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Posted in: Ablaze Publishing, Comics, Review | Tagged: ABLAZE Publishing, Comics, manga
Get Schooled: A Controversial Korean Series About Corporal Punishment
Get Schooled is an insane Korean comic series about a school inspector who can legally beat up bullies, now collected into a graphic novel.
Article Summary
- Explore 'Get Schooled', a Korean manhwa on a unique anti-bullying crusade.
- Ex-soldier school inspector uses violence against bullies in controversial twist.
- Digs deep into bully psychology and systemic issues in Korean schools.
- Series faced backlash and suspension over a racially insensitive narrative.
Let's get this out of the way: Get Schooled is an insane comic series. In a good way? A bad way? Well, it depends. It's a popular Korean manhwa series serialized as a webtoon about government-sanctioned school inspectors who can legally beat up and punish school bullies, whether they're students, teachers, or even parents. Get your head around that for a moment. It's one of the weirdest comics out there and may not be around for much longer. Is it fascist? You decide. This is a series about an ex-soldier whose job is to beat up teenagers.
If you read enough manhwa, you'll notice one thing: Korean pop fiction seems obsessed with bullying. Every third comic series, K-drama TV show, or movie features bullying, whether in schools or workplaces, like every imaginable workplace, from offices to the K-Pop industry. They're always about former victims of bullying getting revenge against their tormentors.
The hero of the Get Schooled, if you can call him that, Hwajin Na, is an ex-soldier turned school inspector who cheerfully gets sent to problem schools to sort out their bullying problem. And he's often cheerfully violent about it since the most violent, power-hungry bullies only understand their own language, which he's more than happy to dish back. Teenage bullies who think they're legally immune from crimes, including murder, just because they're juveniles are schooled on the new world order. This is a "five minutes in the future" soft Science Fiction scenario where bullying and corruption in South Korean schools are so widespread that a fictional Teachers' Rights Protection Agency has been formed by the Ministry of Education where the inspectors, or wardens, have legal carte blanche to root out the worst students, teachers, principals or parents who terrorize schools. And Hwajin Na is really, really good at his job as an investigator and enforcer of the law. Imagine Jack Reacher as a school safety inspector, and you're pretty much there.
Hwajin Na isn't there to beat up just one or two bullies; he's going to bring the whole corrupt system down like the stranger who rides into town to clean it all up. You might think Get Schooled is a simple, crass, exploitative story, but a shocking amount of thought is in not only its plotting but its world-building, its examination of the legal ramifications of someone like him operating legally, and questions of human rights violations. It also dives deep into the emotional and psychological roots of bullies, the parents of bullies, and corrupt teachers and school officials that enable a whole culture and system of bullying. It's like reading a sociological thesis disguised as a pulp vigilante comic series. And it's one of the best-plotted thriller comics out there now with twists, turns, peril, and escapes with a hero who's constantly steps ahead of the bad guys, street-smart and savvy enough to outthink, out-fight and out-legal his enemies. It's a weird, nutty series that deals with serious issues in a way that only Korea dares pull.
The English language print edition of Get Schooled is published by Ablaze. Volume One is now available. The series is free to read on Webtoon (UPDATE: not anymore). It's entertaining as hell but incredibly queasy and dubious.
We would be remiss if we didn't mention that the serialization of Get Schooled was canceled or suspended indefinitely in September because its latest story arc was widely decried as racist in its depiction of a mixed-race high school student exploiting racial guilt to bully Korean students only for a mixed-race white-presenting school inspector to force him to experience racism. This is an odd and tone-deaf flex, given that it is mixed-race and non-Koreans who face discrimination and bullying in Korea. The creator of the series wrote an apology on his Instagram. This is at a time when webtoon is trying to get deeper into the US and international arena with expansions into multimedia adaptations like anime series and live-action.
You might want to consider this before deciding whether to read Get Schooled.
Get Schooled
7/10
Get Schooled is an insane comic series. In a good way? A bad way? Well, it depends. It’s a slick, expertly plotted Korean manhwa series serialized as a webtoon about government-sanctioned school inspectors who can legally beat up and punish school bullies, whether they’re students, teachers or even parents. It's one of the weirdest comics out there, and may not be around for much longer. Is it fascist? You decide. The 7 rating is for its skilled technically storytelling.
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