W is a rather complex K-Drama with a lot of sub-genres and themes that just makes the entirety of the show utterly amazing. This drama takes place in two worlds, our reality, and the alternate reality within the world of the popular webtoon hit created by Oh Seong-moo, W.
This drama has it all, romance, thriller, fantasy, and a bit of a supernatural flair to showcase that the two worlds are colliding. Lee Jong-suk plays the role of the male lead (Kang Chul) of the webtoon and drama overall. After an incredibly difficult life, he ends up meeting Oh Yeon-joo (Han Hyo-joo), the daughter of Oh Seong-moo in our world who somehow travels to the alternate universe just in time to save Kang Chul's life. That is when their romance story begins.
Memories Of The Alhambra
Anyone who is a fan of W is surely to be a fan of Memories of the Alhambra. This K-Drama is incredibly similar to the former as it deals with the combining of two worlds. Though, the second world isn't an alternate reality like in W, but rather the digital world of a video game.
The game's code is extremely advanced and threatens to affect the regular world if it becomes any more powerful. This drama is about the race the CEO of the gaming company set to distribute the game takes to figure out how to stop the dangers before release, uncover the mystery of what happened to the developer, all while falling in love with the developer's sister in Spain.
Cheese In The Trap
While Cheese in the Trap isn't exactly like W, it is also based on a popular webtoon of the same name. Just like W, Cheese in the Trap reads as its comic form and feels like a webtoon more so than it does even a drama.
The drama focuses on a young college student who tries to balance her studies and part-time jobs to keep up with her living expenses. She develops a relationship with a pretty insecure schoolmate who enjoys manipulating others and hiding his true colors behind a smiling face.
The King: Eternal Monarch
The King: Eternal Monarch is a recent Netflix Original K-Drama that is about two realities of Korea (and Corea) slowly beginning to overlap with one another. This drama is probably the most similar to W in that it also has it all. Romance, supernatural, fantasy, and at times is a pretty big thriller.
The king of Corea has been looking for a police detective in Korea all his life. He feels like she saved his life when he was a young boy. Against all odds, the king (who is also a brilliant mathematician) discovers a portal to the other world, and fate smiles upon him as he meets the woman he had been looking for almost instantly.
Romance Is A Bonus Book
Romance is a Bonus Book isn't as intense as W and definitely focuses more on the fluffy romance that develops between two life-long friends. Once again Lee Jong-suk stars as the male lead in this drama, so any fans of W are sure to love this one as they get to see him once again be the totally adorable romantic that he is.
This drama has more to it than just the romance, of course, but if viewers watched W for the relationship, they are sure to love this K-Drama.
Scarlet Heart Ryeo
In Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo, Hae Soo (IU) travels back in time to what is presumably her past life due to the effects of an eclipse she witnesses. Hae Soo is thrown into the middle of a war for the crown as several brothers attempt to claim their rightful spot on the thrown.
There is a ton of romance in this drama, and viewers will never know who she actually ends up with until the very end as every moment will leave them wanting more. Fans of W will appreciate this drama for the "other world" element.
Pinocchio
Another one of Lee Jong-suk's K-Dramas, Pinocchio is incredibly reminiscent of W and its core plot revolving around Kang Chul. While Pinocchio is set in our world and lacks any kind of supernatural element, it focuses on Lee Jong-suk's character, Ha-myeong, whose father was killed in a fire fighting accident when he was young, and the reporter on the accident framed his hero of a father to be the villain of the story, which utterly ruins his family. His mother dies shortly after and Ha-myeong, ends up getting lost at sea only to be found by a delusional old man who lives with his granddaughter, In-ha.
Ha-myeong, now going as Dal-po, because extremely close to In-ha, and shares a complicated relationship with her once he learns that her mother (who has rarely any contact with IN-ha) was the reporter who slandered his father. The two end up becoming reporters themselves while attempting to uncover the mystery of what really happened that night of the fire. Lee Jong-suk once again has a pretty dark and dramatic backstory that fans of W are sure to enjoy.
Hotel Del Luna
Hotel del Luna is about a hotel for ghosts, with an immortal woman cursed to be the CEO for a crime she doesn't remember and a crew of ghostly employees to satisfy their every need.
The only human in the whole building is the hotel's manager who may be the only chance the CEO has at remembering her past and moving on. This drama will take its audiences to another world each time the manager, Koo Chan-sung, enters the Hotel del Luna. The hotel is like another world, vast, beautiful, and magical.
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon
Strong Woman Do Bong Soon is more of a romantic comedy with a supernatural and thriller twist. Like W, it has a lot going on. Do Bong Soon has super strength, a trait which she normally tries to keep secret but was discovered by the rich CEO of a gaming company, An Min-hyuk who desperately wants her to work as his bodyguard.
This drama has a pretty intense subplot about a masked killer murdering women in Bong Soon's neighborhood where her childhood friend (and crush) works as a detective trying to catch the murderer.
Bride Of Habaek
The Bride of Habaek, also known as The Bride of the Water God, is similar to W in the sense that they both revolve around some kind of supernatural or magical lead male who falls for a girl who is totally out of her element, a girl who is totally normal and thurst into a magical surrounding.
The Bride of the Water God is also based on a super popular webtoon and focuses on the gods coming to Earth in order to their own tasks. Habaek, the water god and soon to be king of the gods, is there to complete a final mission to prove he is worthy of becoming the water god, but along the way, he falls in love with a human psychiatrist who thinks he is absolutely crazy.
A Korean Odyssey
A Korean Odyssey is another supernatural K-Drama that focuses on a god being forced to protect the human decedent of a powerful shaman. Because of this, she is able to see ghosts and demons alike and has always been utterly terrified of them. But because of her power, they feel drawn to her and constantly attempt to kill her to get her power for their own.
The god forced to protect her is no different. This K-Drama doesn't focus on another world, like W, but it does show an unseen world in our reality, the world of the supernatural. This horror story quickly turns into one of the greatest K-Drama romances.