You found a manhwa series you love but the translation stopped three months ago. Here is how fans are reading ahead right now.
Korean manhwa has exploded in popularity over the last few years. Solo Leveling, Tower of God, The Beginning After the End, Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, and hundreds of other titles have pulled in millions of readers worldwide. But here is the problem: official English translations almost always lag behind the Korean releases. Sometimes by weeks. Sometimes by months. For ongoing series, that gap never really closes.
So what do readers actually do? Some wait. Most do not. Fans have been reading raw Korean manhwa for years, and in 2026, it has never been easier to do it without speaking a word of Korean.
This guide walks you through exactly how it works.
Why Korean Manhwa Is Hard to Keep Up With
Most popular manhwa series update weekly on Korean platforms like Naver Webtoon and Kakaopage. These chapters drop in Korean first, and the official English translation follows later. For big titles, that gap can be anywhere from a few days to several months depending on the publisher.
Fan translation groups used to fill that gap, but most shut down once official translations catch up or licensing deals get signed. That leaves a lot of readers stranded mid-story, staring at Korean text they cannot read.
The raw chapters are right there on Korean sites, fully available. The only barrier is the language.
What Reading Raws Actually Means
Reading raws means reading the original unedited Korean chapters straight from the source. No fan translation, no official localization. Just the original artwork and Korean text exactly as the author released it.
This used to require either knowing Korean or doing a lot of tedious screenshot-and-translate work. Today, AI translation tools have made it fast enough that reading raws feels almost the same as reading a normal translated chapter.
The Old Way vs the New Way
The old way (slow and painful)
Before good AI tools, reading a raw manhwa chapter meant doing this for every single panel:
- Screenshot the panel
- Open Google Translate or another app
- Upload the screenshot or manually type the text
- Read the translation
- Repeat for every bubble on every page
A single chapter could take 20 to 30 minutes just to get through. Most people gave up and waited for the official translation instead.
The new way (read as you scroll)
AI translation tools now work directly inside your browser or phone. You open a manhwa chapter, turn on the translator, and the Korean text inside every speech bubble gets replaced with your language automatically. No screenshots. No app switching. You just read.
A chapter that used to take 30 minutes now takes the same time as any normal translated chapter. That is the difference AI translation has made.
How Fakey Makes This Work
Fakey is an AI-powered manhwa translator built for exactly this use case. It works as a browser extension on Chrome and Firefox, and as an app on Android and iOS. You visit any manhwa page, activate Fakey, and it scans the images on screen, detects Korean text inside the panels using OCR, and overlays a translation right onto the speech bubbles.
The translation sits directly on top of the original text. The artwork stays exactly as the artist drew it. You get the full reading experience with no interruption.
Fakey also caches every translated page. If you come back to re-read a chapter, it loads the translation instantly without using any credits. For readers following multiple ongoing series, that saves a lot of usage over time.
Step-by-Step: How to Read Raw Korean Manhwa With Fakey
- Install Fakey from the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-Ons, Google Play, or the Apple App Store.
- Create a free account. You get 200 free credits per month, which resets on the 1st of each month.
- Go to a raw manhwa chapter on Naver Webtoon, Kakaopage, or any other manhwa platform.
- Activate Fakey by clicking the extension icon or tapping translate in the app.
- Scroll and read. The translated text is right there on the page.
Is the Translation Quality Good Enough to Follow the Story?
This is the question most people have before trying. The answer is yes. AI translation has improved a lot. Dialogue, internal monologue, sound effects, and battle callouts all come through clearly enough to understand what is happening and enjoy the chapter.
It is not the same as a polished official localization. But for reading ahead on a series you already know and love, it is more than good enough. Most readers say they forget they are reading an AI translation after the first few pages.
Korean to English tends to produce very readable results. Manhwa dialogue is usually direct and action-focused, which plays to AI translation’s strengths.
Stop Waiting for the Translation
If you have been sitting on a cliffhanger waiting for the next translated chapter, you do not have to anymore. The raw chapters are already out. Fakey lets you read them right now, in your language, no Korean required.
Install Fakey for free, open the next chapter of your series, and read it today.
The language barrier is no longer a reason to wait.
Fakey is available on Google Play, Apple App Store, Chrome Web Store, and Firefox Add-Ons. Developed by Pawaka Labs.
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