If you mean like hunter ranking it's a pretty common theme tbh I don't necessarily think s class started it all tho I could be wrong , I've just seen this kind of thing even before s class so idk
I've been wondering too. Why there are so many manhwas with that theme? Games, ranks, levels etc.
I think cause people like the supernatural aspect to it idk I find the ranking system hella interesting, personally I like overpowered characters it just makes it fun to see their reaction when like someone whose not an S rank does something impressive (like how Han Yoojin is F rank but bro has S class skills or L class skills and everyone's like wooaahHHH how does he do it
For the hunters universe it's part of the sentinel/guard genre that was really popular in 2010-2014 I remember I read a lot of fanfiction with the og sentinel setting during those years! iirc it's from an old tv show and it took off as an AU genre concept all over the world. It quite recently became a famous genre in korean novels/webtoons.. a couple of years ago it reached its peak in chinese fiction next to cultivation, exorcism and "system" based subgenres so I think it has south korea as well
Is the My S-Class Hunters manhwa is like the og? Because ever since I read that one (quite recently) I’ve noticed a lot of BL or even just General story with that kind of concept.