(this might contain some spoilers so, I advise you to watch the series before reading all of this op)
((tldr: This is All of us are dead, but with aliens instead of zombies. Scores: 9/10))
Honestly, this series reminds me about All of us are dead.
A bunch of highschooler fighting and chased by inhuman things, with a bit of drama of romance and friendship. It just that I will give Duty After School a +5 point more because of the way they justified how the students can fight the monsters.
In AOUAD, the students somehow can fight the monster, a pet peeve of mine whenever a movie about monster that should've been dangerous but could be beaten by the main cast. While I must admit that, yes some people are just gifted/talented by being naturally strong or have a good constitution, somehow it just feels that they got a plot armor or buffed for the sake of plot.
In this series however, all the cast are forced to have some military training and wield a weapon. So at the very least, all of their agility and durability can somewhat justified (even tho I'm not quite sure that a short training can improve much of one's physical). Also, they still can manage to show talent like Nara's marksmanship. Their strength is just more believable.
alright, done with the comparison and let's start with what are the things that I love from this series so far...
besides their way of making the student's fight and survivability more believable, I must say that they offers a quite solid story.
For real, I'm coming to this series simply because I want to watch how will Sohee's acting gonna be. But I'm staying simply because I want to see more, I'm curious about what shitty things that will happen next and how they gonna survive it.
The monsters.
or the aliens in this series. They are deadly, and not just some mindless zombies like AOUAD, THEY CAN COORDINATE AN ATTACK, SCOUTING, HIDING AND AMBUSHING?
Aliens man, Aliens.
I like the drama aspects, the struggles. A story that safety is a thing we took for granted, and when the world wants to f*ck us, they must fight for that, no caring about whether you like it or not. It's a survival, they must struggle.
They also use many tropes that I'll cover this later on with their respective characters.
Speaking about the characters, the cast are also quite good.
Idk much about Korean actors and actresses, but I feel like all of them are nailing their role in this show. So let's start with the "Hero" of this story, our commander(? I forgot is he a commander or lieutenant) Lee and his loyal right hand, Wonbin
I found that these two's dynamic are somewhat cute. Yeah, their bromance is fun to watch and not annoying.
Lee Chon-Ho plays the Paragon of this story. He nails that "Stoic Military Guy" roles to the point that (spoilers!) when he laugh and having some fun at their last supper, it's kinda cute to see it because every superman needs their vulnerable side ain't he?
On the other hand, Wonbin really complement him. A more outgoing guy and somewhat loved by the male student. He plays the "Good Cop" role and I love him when he gives the students a box of bread, subtly showing that he don't harbor ill intention and simply care about them, while pointing out that Lee Chon-Ho is actually stern because Lee wants to protect the children. He really the perfect foil and his loyality for Lee? 10/10.
before I continue to the students, I must mention the honorary ones, which are the military higher ups.
They are annoying :) (which means that the actors nails their role!)
Next! The students!
I might skip or compile some of them because they simply don't stand out much. But that's understandable because the it's a large casts (heck almost all of this class are surviving) so if they flesh out each of the character's story then it could hinder the plot progression.
starting with these three annoying character (yes there are a bunch of annoying characters in this series, it's fun actually)
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Yes, there are a bunch of annoying characters in these series. But actually that's good because our real life is also filled with a bunch of annoying people right? And there was a saying that a real person's character will show up when they are in crisis.
And these three show it.
Hana, dubbed as one of the class popular girl, is an egoist person, contrasting her "kind" side at the first episode.
Seeun... oh no, don't let me start with a list about how annoying she is. Just watch it and you'll know it.
and then Soonyi.
Yes, I've said that I come to this to watch Sohee. And she nailed Soonyi's annoying character as the crybaby, and she plays that "weak, dumb, helpless girl" trope. Thumbs up to her!
the next four is my favorite female characters
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Yoojung is the class president. Calm and collected, smart, but still empathizing her ass classmate. A typical class leader. You might feel that in the after a few episodes, she becomes more mature. Yes she is, it can't be helped because she is her class' representative, she carries her whole class live as a weight on her shoulder. It's way worsening because (spoilers!!!) their homeclass teacher is dead and the class had no one aside from her. She shows that it way harder to face a bunch of humans, rather than facing a bunch of aliens. Keep going class press! I'm rooting for you!
Soyoon! While maybe her character are made as the comic relieves, I think that she is one of the most realistic person in the entire class.
Like there are some banters about she is like Joonhee, but Soyoon is just a sane neutral-aligned person that simply wants to survive with the others.
No Ae-Seol. Now, why is she one of my fav?
Simple, she is like Sohee. She nails her act as a loser. The expression, the tone, the clumsiness. She really felt as a dead weight.
And that's why I love it. She is doing a great job to deliver the characters.
THE LEE NARA
asdfghjkl;'lasdljsalkj my #1 in this series.
The cool girl trope.
fr, she is just cool. And when she wield a gun? +100 pts.
and now she is acknowledged as the team's sniper? +100000 pts.
and (spoilers) when she is confronting Bora? +100 pts.
Yes, she is even way more cooler than the military guys.
And how did they find Moonhee as the cast? She nails it.
Also she seems had more story to flesh out in the part two of this series, so I'm quite curious on what will unfold upon her?
NEXT, before we quick-rounding the guys, I'll mention the two characters that are somewhat interesting to me!
yes, the "bullies",
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While they might actually bullies someone (mainly Aesol), I... don't know. I just find it weird on how the series write their characters as the bullies.
The first few episodes write Bora as a "bully" but I feel like it kinda drops later on. I perceived Bora herself as a rebel and egoist(?) person, idk even know if I can coin her as an egoist because she still cares about her classmate, she is more like outspoken and will do her own thing, not caring about what will people do.
The scene that gives me is, (spoilers?) Her small talk with her mother. It looks like she grows without much of her parent's care and even her mother seems like a carefree person, the "just do whatever you wants to do"-type. She is also coming from a rich family because her mother is a, iirc, lawyer. And that scenes are somewhat contrasting with her attitude in school, it felt lovely... that's why I find her "bully" persona are a bit weird (even tho this didn't justifies all the bad thing that she might done to Aesol).
Also she somewhat showing the opposite of Hana, when Hana is turned out to be selfish, Bora is still saving other people. Another dynamics there..
The same thing also happened with Ilha. For me he is a guy with anger issue. At early episodes, he is pictured as the head bullies, full of violence, yadayadayada, the typical high school bully behaviour. But he also got this one scene (spoiler) with here mother. Her mother is kinda good person and a hardworking ones. In that scene, Ilha seems like can't fight back on what her mother said and it looks like all of those emotion are bottled up in him. This might be the reason why he is so short-tempered. (That scene might makes me empathize him a bit, because it kinda cute that a "bully" can't fight her mother).
That thing also didn't justify all the shit he had done. For him I kinda agree that he could be called as a bully. But there are also another two thing, one when he seems can't accept that Younghoon called him as a bully, and two, for a bully, he is kinda a team player in the mid episodes? Still a jerk tho, and maybe all of that thing I mentioned is his drama.
talking about bullies, the real bully so far to me is this jerk
next, I should also mention another interesting trope, which is "when the bullied fights back",
He actually plays some tropes, The #1 academic guy, the "parent expectation", "fighting the bullies back", so on, so forth.
His life is rough, mate.
