Kkokkalee and Dledumb, Cover Art, Operation: True Love, Webtoon.
Operation True Love – Information
Author of Story: Kkokkalee and Dledumb
Chapter Count: 3 seasons, 138+ chapters (season 3 ongoing)
Status: Ongoing
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Bullying
- Abuse
- Trauma
- SI
- Cheating
- Blood
- Violence
- Murder
- Death
- Injury
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
Operation True Love – Plot Summary
Operation True Love (also known as Pure Love Operation) is a romance and drama webtoon with a very interesting premise. The main character is high school student Su-Ae Shim. She’s unfortunately a bit of a pushover who is in an unhealthy one-sided relationship with an awful, uncaring boyfriend named Minu.
One day, Su-Ae randomly discovers a strange pink flip phone (called a jellypop phone) in her school locker containing creepy stalker-like images and messages directed towards her. The phone reappears when she tries to get rid of it, and it also shows her something called “love points” for each person viewed through the camera. For some reason, Su-Ae has zero points.
The mysterious jellypop phone creeper slowly reveals more about this weird point system to Su-Ae, and even threatens to “eradicate” her because she seems like a bug in the system. So she has to receive love, or she’ll die?! This all jumpstarts a wild, melodramatic story as Su-Ae becomes desperate for love.
Her top suspect for the jellypop funny-business is Minu’s best friend Eunhyeok Go, who Su-Ae seems to keep running into. But as they learn more about each other, that possibility becomes less likely and Eunhyeok becomes more of a potential love interest. Her love points seem to waver, but never truly stay past zero.
Who’s behind the jellypop phone, and why is Su-Ae not worthy of love in this mysterious point system?
Why I Enjoyed Operation True Love
Plot:
If you couldn’t tell already from the plot summary, Operation True Love gives dramatic k-drama vibes with really intense (and kind of unrealistic, but really enjoyable) characters. All of the characters have exaggerated personalities and constantly act in unexpected ways.
The drama and mystery of this crazy webtoon really hooks you in. You’ll quickly find yourself hoping for Su-Ae to catch a break for once. The author actually makes it easy for you to want to see Su-Ae succeed, since she is mistreated by pretty much everyone around her from the start. But, she sort of lets this mistreatment happen to her, so you also begin to hope for some good character growth.
The plot itself is very ridiculous and makes you want answers so badly! Su-Ae supposedly has no love points, but it’s so clear that there are people who do actually care about her—and some even start to grow feelings for her later on. So it really makes you wonder what’s the truth behind it all.
But we don’t get to see the whole puzzle from the start. This story almost feels like it was meant to be a mystery genre, because we only learn more about each person and the plot little by little, piece by piece.
Overall, the plot is well written and exciting. However, I know a lot of people aren’t enjoying the third season… but I still am, to an extent. I’ll talk about that in more detail in the in-depth section, to avoid putting spoilers here.
Anyway, there’s always a conflict or rivalry in this story that just pushes the drama further, which quickly involves more and more romance. There are two male protagonists in Operation True Love that become really likable characters. You’ll have a really hard time choosing between them in terms of shipping, because the chemistry they each share with the female lead is so lovely.
I won’t spoil what happens with who, but I have to say I really enjoyed the portrayal of the romance in this series. It’s youthful, spontaneous, and, well, cheesy—which is kinda my thing.
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Although there is a unrequited love held by another involved party, I actually really liked the way that was written, too. It’s so dramatic, but not annoying in any way. It’s a love triangle done right: with the perfect amount of angst, longing, sadness, and coping.
Characters:
All the characters in Operation True Love are all pretty well thought-out. Each character has their own values, struggles, beliefs, and personal goals. Therefore, they always feel like they have reasoning and intentions behind their actions (even if the audience struggles to figure them out). Many characters also have important backstories that make all the difference for their personalities.
Starting with the female lead, I think Su-Ae is very funny and relatable at times. I love seeing most things from her perspective, because her inner thoughts are often hilarious.
She’s kind of a weirdo and gives me a lot of second-hand embarrassment at times, but overall I liked her character. Su-Ae’s main downfalls are that she’s super desperate and rather immature—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (I like when characters have faults) but she can be a bit frustrating at times because of these personality traits.
Now onto the two love interests. Each of the prospective love interests have gorgeous designs and very distinct personalities!
The first male protagonist introduced in Operation True Love, Eunhyeok, is a character who seems like the cool type—but also seems a bit rude from the first impression. He is a moody character that’s unexpectedly kind of a sweetheart. Even though he misjudges Su-Ae at first, they become closer quickly. He finds himself caring for her more than expected, and can’t seem to ignore her!
Eunhyeok is a character with a lot of background that we only get to see little by little. His character is a bit sad and mysterious, even though he acts very happy around Su-Ae.
His relationship with Su-Ae starts out kind of weird and questionable, but as they grow closer you start to realize how cute of a character he actually is. You’ll surely hope for him to have strong character growth that allows him to find his happiness.
Kkokkalee and Dledumb, Eunhyeok Go, Operation: True Love, Webtoon.
The second male lead, Dohwa Baek, is a very popular and well-known student at school. He’s known for being gorgeous and is rumored to be an idol trainee. Although he seems to have lots of friends and followers, he doesn’t actually seem to be interested in any of them. He gains interest in Su-Ae, since she doesn’t seem to have ulterior motives when interacting with him.
She’s amusing to him, which is understandable because Su-Ae’s character is hilarious, very considerate of others, and genuine. The authors of Operation True Love really know how to write an interesting second lead! I didn’t think I would like him initially, but his character quickly pulls your heartstrings, making you desperately want to root for him.
Kkokkalee and Dledumb, Dohwa Baek, Operation: True Love, Webtoon.
Each of these two male leads have some hidden struggles, both of which Su-Ae becomes aware of. However, I think her understanding personality and how her opinions of people don’t change because of their circumstances is part of what makes these boys attracted to her (among many other things). I love seeing these three characters’ relationships grow. Although I was torn on who to root for, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story.
Art:
As you can see from the images above, the art style is great! It’s very pretty, and didn’t ever feel like it was lacking to me in terms of webtoon standards.
I also liked the character designs. While the boys always look a bit majestic from the start, I like that Su-Ae has a design that feels more normal. I like her short hair, which isn’t too crazy but still makes her stand out from a lot of the other characters, and her very normal high school girl attire. She’s never too done-up or underdone—and doesn’t seem too popular or unpopular, either.
(Spoilers in this paragraph) As for season 3, I think that the characters still look nice, and perhaps that the art has improved in terms of the lighting, angles, and style overall. However, the character designs are a bit funky at times. I think they all look fine in the face, but as adults their bodies are a bit exaggerated. The guys’ shoulders often look super wide, and they tower over Su-Ae. Su-Ae, in some panels, has a waist that’s impossibly tiny. It’s not like this all the time, but I did notice it occasionally while reading season 3.
Any Cons?
While I really love the romance and drama in the story, there’s a few unexplained and mildly problematic things in Operation True Love.
Firstly, there is no explanation for the mysterious jellypop phone’s abilities. For example, how it shows love points or how the point system and phone technology were created (I felt these were important as they seem like the only magic in a non-magical world). This stuff sort of feels like a plot hole, but I guess not all magical things necessarily need to have an explanation. Operation True Love is another story with magic that just exists, I guess.
Second, this mysterious plot point starts to just fade out in the latest season. Not completely, but it definitely doesn’t play out the way I expected it to. I’m a bit disappointed in how the how jellypop theme just sort of vanishes. I was hoping for more mystery and magic. The story isn’t completed yet, so there’s no way to know for sure, but it feels like the plot direction is going romance-only.
Lastly, I don’t like the “operation” that Su-Ae first comes up with to earn love points. She knows it’s wrong, but still brings someone else into her morally wrong plans. Yes her life is on the line, and that definitely would make you do anything to live, but I think other methods could have been chosen from the start.
Luckily, we see as the story progresses that Su-Ae is actually a good person and not as shallow as this idea makes her seem.
More In-Depth Review (Warning: Spoilers!)
Okay, so there’s a lot happening in this story. Let me review each character individually.
Firstly, Su-Ae and Minu dated and were happy to begin with. But Minu begins to fall in love with his girlfriend’s adoptive sister, Ra-Im. Ra-Im makes a move on Minu, and with the intention of dating Ra-Im instead, Minu offers to break up with Su-Ae. Ra-Im tells him to stay together with Su-Ae, supposedly to prevent hurting her (but we know she is intending to hurt Su-Ae).
To be honest, I am confused by Minu’s rudeness and hatefulness towards Su-Ae. It’s so random. Even if he doesn’t love her anymore, he acts like he has some weird attachment to Su-Ae. Dating her seems to allow him to keep his pride and fulfill his ego (yuck) while having his true love (Ra-Im) on the side.
Ra-Im, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to like anybody. She has deep rooted insecurities, and a weird love-hate relationship towards her sister. It seems she has some intense jealousy towards Su-Ae—perhaps because of Su-Ae’s normalcy. Ra-Im’s character seems to not be happy with the things she is given in life, and thinks everything is being “taken” from her. She’s a bit hard to feel sorry for, since all she does is hurt others.
Now onto Su-Ae. She is a great female lead, but she’s a bit too nice for her own good at the start of the series. She puts up with Minu’s mistreatment for so long in the hopes of having a normal relationship with him, and she’s nice to Ra-Im after finding out that she kissed Minu. She doesn’t even confront Ra-Im out of pure pity.
We do see some character growth throughout the story as she tries to save herself from “elimination.” Su-Ae becomes more determined and confrontational, while still being a genuinely kind person. Unfortunately, she stays desperate, gullible, and immature, as we see in season 3.
Su-Ae is kind of disappointing in season 3. She’s a grown woman who still struggles over a short high school relationship that happened ten years ago. I don’t mind time skips, but this behavior is embarrassing and hard to read. The story also gives you whiplash with how fast we go from a super cute youthful love story to two awkward adults with an embarrassing amount of tension between them (and a major lack of normal communication).
Next, we have Eunhyeok. Eunhyeok misunderstood Su-Ae at first, but she later reveals to him her experience seeing the good romantic relationship between her parents, and learning that love requires effort. She thought her relationship with Minu just needed more effort, and Eunhyeok realizes he misjudged her (she’s not just a total pushover, but rather a genuine person).
Eunhyeok also finds out from the start the truth about Su-Ae being cheated on by Minu. He feels bad for her, and agrees to help her out. With this, they slowly become friends as their initial impressions of each other are changed! They develop an amazing chemistry, and showcase one of the cutest high school romances I’ve read yet.
Unfortunately, as we see in season 3, he keeps his own struggles secret from Su-Ae for quite some time. Even as a grown man, he seems unable to simply sit Su-Ae down and apologize to her properly. He doesn’t have to share his trauma with her, but some form of communcation within ten whole years would make more sense.
Lastly, we have the second male lead. Dohwa is a character who unexpectedly becomes quick friends with Su-Ae, and often shows some jealously over her relationship with Eunhyeok. He definitely cares more for her than others, but also doesn’t necessarily pursue her as much as I expected him to.
He falls for her pretty hard, and by the time he realizes it, it’s too late—which really broke my heart! He finally found someone who he could be himself around, but can’t stand to be around her while harboring romantic feelings.
Actually, I really liked Dohwa’s confession. It’s sooo melodramatic and cheesy. In case you need a reminder: He begins reading the original series that Su-Ae based her spin-off story on, and relates to the side character who doesn’t get the girl. He begins reading the character’s heartbreaking lines about suffering around the person they love, and bursts into tears dramatically. 10/10.
I still wonder if he’ll unexpectedly end up as endgame with Su-Ae, solely because of what the weird jellypop Marang guy says in the story about loving the second male lead in the fictional book “Cindy, the Black Rose of Versailles.”
Also, Su-Ae’s web-novel continuation of that unfinished series is about the main character falling for the second male lead. That’d be a crazy twist for Operation True Love, especially with how the first season ended (and how the third season is going). I really loved the established relationship with Eunhyeok, but I’m not opposed to a dramatic plot twist. Actually, I’m hoping for one, haha.
I thought that the dramatic separation between Su-Ae and Eunhyeok in the second/third season would lead to some progress between Su-Ae and Dohwa—but unfortunately, she seems barely interested in him. Actually, rather than interest, it seems she feels bad for him more than anything.
I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but the author is teasing a relationship between them, while also torturing us with Eunhyeok’s trauma and loneliness. On top of all this, Ra-Im is making another appearance!
I need to know how this is all gonna wrap up!
And as I said in the cons section of this review, I’m also very dissappointed with how the third season is going in terms of the whole points system thing.
I had a lot of hopes for the point system in Operation True Love. It was so interesting and suspicious! Su-Ae had zero points, yet clearly had a loving family, caring friends, and two boys falling for her.
On the other hand, Dohwa has a huge number of points, yet nobody around him seems to genuinely care for him. He lives alone and works three jobs—parents nowhere to be seen, and his friends all seemed fake.
This made the point system seem so mysterious and suspicious, but that plot point seems to have been dumped completely.
I’m hoping the authors will miraculously pull that plot point out of the trash and exceed my expectations with it. I don’t want to bash on the third season too much, not just because it’s still ongoing, but also because I still find myself super engaged with each chapter even though the story isn’t going at all how I imagined. I can’t stop reading it. It’s the drama, always the drama!
Final Thoughts
Operation True Love is a super fun drama-filled story with a unique plot and lots of romance. I love the crazy and weird love point system, the relatable main character, and the other two attractive protagonists. The story stays interesting and engaging with all of its crazy, unexpected twists.
The creators of Operation True Love did a great job at keeping things super interesting, so if you love drama, definitely give this eccentric webtoon a read!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Kkokkalee and Dledumb, Operation: True Love. Webtoon, 2022. https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/operation-true-love/list?title_no=4465.
