Summary
While the protagonist struggling is a common part of just about any story out there, typically there are a lot of periods where they’re happy. Often the MC will overcome some great challenge, live a relatively happy life, and then some new challenge will come up that they’ll have to overcome. However, what about the stories where there’s barely ever a moment to breathe for the protagonist? The stories where the main character has to claw his way forward, with every inch gained taking all of his blood, sweat, and tears? There’s something incredible about these types of stories because an MC who constantly overcomes what seems to be impossible odds is one that is inspiring to watch the journey of.
Let’s take a look at some manhwas in particular where the MC is almost always struggling just to survive. These stories include MCs who are fighting constant physical battles, emotional battles, psychological battles, and more but they all include MCs who can never seem to catch a break.
Gangaji Master
Mongma
First up is apersonal favorite manhwa series of ourscalledWorthless Regression. There are (of course) all different types of suffering in the world. There’s physical suffering, mental suffering, emotional suffering, and all sorts of other more specific variations of suffering. InWorthless Regression, it’s a combination of all three (physical, mental, and emotional). The main character Lee Sungmin is weak and he knows it, but always struggles with all his might to overcome this weakness.
Not only is he weak, but even after returning to the past and taking every single advantage available to him, he’s still weaker than the idols he looks up to. Because of this constant clawing to try and catch up, Lee Sungmin puts himself through all different kinds of torture for the sake of ‘training’ such as taking on a trial that restricts different senses or even taking on a trial where he must spend 100 years entirely alone. However, the constant overcoming of these odds and the self-awareness that Lee Sungmin has of his own weakness makes this such a compelling series, even if it’s been over a year since the series' last update.
Ian
Soul Pung
Next up is a pretty recent series calledEternally Regressing Knightand this one that fans of the iconicRe: Zeroseries will see a lot of similarities in the waythe story is almost like solving a mystery. The main character in this series is also painfully aware of his own weakness and it’s that very same weakness that actually gets him killed at the hands of a knight in the first chapter. However, due to a magical object he happened to be carrying, this man who dreams of becoming a knight constantly repeats the day of his death until he manages to overcome it.
The reason a series like this is so compelling is simply because the MC is so incredibly driven to become stronger and not fall into despair. Despite the solution for his deaths being almost impossible to overcome every time and the pain from these deaths happening each and every time he dies, he keeps trying over and over again. Additionally, because his body is regressing, it’s not like the guy can just work out a bunch each day and eventually get absurdly buff. Instead, he has to train every one of his senses, use every advantage, and take every chance he can to become even a little bit stronger.
Nagi
Seonyul Jeong
The next manhwa on here has a pretty literal definition of a protagonist who is constantly suffering and struggling because the MC ofTerminally-Ill Genius Dark Knightis literally suffering from an incurable sickness.Nox von Reinhafer is one of the antagonists of an incredibly difficult gameby the name of Inner Lunatic that the protagonist of this story is spending most of his time before his unavoidable death (also at the hands of a terminal illness) playing.
Suddenly, the MC wakes up as Nox himself and now has to deal with having a terminal illness again in his second life, but this time he’s actually able to do something about it. Because of the MC’s absurd amount of knowledge about Inner Lunatic, he knows all the shortcuts, items, characters,and all kinds of abilitieshe needs to utilize in order to give himself even an hour more of time before his death, all in the hopes of eventually curing his illness and being able (finally) live a full life.
Undead Gamja
Sing n Song
Anyone who is a fan ofOmniscient Reader’s Viewpointis going to like this next manhwa by the name ofThe World After the End. Technically this is the series the authors, Sing n Song, wrote beforeORV, but somehow the protagonist in this story suffers even more than Kim Dokja managed to. Jaehwan is the MC of this story, and he’s constantly fighting with every inch of his being to survive and climb this tower that suddenly appeared in his world.
Humanity was making good progress, and was little by little climbing the tower, until these items called ‘Return Stones’ started suddenly appearing. These items promised that they would return the user to the time they were first summoned into the Tower, and eventually, most of those challenging the Tower ended up using it, leaving Jaehwan entirely alone. From here, without going too much into spoilers, Jaehwa reaches the end of the Tower and beyond, only to suffer even more in the place where he ends up. While it’s very encouraging to have a main character who has the ability to pierce literally anything with a thrust of his sword, the amount ofpure psychological suffering Jaehwan facesin this story is truly heartbreaking.
Studio W
Acro
Sometimes, in order to stop the suffering one will face in the future, they’ll have to struggle even more in the present. Yan, the MC ofBloodhound’s Regression Instinct, seems to be a believer of this, as he absolutely brings more suffering upon himself if it will in any way advance his goals. In his previous life, Yan was one of the Emporer’s most prized men, but only found out right before being killed that he wasnothing more than a puppet for said Emporer.
However, Yan awoke to find himself back during his early days as a cadet in training. Now, he strives to find out who he really is, who his family is, to become much more powerful than he previously was, and to eventually get revenge on the very same Emporer who killed him. The ways that Yan goes about trying to gain any sort of advantage for himself is pretty refreshing, and it’s nice to have a main character who is intelligent, practical, and also kind-hearted when the situation allows for it.
Chowon
Gupaengi
Moving on to another relatively recent manhwa series, one by the name ofRaising the Princess to Overcome Death. This story has a very typical setup where the MC suddenly wakes up as a character in a video game he was familiar with in his life. However, this story (by about chapter 3) reveals just how different it is from all of its peers, as the protagonist isn’t allowed to just ‘enjoy’ his new life here. Instead, he absolutely must raise Lena, who the game Raising Lena was named after, to become a princess. And not just one version of Lena either, as the MC (with every failure) is reborn as one of three different characters who are close to three different versions of Lena, with one starting in a small village, one starting in a barbarian tribe just before the start of a war, and one starting from a life of poverty.
With every failure to make Lena a princess, the protagonist ‘fails’ the game and is immediately brought to a results screen before being thrown back in at the start of the next scenario to try again. It’s an incredibly cruel concept for a story, especially since it seems like the MC’s emotions get mixed with the character he controls each and every time, but he has to deny/repress these emotions to achieve most of his goals.
Nep
Yungang Jeong
Surviving the Game as a Barbarianis basically a story where anElden Ringfantastic suddenly wakes up as a Tarnished and has to survive in the Lands Between. Essentially, we’re saying that this story is all about the main character having to survive in an incredibly bleak and harsh world. InSurviving the Game as a Barbarian, the MC takes control of a Barbarian-class character by the name of Bjorn Yandel, and has to make a living for himself while hiding the fact that he’s from a different reality and while constantly having to face the dangers of the Labyrinth.
This is, again, a very refreshing story simply because of how well Bjorn manages to overcome the most bleak situations. However, it can’t be understated just how harsh the world of Dungeon and Stone is, and how much of a struggle it is just to survive each day in this hellish world.
Gyong
Garam Ryueun
Last up is a manhwa by the name ofTyrant of the Tower Defense Game. Readers will have probably noticed a pattern long before now, and it’s the fact that a lot of these entries are about stories where the main character suddenly wakes up in a game they were playing. This concept seems to be pretty popular at the moment, and the setup of these stories as a whole almost always has settings or situations where the protagonist has to constantly fight tooth and nail just to survive.
InTyrant of the Tower Defense Game,the previously shut-in streamerMC’s struggle is almost exclusively against different monsters trying to invade and destroy his city. As opposed to a lot of other stories on here where the MC typically only needs to worry about themselves or a couple of people at most, Ash Everblack has a whole city to worry about, and that’s not even considering the fact that if he fails to protect his city, all of humanity will likely be wiped out. Out of all the inclusions on this list, this manhwa by far would makethe most amazing anime adaptation, if it ever received the opportunity.
