Best Manhwa About Paranormal Romances

Summary

• Paranormal romance manhwa are a popular genre, blending supernatural elements with love stories.
• Examples include My Boo, unTOUCHable, and Angel Buddy, featuring ghosts, vampires, and angels.
• The genre offers unique twists, like werewolves in Days of Hana and water creatures in Mystical.

People have been telling stories about the supernatural since they’ve been able to speak. Usually, it’s been in the form of some spooky phenomena, aiding or hindering the protagonist in one form or another. But eventually, some storytellers wondered what it’d be like to love paranormal figures instead of fighting them.

The topic’s turned up in plenty of novels, movies, TV shows, comics, and manga, so why not manhwa as well? There’s no shortage of supernatural romances in Korean comics either. Whether it’s a mortal falling for a ghost, a vampire, or another supernatural being, these are just some of the best manhwa about paranormal romances.

10

My Boo

Anime-Planet Score: 4.07/5 Stars

• Creator: Jeongsoo
• 3 Volumes, 47 Chapters
• Available in English via LINE Webtoon

Some people can’t avoid going for a cute pun, though some might also find My Boo going by its alternate title, Transparent Cohabitation. Either way, it tells the same story about So Yeori, a woman who’s had the ability to see ghosts since she was young. She considers it more of a curse than a blessing, and on moving into a new home, decides to ignore its resident specter.

But the ghost, Go Yoon, died without knowing the company of others three years ago, and (for lack of a better term) has been dying to form a social life ever since. Reluctantly, Yeori agrees to spend at least one year with him. But during that time, they learn they have more in common than they thought, and their cohabitation might do them some good, despite the risks.

9

To The Stars I Love

Anime-Planet Score: 4.07/5 Stars

• Creators: Gonarija (story), Soojeong (art)
• 100 Chapters
• Available in English via Webtoon Entertainment

Sometimes, the paranormal doesn’t have to be the paramour, so to speak. Sometimes they can end up helping two other lovebirds get together and become part of a love triangle in the process, as To the Stars I Love shows. In life, Yujin Cha was a famous actress, with bombshell looks and the talent to back it up. That was, until a car crash separated her soul from her body.

She can’t recall what happened at the moment of the crash, so her only hope is to get in touch with the other victim of the crash, a college student called Chowon. By borrowing her body, Yujin might get her answers. In return, she offers to help Chowon get back with her boyfriend. Though how she’ll do that from within Chowon’s body may have more twists and turns than either of them expects.

8

unTOUCHable

Anime-Planet Score: 4.09/5 Stars

• Creator: Massster
• 140 Chapters
• Available in English via LINE Webtoon

A romance about figures who can’t touch each other properly sounds like it’d be a ghost story. Instead, unTOUCHable is about a relationship between a vampire and a very particular human. Sia doesn’t drink blood, but instead absorbs energy from tactile touch, like a combination of Rogue from the X-Men and Colin Robinson in What We Do in the Shadows.

But instead of being reluctant to touch others, she eagerly wants to get her hands on her new neighbor, Jiho. He’s handsome, has a fine body, and is tantalizing to her in every way. But he’s also a germaphobe, keeping anyone and everyone at a distance to avoid any chance of getting sick. So, Sia has to go above and beyond to get her hands on Jiho, literally.

7

Bloody Sweet

Anime-Planet Score: 4.10/5 Stars

• Creator: Na-Rae Lee
• 4 Volumes, 22 Chapters
• Available in English via TappyToon and Yen Press

Love can come from the strangest of places, and Bloody Sweet is odd even for a supernatural romance. Without any friends or means of defense, Shin Naerim spent her days being constantly bullied. One night, she flees to an abandoned church where she aims to stop the pain once and for all.

But unbeknownst to her, she ends up freeing Vlad Fetechou, a vampire, from his seal, and forming a blood pact with him. As a result, he becomes her servant. A willing one too, as he needs the blood of a witch to become human someday, and Naerim happens to fill that role. Though what started as a ritual becomes something deeper as Naerim learns more about Vlad and his past.

6

The Spooky Love Tale Of Gongchan Seol

Anime-Planet Score: 4.11/5 Stars

• Creator: YSE
• 56 Chapters
• Available in English on Tapas

The problem with paranormal romances is that they can dilute the horror until it feels less like a spooky love story and more like a romance with a quirky guy/girl/etc. The Spooky Love Tale of Gongchan Seol aims to avoid that by making the reader’s heart race with shock as well as romantic tension, as its titular protagonist discovers horrors beyond his imagination.

Gongchan Seol is a horror writer who has a knack for turning the most mundane routines in life into a nerve-wracking tale. But then he meets Youngmin, a man who claims to be haunted by the ghosts in Seol’s novels. The writer is sure that can’t be right. Yet the more he keeps in touch with Youngmin, the less sure he is, as he’s caught between falling for Youngmin and falling in fear with the specters surrounding him.

5

Days Of Hana

Anime-Planet Score: 4.14/5 Stars

• Creator: Seok Woo Jung
• 113 Chapters
• Available in English via LINE Webtoon

Ghosts and vampires are one thing, but what do fans of werewolves get? They get Days of Hana, which puts a twist on things. Werewolves aren’t some stalking terrors in the woods, an unfortunate tourist fighting their urges in the city, or part of a tribe of shirtless hunks who get feral when they get mad.

Instead, the manhwa sees werewolves treated as exotic beasts of burden, like guard dogs who can take on human form rather than the other way around. They’re fighting for their rights as intelligent beings, but it doesn’t make things easier for Hana or Haru, her childhood friend and designated guard werewolf, as they begin to fall in love with each other.

4

Angel Buddy

Anime-Planet Score: 4.15/5 Stars

• Creators: MasterGin (story), Chungnyun (art)
• 82 Chapters
• Available in English via Lezhin Comics

Falling in love with ghosts is standard fare. Having one’s heart touched by an angel is rare, as Angel Buddy shows. Sooho Kim appears strange to others, but that’s only because he has an extra ability most people don’t have: the ability to see spirits. Usually, he just catches sight of the occasional specter or two, until he meets Taker.

Taker was the first angel Sooho caught sight of, and he caught him floating in midair looking back at him. He tries to catch up with him and ends up breaking Taker’s wing by accident. To make up for this, he offers to take care of Taker until he’s healed. Though he’s had the odd ghost follow him around, this would be the first time he’s gotten up close and personal with the paranormal.

3

Mystical

Anime-Planet Score: 4.22/5 Stars

• Creator: VAN.J
• 5 Volumes, 93 Chapters
• Available in English via Webtoon Entertainment

The supernatural offers beings from heaven, hell, or from Earth, but are divinely cursed/blessed. But it also offers beings from seas, rivers, lakes, and other watery domains, like nereids, naiads, undines, water nymphs, and fish monsters. Though the example given in Mystical (or Sinbi to make it easier to search for online) is on the prettier side than the one in The Shape of Water.

It follows Garam Lee, a man who loves art, but lost his passion for drawing after his mother passed away. He moves into his grandmother’s old house by the sea in the hopes of regaining his muse, and gets more than he bargained for in Myst, a pretty water creature who can’t recall her past. By helping her regain her memories, Garam might regain his love for art once more.

2

Jack: The American Ghost

Anime-Planet Score: 4.26/5 Stars

• Creators: Ji-Hye Han (story), Jeong-eun Ahn (art)
• 101 Chapters
• Available in English on Tapas

One of the more popular paranormal manhwa romances is a tale of cross-continental love in Jack: The American Ghost. It did well enough to get a second season, as its heroine Go-Eun Ma ends up getting more out of a visit to Jack’s mansion than the promised $1 million prize. Her family used to run a haunted house themselves, until the death of her mother led it into disrepair.

The building is set to be demolished within a year, so Go-Eun hopes that she can save her family home by spending two weeks in the mansion of Jack Bland, a musician who committed suicide in the building and has haunted it ever since. At first, she just wanted the cash prize. But as she learns more about the mansion’s denizens, and Jack himself, things get more complicated.

1

Unholy Blood

Anime-Planet Score: 4.28/5 Stars

• Creator: Lina Im
• 8 Volumes, 92 Chapters
• Available in English via LINE Webtoon and Yen Press’ Ize Press imprint

For readers who want some action with their romance, there’s Unholy Blood. Hayan Park grew up as a pure blood vampire living in secret among humans. She had one childhood friend, Yohan Seo, but their relationship got more strained when she revealed her true nature to him. After he fell in with a band of thugs, he was left at death’s door, where he begged Park’s father to convert him into a vampire.

However, on being turned, Yohan killed both of Park’s parents and began to spread a wave of destruction that led to vampires essentially running Korea from the shadows, preying on whoever’s unfortunate enough to catch them. Now grown up, it’s up to Park and her police partner/love interest Euntae to eliminate her fellow vampires to free Korea and face her childhood trauma.