Is the demographic for Yaoi mangas and Yaoi manhwas different?

Prob has smth to do with the frequency that chapters are released for manhwas vs mangas
like with manga artists, they typically release chapters monthly(not all do but id say a pretty big chunk of manga artists follow that schedule), so theyve got more time to format their chapters, review + revise them, storyboard, draw em...yatta yatta

So thanks to that, readers are given more time to really absorb the content they're reading and kind of just reflect on their thoughts towards it, which then usually leads to more productive conversations + constructive criticism being shared from viewers (just an opinion, like speaking from experience, while waiting for a manga im reading to update, I tend to find myself rereading it over and over again and catching new aspects of it I missed each time)
Now with manhwas on the other hand, artists are usually on a stricter contract and forced to pump out chapters weekly(some biweekly), which typically leads to em getting burnt out and the quality of their work decreasing
it can be overwhelming to both the readers + artist tbh

like on one hand, the artist is probably getting dragged through the wrnger trying to post on schedule consistently, and then on the other hand, the readers barely have time to process what theyre consuming before another chapter is dropped on them
its really such a shame too, so many manhwas have such great potential and such interesting plots that end up just getting utterly trashed thanks to lack of time, budget, resources, etc

sorry I dragged out my point a bunch my vocabulary box wasnt cooperating with me today

it’s probably recency bias idk. i grew up reading (BL) manga and i remember out of nowhere manhwa blowing up and flooding the sites i would use to read. i’m sure a lot more people flocked to them because they had more attractive artstyles + fully colored. i think a lot of “normies” started reading which inflated the reviews lol

to be honest both bl manga and manhwa most have mediocre writing.. the difference between them is like you said, bl manhwa are long running and get you invested meanwhile bl manga tend to end in one volume (usually 5-6 chapters) so people don’t have much of an attachment to it if it turns out to be mid.

also if you’re basing the ratings only from mangago; i wouldn’t recommend it lol, most of the userbase usually overrate the media they read. even ongoing stories with like 2 chapters tend to already have 9.0 ratings

Oh man I feel the same way about manwha quality but don't want to be an asshole saying it lol. Especially since the fans tend to be pretty militant, which I assume is because a lot of them are very young.

With manga at least the art and panel composition tends to be pretty good even when it's not the best writing, manhwa webtoons are usually take a lot of space to convey a little information and the characters have really unexpressive faces. Plus every webtoon needs to be like 100 chapters long even when the extent of the plot is "2 guys like each other but they're awkward about it."

And don't get me started on the sex scenes, which also tend to be way too long despite being really repetitive. With manga you've got like a 50/50 shot it's decently written, but in every single manhwa I read it's like it’s like the characters get a personality transplant to "generic webtoon top" and "generic webtoon bottom" as soon as the pants come off and sometimes it straight up ruins the story for me.

Woah, you literally voiced what I was thinking as well regarding the sex scenes.

I feel like as soon as a sex element is introduced in a manhwa, the story often starts to lose narrative substance. Everything becomes hyper-focused on the sex aspect.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the manhwas I genuinely enjoyed were shounen-ai and had little to no explicit scenes at all.

They often drag out for several chapters too and it especially annoyed me in stories like Season 2 of Under the Green Light were we got several chapters of Jin getting forced. The emotional depth or plot progression just stalls completely.

It starts to feel like the Authors are just treating us like monkeys in heat who’s neurons they need to keep reactivating. It’s especially noticeable when a story literally starts of with a random sex scene that happens in the future as to remind us “Hey! Don’t forget! This story has sex in it!”

It’s like they think we wouldn’t stay invested unless we’re promised smut from the beginning, as if emotional buildup or storytelling just isn’t enough anymore.

That’s an interesting point, and I never really thought about how manhwa artists are basically made to push out content chapter by chapter every single week. That must be a huge amount of pressure. I often read about how authors changed a lot parts of their story as they went along simply because they’re not satisfied with it. If they don’t have the time or space to really refine those changes in a thoughtful way, due to their schedule, it’s bound to end up unpolished.

I’ve read quite a few manhwas that started off with huge potential but ended up being quite disappointing. And I guess that’s just a side effect of that rushed format. The pacing ends up feeling messy and inconsistent, but by the time you notice, you’re already so far in, it’s hard to stop reading.

With manga though, especially shorter ones that only have like six chapters, it’s easier to either stop reading or just finish it quickly. And I totally agree with you about rereading manga chapters. Since updates are often slower, I find myself going back and picking up on details I missed the first time. It’s not as overwhelming as re-reading something that has 100* chapters

I feel like part of the reason BL manhwa blew up so fast is because of how accessible they are with being full color, having an easy reading format, and being optimised to scroll on your phone. It naturally appealed to a broader and maybe even younger audience (I know for a fact my 13 year old self loved manhwas a lot more than mangas for a while cuz of that)

And when the majority of the readers are younger or just more casual in general, I feel like there’s more tolerance for mediocre plots, flat characters, or cliché tropes. This might explain why so many series with just a couple chapters already have super high ratings. Especially on this site lol. Anything remotely spicy gets a 9.0+ by default.

I get it tho. It’s not really always about which is better but more about format, accessibility, and who’s reading it.