"What's your blood type?"
Human beings are very complex creatures. Their worldviews, thought processes and personalities are shaped and defined by many factors, such as their genetics, upbringing and environment. Alas, in Korea, and other East Asian countries, people are often judged based on their blood types alone, and blood-based personality stereotyping are still often used to gauge one's job suitability and relational compatibility.
And so begins A Simple Thinking About Blood Type, gag-per-day Korean Webtoon set out to portray how the aforementioned stereotypes might operate in life.
Hilarity Ensues in most cases.
This work contains examples of:
- Animal Motif: Type B is often closely associated to cats to highlight their carefree, independent and selfish nature.
- Author Avatar: Type O is apparently based on the author, who himself is an O-blood type.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: When a Type A is paired together with a Type B, the couple is almost guaranteed to go through many (violent) fights with each other.
- Brutal Honesty: Type AB's detached and logical personality means that he often says hurtful truths.
- Butt-Monkey: Both Type A and Type O can fall under this. The former is a meticulous planner whose plans almost invariably gets ruined due to the other blood types' carelessness. The latter is often the brunt of Type AB's Brutal Honesty and other mean remarks.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: While highly logical, Type AB is also extremely imaginative, and often gets lost in their own world.
- Determinator: Type Os are typically very ambitious, and once they have set a goal, they won't stop working until they obtain it.
- Edutainment: Despite the comic strips claiming to be non-scientific and its stories being mostly for laughs, there's some educational aspects as well. Such as the discussion about Pygmalion and Barnum effect, origins of the world, etc.
- The Faceless: The characters are almost always drawn with a mask with their blood-type written on it.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Type O, the impulsive but realistically goal-driven type, is Choleric.
- Type B, the childish and worry-free type, is Sanguine.
- Type A, the humble, considerate, people-pleaser falls under Phlegmatic
- Type AB, the critical, analytical, yet artistic, manipulator is Melancholic.
- Gag Series: While the author argues against Personality Blood Types stereotypes in the very first strip of the comic, the subsequent strips went on to depict said stereotypes because Rule of Funny.
- Gossip Evolution: In chapter 18, a gross misunderstanding occurs after a one-shot character named Kumakichi tells Type A that he's gotten a girlfriend who works as a kindergarten teacher. Type A tells Type B about Kumakichi's girlfriend "being from a kindergarten". Type B tells Type O that Kumakichi is dating a kindergarten kid, to the latter's horror. Type O angrily rants to Type AB about Kumakichi doing unspeakable stuffs towards young children, and Type AB reports this to the police.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Played With. One strip depicts a young A-type man (based on
the author's friend) who is approached by a street evangelist while smoking at a park. The guy is actually a Christian, but has stopped going to church for a while. Not wanting to out himself as a bad Christian, he pretends to be an unbeliever agreeing with what the evangelist is saying. He starts coming back to church ever since. - Innocently Insensitive: Due to their selfish nature, Type Bs often say and do things that offend others without meaning to. Examples include: suddenly hanging up on others on the phone without saying goodbye, placing (food) orders on other people's behalf without consulting them, etc.
- It's All About Me: Type B has a tendency to be selfish / self-absorbed, and even when they try to help others, they would base their actions on what they like, instead of considering what the other person would want.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: The unfortunate Kumakichi gets himself arrested after a Gossip Evolution led people to believe that he molests underaged kids.
- Opposites Attract: Discussed in Chapter 85, which demonstrates the tendency for people to find certain traits that are opposite to their own personalities attractive (e.g. Type A's dutiful compliance and Type B's freedom; Type AB's intellect and Type B's emotional honesty), but also warns how these differences can lead to disappointment and disillusionment in the long run.
- Personality Blood Types: The very premise of the comic explores the stereotypical behaviours of the personifications of the four blood types and how these characteristics manifest in their daily life/interactions. However, the author has made it clear from the beginning that personality is not determined by blood type alone, and has occasionally drawn strips to defy the trope.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The emotional and often hot-blooded Type O and B are the Red Onis to the calmer and more rational Type A and AB.
- Self-Deprecation: The author is a Type O, and as a result, Type O seems to be the brunt of most cruel jokes.
- Shout-Out: Several.
- A recurring school bus driver is modeled after Heihachi from Tekken.
- In an attempt to discourage people from scribbling names on a wall, Type O tries to claim the wall as a Death Note.
- Skewed Priorities: In Chapter 108, a Type B dad casually laughs off his daughter (accidentally) scribbling on his important office documents, but gets super angry when he discovers that she ate his bread.
- Sleepy Head: Type AB is weak against sleepiness, and would almost always be sleeping if he's not interested in the conversation/activity the group is involved in.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Chapter 12 has the blood types react to an impending meteor strike that would likely lead to an Earth-Shattering Kaboom. Except for Type AB, that is, as he was asleep during the whole ordeal only woke up after the meteor missed the Earth, thus he has no idea of the danger they had all just survived.
- The Stoic: Type AB is known to have the best poker face, and rarely if ever outwardly express their true feelings.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Type AB is typically portrayed as detached and logical, and borderline cold-hearted, but the Sick Episode shows that they do have a nice side by sending proper food and medicine to the sick guy.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After 200 chapters, Type O finally manages to outperform Type AB to impress a girl that all 4 are trying to pursue.
- Write Who You Know: In chapter 94, the author reveals that the blood type personifications are based on people he knows (Type O is based on the Author himself, Type A is based on his dad, Type B is based on his mom and several other friends, while Type AB is based on an extra-curricular friend). Also, several strips are explicitly stated to be exaggerated accounts of the author's personal experiences and reader-submitted stories.
