Real Score: 7.5/10

Note: I've read this RAW on Booktoki468 dot com

That was a nice read. Main character felt a bit too passive for my taste, tho'.

This is a story about Halo, the greatest musician of the old, who had planned to retire after receiving the Grammy Award. But on his way to the said award ceremony, he got into an accident and died. Strangely enough, his soul transferred into the body of a middle schooler named Haeil-Roh (a.k.a. transmigration). When Halo read the boy's diary and saw his dream of... more>> becoming a singer—one that was held back and buried because he was burdened by his parents' expectations—Halo decided to give him a little push.

The way I discovered this novel was kinda... all over the place. At first, I saw it on NovelUpdates. I read some of the reviews and got interested, so I decided to check it out. Then when I was reading it, they mentioned a musician's name. I got curious, wondering whether this was a real-life artist or just an OC from the novel. But when I googled it, it actually led me to a YouTube page. Turned out, there WAS a real song! I didn't know if it was made by the author or just fan songs, but someone really went all in and created his music! 😲

THEN in the middle of reading the YouTube comments, I saw a lot of people saying the novel had already been adapted into a webtoon, tf? So I decided to check it out as well. But honestly, I didn't really like the main character's personality in the webtoon version. So I went back to reading the novel.

Convoluted as all hell, lol. This is why I should've checked the tags on NovelUpdates more carefully. I only saw that the novel didn't have any harem or adult content, so I just went for it, lol.

Anyway, like I said, I preferred the novel version instead of the webtoon. The descriptions in it were portrayed in richer words, and the characters' emotions were more deeply explored. The inner monologues stuck with me more, partly because they used such flowery language.

I hadn't gotten that far reading the webtoon version—just up to chapter 28—but I felt confident in saying that the novel was and is better. There was a scene where Halo discovered a song that sounded similar to one of his own, and the placement of this scene was different depending on the version. In the novel, this scene happened BEFORE Halo heard Jinsoo's song. But in the manhwa, it happened AFTER he heard and fixed Jinsoo's song. I personally thought it made more sense to place that scene in the 'BEFORE', because it gave Halo a proper reason why he didn't check Jinsoo's song immediately—he was busy investigating why someone else had made a song similar to his own (was it plagiarism? Or just a coincidence?). It also gave a stronger reason for Halo to learn how to use MIDI—because, as a student without money to hire any band, he had to produce his songs on the computer instead. In the novel, that scene felt more dramatic. Halo felt more human because even he could feel anxious. But in the manhwa, it just came across like he was clueless about email and wanted to learn MIDI just cuz out of curiosity. The webtoon vibe leaned more toward comedy, tbh.

In fact, most characters in the webtoon leaned more into comedy than elegance. Especially the CEO of Veil. I read the novel first, and in that version, he had this refined vibe. So all the jokes in the webtoon didn't really sit right with me. Like they are all 'out of character' or something.

Besides, if you kept reading the novel, the story actually continued beyond just the Coachella concert. New characters showed up, new drama happened. Haters appeared because not everyone immediately accepted that Haeil is Halo. Some greedy people saw Halo as an easy target to exploit financially and tried to bleed him dry. There was a world tour. And we also got to explore Halo's past life backstory! How he had run away from home, lived as a homeless person, and eventually rose to fame. I also liked how it took Halo a long time to finally write a love song, his 14th album. It was a genre he disliked because, before transmigrating, he had never experienced true love (from a family or a partner), so he couldn't relate. In the webtoon, all his struggles were squeezed into one chapter. You didn't get to really SEE the progress that led to eventual acceptance. In the novel, however, it took dozens of chapters for him to finally be able to sing about love. So yeah, I liked the novel version more. `3`

As for the main character himself... hmmmm how do I say this? I liked him, but at the same time, I didn't.

Why? Well, let me just say first that I liked novel!Halo here, not the webtoon one. Because in the webtoon he came across as way too arrogant. I think it might have to do with how he was drawn—too many smug smiles.

Or it might be because the webtoon couldn't convey his inner monologues as well. Novel!Halo was arrogant, but it was clear from his musings that he still respected others. There was this scene where he wanted to find band members for his 4th album onwards. Because he concluded he wasn't THAT famous around that time, his plan was to just scout them manually by going around town. But somehow, people thought he was holding auditions and decided to send him videos of themselves playing music through email. Now, most of us would just delete those because you could consider them as spam, but Halo didn't. He actually watched every single video without complaint. He said he liked their playing, even if it was clumsy. He saw them as unpolished gems with potential. He never looked down on anyone, and he didn't try to steal the spotlight from others. He knew his worth, but he also acknowledged the worth of others. And I liked that.

But unfortunately, I also disliked Halo as a main character because he went too much with the flow. Halo did say he was a free-spirited guy who didn't like being controlled by others. So if he wanted to sing or perform, it would depend on his own mood, not people's meddling. The problem was that this made him a PASSIVE main character. He didn't actively FIND something to make the story progress, it was the story that CREATED something and forced him to move forward. That's... not good storytelling, in my opinion. Things just happened because they happened. Not because the MC made them happen. I don't really like that.

I had a few other complaints other than that as well.

First: his song lyrics weren't often described in the novel. Sure, I listened to the songs on YouTube, so I could just read the lyrics there. But still, it was a shame. There were descriptions of how the music videos look, but the lyrics themselves weren't detailed well. You could say that in this regard, the webtoon was better. They gave us the lyric, and if you read this on the webtoon app itself and not on the third-party website, you can even listen to the song; you didn't have to open up the YouTube at all.

Second, I've said this before in an idol novel that I've read (the title is 'Prince from Another Dimension Becomes an Idol'), but I'll say it again here: Don't make empty songs just so you can fill up the album! The story said he made over a dozen songs, but only 4 were featured in the novel? And only 1 had actual lyrics shown? I get it. You want to show how amazing Halo was. "Oh look, a genius composer who can write a full album in 2 months." But if you don't explain the concept, lyrics, or even the meaning behind the songs, it's just like showing us a blank book. An empty sheet with no actual writing. It would've been better if the novel spent more time explaining the songs, even if it made the novel longer.

Third, and this is a really, REALLY petty complaint, so you don't have to care too much about it—but I wanted to ask: In one of the early chapters, Halo sang a Christmas carol on a train. I felt like... that scene was totally just a throwaway! I thought it existed to let people on the train record Halo's play and spread it on the internet to be fawned over. But nothing came of it! The internet didn't react at all! When they did, it was only, like, one comment. Meanwhile, the video of him busking in Korea kept being referenced by companies every time they wanted to hire him. But the train performance? Never mentioned again! Why bother having that scene if it wasn't going to go viral?

Tldr, a pretty good story, if you like OP characters becoming successful. It's better to read the novel first before moving on to the manhwa. The emotional beats hit harder, the scenes are more dramatic, and the musical elements are explained more thoroughly to help readers understand better (I didn't even know what MIDI was before reading this lol). You can continue reading the webtoon if you want to see the lyrics and hear the songs or if you want to see what his friends look like.

7.5/10. Can't give it a higher rating because Halo was a passive main character, and the side characters didn't get much screen time. The story focused WAY too much on Halo, so it got boring sometimes. I wanted to know more about his bandmates too, man. Even though Halo wasn't a jerk anymore like how he was in the past, the story still revolved around him a bit too much. And when a story is TOO focused on an overpowered main character... it gets boooooring. It would've been better if some chapters were dedicated to the bandmates, at least. That way, they'd feel like actual characters, not just accessories for Halo to show off. Out of the 3 members, only one got a backstory. The other two didn't. Even though one of them had been there since chapter 1 and apparently used to be in a famous group? Honestly, even though they were Halo's friends, they still felt forgettable to me. :/ <<less

it's an amazing book honestly, there's no romance which I'm extremely happy about, our MC Roh Hae-il (previously known as Halo) dies and is reborn into a teenager. Halo used to be an extremely famous and gifted musician/singer/idol.

... more>>

Spoiler

He starts making music using 2 personas, 1. As Roh Hae-il, a 15-16 year old teenager

2. As Halo, an unknown singer who no one knows anything about

[collapse]

This was incredibly fun to read + I loved the moments that Hae-il had with his friends and his senior (specifically Shin Joo-hyuk nearing the end lmaoooo)

Definitely recommend you read however

Spoiler

It's kinda of a slowish burn with bits and crumbs for the identity reveal of his 2 personas but it's SO worth it

[collapse]

I read the mtl version of the book so there was a lot of errors and some confusing moments but even so I really enjoyed it! <<less

Beautiful story, full of heartwarming moments and overall just a feel good story, I don't think I'll forget this one for a while. I recommend you read this if you just feel down and need something to lighten you up.