Duty After School

Feb 13, 2015

kateXeee

Recommended

Afterschool War Activities is an exciting and devastating story about a group of high school students who are organized into a reserve battalion to help protect the country from murderous purple orbs. And as things become more and more dangerous, it gets clearer just how much they'll have to grow up if they want to survive. But can they really? And in what other ways will they change along the way?

Why Afterschool War Activities isn't more popular is a mystery to me. It isn't some poorly-written story of nothingness. It has lot of depth and substance, and it left me feeling both moved and devastated. ... It deserves to be read.

At the beginning of Afterschool War Activities you see a bunch of high school students goofing off in class and waiting for college testing to start. And then it flashes forward to them being interviewed individually, introducing themselves and describing how that day went. The day they found out that their country is being attacked by living purple orbs (they call them "Cells"), and that the military is forming their class into a reserve battalion to help fight them.

The story follows the kids in the reserve battalion as they go through several weeks of training, get assigned to the field, and work the frontlines. You really get to know a lot of the characters and see them interact with one another, learn new skills, deal with personal issues, go through horrifying experiences, and try to push themselves and keep going. They have to if they want to live. And all the while the author never lets you forget that these are teenagers. We switch back and forth between seeing them go through these experiences and seeing them talk about it in the interviews on camera, slowly changing over time.

Afterschool War Activities is a character-driven psychological action drama. It focuses on the kids, not what they're fighting. You never really learn what exactly the Cells are or why they're there, but that isn't the point. AWA isn't an invasion story, it's a survival story, and a story of adaption. The Cells are an enemy that the author invented to shift the story from reality slightly, while still portraying certain aspects (like teenagers forced into combat) in a very realistic way.

One of the strongest points of the story is the characters and the way they develop. There are so many that it's very hard to tell them apart at first, but as the story goes on and the art gets cleaner and you begin to recognize characters by their personalities, you can really begin to understand and sympathize with the characters being focused on. The characters themselves are not particularly unique in any way really, but the way they interact with one another and slowly change throughout their experiences is very intricate and realistic, making it a lot more emotionally resonant. They all have fears and worries, strengths and weaknesses, friends and enemies, and we begin to recognize these things in the characters as they go through the training and join the front lines. They are forced to grow up quicker than they’d like, if they want to survive.

The art is definitely the weakest point, especially at the beginning. When I first started reading I almost laughed because of how bad the art is. The character designs are very messy and inconsistent, and when you have a story that focuses on dozens of characters with similar-sounding names, it's pretty important to be able to tell them apart, and for them to look the same from one scene to the next. Everything just looks like it was drawn far too quickly. However, after a number of chapters the art cleans up quite a bit, and by the end it looks pretty normal. The reason I gave the art an 8 is because in addition to the quality going up, the use of color is fantastic, as expected of Ha Il-Kwon. Most of the art is black and white, except for some neutral colors for hair and clothing, and bright colors for things like the Cells and blood and a few random details. Some of the night scenes where you can see the Cells glowing in the sky are absolutely gorgeous.

I enjoyed AWA a lot more than I thought I would. I read Annarasumanara and loved it, so I figured since this is by the same author I might as well give it a shot. And wow was I surprised. This story is the kind that sticks with you for a while. It is psychological at times, hilarious at times, and horrific at times. When I finished it I didn't even know what to think or feel.

So, to summarize, Afterschool War Activities is a story about teenagers adjusting to military life, and dealing with their personal feelings while also going through horrifying experiences. It is a character-heavy sci-fi action drama that is interaction-focused and has messy art at first, but the more you read, the cleaner and clearer and better everything gets. You really should give it a chance.

Warning: If you are sensitive to swearing or violence, you will not like Afterschool War Activities. It is about teenagers in the military, not a fairy princess tea party.

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Oct 9, 2015

TDub

Recommended

"Afterschool War Activities" was the first manhwa that i red to the end from the beginning, and also even now i consider it to be the most interesting manhwa that really exited me from the first couple of pages.
The story kept me in suspense and i was always worried about my favourite characters. I was also really impressed by Ha Il-Kwons drawing style (i dont really know why i enjoyed it so much cuz it seems very messy and sketchy, but it was just awesome). After i red this manhwa i was looking for another stories of this author and i choosed a couple to ...

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Jun 25, 2014

MrRangaFire

Recommended

Afterschool war activities was a great read.
I love the idea of the story, and the truth with what would happen if the world had a crises like this.

The fact that school kids will have to step up and bring emotional troubles.

STORY; (Manhwa- read left to right and has colour)

The story was your normal invasion, but what was different was that it focused more on the characters and their emotions. With the emotional part of the story.i felt closure but for the plot of the story it was left open with no answers answered.

...

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Apr 13, 2019

skeletalz

Recommended

Story: 9. The story centers around a group of high school students who are drafted into the army, given some extremely basic infantry training and then sent off to fight in the ongoing war. As far as realism goes, it goes about as well as you might expect from a random group of students with next to no training. The story is thrilling, psychological, and successfully relates the struggles of these teenagers.

Art:10. I really liked the art, the facial expressions are on point, the action sequences all have lines and blur in the right places, the art is good. This smart use of blur that ... you see here is like a budget version of Miura's woodcut-like insane line count and it totally works, it's really well done.

Characters: 8. While their personalities and relationships are unique and enjoyable, they can be difficult to tell apart at times.

Enjoyment: 9. I love stories that keep it realistic and damn, that basic training arc hit close to home... It's all true and much worse in reality.

For someone on the thinner and/or smaller side, this is what it's like: a cold war era battle rifle (new ones aren't that much lighter) is ridiculously heavy and essentially impossible to fire accurately, the combat gear is painfully heavy in standard configuration (it's heavy and uncomfortable even when you leave most stuff in your locker), the main pack simply contains too much stuff to reasonably carry all at once (you're looking at like 30 kg strapped to your back on top of the 15kg combat gear and 4-5 kg gun; every time I had to hike in full gear, I made it about 2 km before the pack managed to collapse my lungs to 20% capacity for the rest of the hike; the final hike was about 10 with full gear and 20 in combat gear, my knees were permanently damaged and I'd say I'm lucky not be limping). These kids get a taste of that as well.

What I would have liked is more emphasis on how horrific conscription, what kind of depressing, dark torture it is for some. It's no secret that many young men in countries where conscription is in effect either avoid it, kill themselves or go on a rampage, not to mention those who suffer in silence and leave traumatized and broken. I'm not even referring to a war here, wars are even worse than peace-time indentured servitude such as this. It's no joke when you're waking up up to 5 times a night in some delirious panic mode, totally convinced, for example, that the drill sergeant really wants to inspect your mess kit at 2:30 in the morning or that you really need to go on patrol even though the previous shift hasn't alerted you, only to realize half way through getting your pack out of your locker or half way through putting your boots on that it's the middle of the night and everyone else is asleep and that you just exited an acute state of insanity. You're actually losing it, for real, and the next day, your whole platoon is off to the firing range.

As for the later parts where they go to war, as I said before, it's a thrill.

Overall: 9. I'd totally recommend this to anyone who is into a war story, a psychological story, a bit of sci-fi, etc.

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Mar 4, 2021

Dreifckingdrei

Recommended

What can I say? It's basically a masterpiece.

STORY: 10

The plot lets you relax at first and then on and on and on it goes to different ways you could not imagine (which is why it is a psychological story).

ART: 10

HA IL-KWON draws on his manhwas is extraordinary in which he perceives and ilustrates the characters based on their personality and their development

...

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Dec 15, 2020

Abeyant

Recommended

I want to preface this by saying I think that Afterschool War Activities is really special in a lot of ways. For me its one of the few, probably only, stories that did a school setting right. It actually feels like school, an average classroom. I didn't realize it till I had read this just how real you could write it to be. It also managed to juggle its large cast extremely well - you don't really feel like anyone or any event loses focus cause of the size of the cast - the distance it takes from each of the characters is just right. ...

Story: I don't believe that the reader can pass judgement about the direction of the story, but I can safely say that I was satisfied all the way till the final chapter. But the way the story was told, the events that were described, the pacing, and the atmosphere created were all done without any mistakes. For atmosphere, the author never lets the readers mind stray far from the mind from the average character. Seeing everything through their eyes, and nothing more, means that characters can really shine which imo is the point of this. It does a really good job at that too.

Art: I think the art is great and it fits well. Its not super detailed nor is it uniquely good in how it conveys a characters feelings or anything else, but it never lets up on conveying important information and it meshes well with the POV of the characters - I think a better way to put it is that it feels like you're looking at someone's memories. Its not spectacular, but its uniqueness fits well and is interesting.

Character: This is where the story really shines. You are shown just enough about them, you can understand why they do things but not their inner thoughts, you get to see the evolution of a character and not the somewhat contrived "growth", when they argue you're not expected to agree with the first counter - it continues and feels natural, you get a sense of how the troublemakers are troublesome (or not) from a broader POV. Its little things and big things but I don't think I've seen it elsewhere and it does make a world of difference in how interactions and change comes across to and are interpreted by the reader. In a lot of ways this is not using the medium how its normally used - i.e. you never really have a lot of access to inner thoughts and even if you do its usually one-sided so you cant really resolve/understand things. Its more like someone filmed this imo(the do film btw), and I do think this is perfect for a live-action adaptation, but thats besides the point. I can't say anythinhg too specific cause it might spoil stuff but what I can say that characters in Afterschool War Activities are special, well-done, and you won't be dissapointed.

Enjoyment: Its become one of my all-time favorites. I tried to take my time with this but the story was too good and I finished in just two days. I gave it a 10/10 and I even wrote a review. =͟͟͞͞( °∀° )☛ Go and read it!

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Sep 25, 2024

bergars

Recommended

It's difficult to put into words all the series talks about, and it's done with purple balls that explode.

Of course, war being the first thing that pops into mind. It's one of the most outlandish premises I've seen in a while, but it's exactly that outlandishness that makes it so great. It touches upon war, yes, but it does it with something so strangely neutral. These balls, descended upon the earth one day. If you step close, they attack. They divide, and they're fast when done so. Simple as hell, typical as not many things, with some added complexities. It's not the threat that ... makes the story, but the people living against the threat. Kids.

Child soldiers, the tangent theme. The mental toll, their enjoyment of their lives, the effects, how their normal life mindset may set them up for their attitudes in war. North Korea and its symbolism from the greater scope of the story, and the commentary on how war is handled by the country. So many themes, and all projected with a group of kids.

It's a twisted coming of age story, where there's no good future for anybody. It's the looming threat that'll always be there. Doesn't matter if you're alive, dead, it's all the same. Death will always stand on top of you, and no solution can come about. Adults don't know what to do, and the kids much less. However, once the adults need the smaller ones to do their job, is when the humans are nearing their downfalls.

Even with all that tragedy, the story can touch comedy from such a human side of the spectrum. The kids do these interviews that keep us engaged with the characters. Mind you, it's a HUGE group. So huge, in fact, you won't be able to keep track of some. Being one of my complaints, but in a way, that works all the better for the themes of how human lives are disposable when nearing war.

We get to meet these characters, empathize, hate a few, and some may redeem themselves, others might lose their humanity. A cocktail of greatness, but many others who don't stand out. Humans, all of them, who eventually end up, as anybody else, consumed by war.

It's a story attempting to look in the bright side, but reality looking the audience in the eyes, and spiting on their faces. The story has a lesson to tell, and even if the ending doesn't close everything, it never feels unearned. Quite the contrary, it only makes sense to end the way it did.

I was going for an 8/10, but sincerely, I remember so much of it. By the end, whoever learned the most, or whoever died, or lived, stays with you. The ones I hate, or love, stay in my head. Unable to be forgotten to the horrors they lived. The guilt they had, and the intensity of the art, and action sequences.

“Duty After School” doesn't forgive the cast or the audience. It's in fact, one of my favorite apocalyptic stories as of late. A testament to an outlandish setup, running the mile, and achieving a sincerity that not many stories provide. It can get weird, it gets tragic, hell, even funny as hell. All the same, it gets incredible the more you think about it.

9.3/10. Not a 10 from how hard it was to grasp all the character, and scope. In a re-read, probably an absolute 10.

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