| Quick facts | |
|---|
| Format | Webtoon, 138 chapters |
| Run | 2022–present · ongoing |
| Community score | AniList 7.4 · MAL 7.7 · MangaUpdates 7.4 |
| Where to read | WEBTOON — official |
Overview
Operation: True Love is a romance-drama webtoon by kkokkalee (story) and Dledumb (art). Su-ae Shim has been with her boyfriend Minu for years, but the relationship has quietly gone cold. Then she stumbles onto Jellypop, a sentient phone that can read anyone's 'love points' — a running tally of how much love they'll receive in life — and discovers, to her horror, that her own count is zero. As her bond with Minu keeps fraying and his friend Eunhyeok drifts into the picture, the phone's verdict hangs over everything. It runs on WEBTOON and is ongoing.
What it does well
The gimmick is smarter than it sounds. On paper, a magic phone scoring your love life is pure soap; in practice, it works like a ticking clock over an ordinary, painfully relatable story about a relationship dying by inches. Knowing the 'score' makes every small slight and missed connection feel loaded, and it turns what could be a flat break-up drama into something genuinely tense.
What keeps it grounded is how honest it is about that dying relationship. The series doesn't paint anyone as a cartoon villain; it just shows two people who've stopped reaching for each other, and it lets that be quietly sad. The result is angst with real weight behind it. Dledumb's art carries the mood well, polished and expressive, and as good at the awkward silences as it is at the bigger emotional swings.
Where it falls short
This is a series built on romantic frustration, and that's the honest catch. The will-they-won't-they and the love triangle are the engine, so if drawn-out yearning and miscommunication exhaust you, this will too. It asks you to sit in discomfort for long stretches before offering relief.
It's also ongoing, with seasons released in bursts and hiatuses in between, so the central questions — about Su-ae, the phone, and where her heart lands — are still open. And the pace is deliberately slow and melancholy; this isn't the breezy comfort romance some readers come to webtoons for.
Verdict
Operation: True Love takes a gimmicky premise and uses it to tell a surprisingly raw story about love running out. Come for the hook, stay for the honest, melancholy relationship drama underneath — and go in knowing it trades in frustration and hasn't finished its story yet. If emotional, slow-burning romance with an edge of unease is your thing, it's an easy one to get pulled into.
