Is Hanlim Gym Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Overview

Yeongha is tired of being the one getting picked on, so when he transfers schools, he decides to fight back — and discovers he's genuinely good at it. Before long he's the toughest kid in school, savoring a reputation he never expected to have. Then he runs into Suho Kang, the reigning champion of the PVP fighting circuit, who takes Yeongha and his entire crew apart without much effort. Humiliated and determined to earn back his pride, Yeongha decides to join the PVP games himself, setting out to see whether he can actually become the fighter he thought he already was.

What it does well

The fight scenes are where Hanlim Gym earns its reputation. The choreography is clear, weighty, and genuinely well-staged, giving each PVP match real tension instead of just letting Yeongha steamroll his way through opponents. It reads like a series that respects its own combat enough to make each fight feel earned.

That respect extends to Yeongha's arc as a whole. His journey from a kid who mistook bullying for real strength to someone who has to put in the work to actually compete gives the story a grounded emotional core, and Suho Kang makes for a strong rival precisely because he isn't just an obstacle — he's a bar Yeongha has to genuinely grow to reach. As part of the author's wider Super String shared universe, the series also rewards long-term readers with connective tissue to other titles in the same continuity, adding texture beyond what a fully standalone series could offer.

Where it falls short

The biggest issue is pacing at the start. Hanlim Gym spends real time establishing Yeongha's school-bully arc before it gets to the PVP structure that defines the rest of its run, and that opening stretch is noticeably slower than what follows — reviewers consistently note it takes patience to get through. Some early side characters also exist mainly to raise the stakes of Yeongha's rise rather than as people with much interiority of their own, though that improves as the story goes on.

Readers coming in without any familiarity with the Super String universe won't be lost, but they'll miss some of the connective appeal that rewards fans already invested in the author's other work.

Verdict

Hanlim Gym takes a little while to get moving, but once Yeongha enters the PVP world in earnest, it becomes a genuinely satisfying, well-choreographed underdog fighting story with real emotional stakes behind the action. Push past the slower opening chapters, and there's a rewarding, complete two-season run waiting on the other side.