by people who understand suffering as a public or semi-public performance.

The Savior's Time fits if the “why did this person do it?” question matters more than visual horror. Its 59-chapter AniList count also makes it the shortest completed pick here by that source measure.

7. It's Mine turns Copycat's fixation into surveillance horror

It's Mine is the right manhwa like Copycat for readers who are most interested in obsession, watching, and the way protection can become control. Yohan Do knows almost everything about his crush Dajeong, follows her routines from a distance, and believes he will do anything to protect her. The premise is deliberately uncomfortable.

AniList lists It's Mine as FINISHED at 158 chapters, from Korea, with isAdult: false. The official WEBTOON page marks it COMPLETED, credits LuckS as creator, and displays Episode 7 dated May 17, 2020 on the public archive with an app notice. Its official synopsis supplies the surveillance setup, so this recommendation is not based on the title alone.

The connection to Copycat is fixation as a narrative engine. Suchan wants the world to recognize that the art belongs to him. Yohan wants proximity to Dajeong while framing surveillance as care. Both stories ask when a compelling personal need becomes a threat to other people, and both make the protagonist's inner justification part of the suspense.

It's Mine is longer, more romance-adjacent, and more focused on stalking and protection than art crime. It sits at the bottom of this list because it shares the moral discomfort, not Copycat's exact genre structure. Read it when the obsession interests you more than the serial-killer premise.

Manhwa like Copycat: what should you read first?

Start with Bastard if you want the closest overall match. Read PIGPEN next if identity and unreliable explanations are the draw. Move to Sweet Home or Shotgun Boy for supernatural and survival horror, Chasing Tails for locked-room testimony, The Savior's Time for grief-driven investigation, and It's Mine for surveillance obsession.

That order also prevents a common recommendation mistake. “Dark thriller” is too broad a category to explain why Copycat works. Bastard shares the human-scale killer tension. PIGPEN shares the destabilized identity. Sweet Home shares the creators and turns psychology into horror. The final three share individual mechanics rather than the entire mood.

If you have not started Copycat itself, read the site's Copycat manhwa reading guide for the access split between the public WEBTOON archive and app-only episodes. For a verdict on the opening, use the Copycat review. This article is the companion for what to read after you know which part of the series you want more of.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the closest manhwa like Copycat?

Bastard. It is written by Carnby Kim and drawn by Youngchan Hwang, the same team behind Copycat, and its central tension comes from living close to a serial killer. Unlike Copycat, Bastard is complete and has no supernatural element.

Is there a completed manhwa like Copycat?

Yes. All seven recommendations in this article are marked FINISHED in their AniList records: Bastard, PIGPEN, Sweet Home, Shotgun Boy, Chasing Tails, The Savior's Time, and It's Mine. The official WEBTOON pages may show only a partial public archive or direct readers to the app.

Which Carnby Kim series should I read after Copycat?

Read Bastard for the closest psychological thriller, PIGPEN for an identity mystery, Sweet Home for supernatural body horror, and Shotgun Boy for survival horror. All four are official WEBTOON releases and AniList lists them as FINISHED.

Is Copycat finished or ongoing?

Copycat is ongoing. AniList lists the literal status as RELEASING, while WEBTOON displayed Episode 25 dated September 23, 2026 and an UP EVERY WEDNESDAY label at the September 28 check. The page also marked 11 newer episodes as app-only.

Are these recommendations adult manhwa?

AniList returned isAdult: false for all seven recommendations. That does not mean they are light. Serial murder, stalking, suicide, body horror, and violence appear across the list. Copycat itself is marked Mature 18+ by WEBTOON, so check the official warning before reading.

Where can I read these manhwa legally?

Each recommendation has an official WEBTOON page linked in the References section below. Use the platform's own listing. Its public episode count may differ from AniList's chapter field because of extra chapters, app-only releases, or edition packaging.

Related Reading

• Copycat Manhwa Reading Guide: current platform access, episode checkpoints, and content warning.
• Copycat Review: an early verdict on Carnby Kim and Youngchan Hwang's new thriller.
• Best Horror Manhwa: more horror-first recommendations sorted by the kind of dread they deliver.
• Manhwa Like Bastard: another creator-adjacent recommendation list for psychological thriller readers.

References

• COPYCAT on WEBTOON
• COPYCAT on AniList
• Bastard on WEBTOON
• Bastard on AniList
• PIGPEN on WEBTOON
• PIGPEN on AniList
• Sweet Home on WEBTOON
• Sweet Home on AniList
• Shotgun Boy on WEBTOON
• Shotgun Boy on AniList
• Chasing Tails on WEBTOON
• Chasing Tails on AniList
• The Savior's Time on WEBTOON
• The Savior's Time on AniList
• It's Mine on WEBTOON
• It's Mine on AniList