122 replies to this topic

[svines85]

From the same author as Annarasumanara, 3 Level Combination and Carnivorous Princess Yegrinna, Afterschool War Activities (Afterschool Military Actiity) is the latest story from HA ll-Kwon and currently has 24 chapters released on Naver and is ongoing.

 

Though it's rated as "19" and above and can only be accessed by registered users, it's still one of the more highly rated and popular webtoons on Naver.  

 

Thanks to Supreme Cream Scans for bringing us this great manhwa and hopefully everybody will come to discuss it here. 

 

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=89141

 

http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=517773&weekday=sun

 

http://supremecream.wordpress.com/

[svines85]

Very cool, the new chapter shows the tension starting to ratchet up a few clicks...........I can already see why this is such a popular webtoon on Naver.

[Obsolete]

W . . . Why would you post a guard for a mysterious and hostile alien life form and NOT give him real ammo? It hurts to think about this. I'm not sure this mix of comedy and horror is gonna work out.

[svines85]

Yeah, I'm not sure about that either.........though I suppose there is more to this (not having lethal/regular ammo) than meets the eye. One, those might not have actually been true "blanks" but what's known as "non-lethal" type ammo (i.e. rubber projectiles as opposed to lead or steel alloy) ..............after all I've personally got a strong feeling the "guard" is in large part in place to deter desertion. 

 

Also, being a training facility, not to mention a radical situation such as indoctrinating under aged kids, most likely "real" ammo is being very strictly controlled in the first place.  Most likely they don't want any kiddies getting a hold of live ammo and they also don't want any of the regular forces wasting any kids who might just happen to freak out. 

 

Not to mention that from the info that's been disclosed...............even the powers that be aren't entirely sure what to expect. 

 

And yeah, I agree with you about the "comedy / horror" mix..........I've had issue with other titles before trying to mix humor in with some pretty serious issues and couldn't take it. Of course in those few cases it was really over the top.............like ridiculous slapstick humor mixed in with human slavery and murder and stuff...............yeah, didn't work at all for me. This one hasn't struck me like that really though, At it's heart this is a drama / horror story with a little bit of humor (not much in the last chapter or two though I noticed ) to break the mood or just expand on the characters. The "19" and above rating on Naver gives you the greatest indication that this is a serious work first. 

[Passerby]

Because they aren't actually guarding the alien itself - they are there to keep people away from it to prevent more accidents like the one that happened earlier in the day. And real ammo in a place full of hormone raging kids is not a great idea... Though that stance will probably change soon with the recent development.

 

 

W . . . Why would you post a guard for a mysterious and hostile alien life form and NOT give him real ammo? It hurts to think about this. I'm not sure this mix of comedy and horror is gonna work out.

Edited by Passerby, 18 July 2013 - 03:10 AM.

[svines85]

Yeah, and I imagine we'll start getting a lot more information about the situation in, and outside of the school as we go on..........we've really only started. Amazing how ugly things turned after only five chapters, isn't it?

[svines85]

Ahhh, going into combat in 3 weeks, "this is war",  that's something new.........figured there was more than they were letting on just yet. I doubt it'll be the last thing either.

[Serafita]

Anyone with a naver account able to pull the raws from the site and put it in a rar or zip file?  :3

[svines85]

Anyone with a naver account able to pull the raws from the site and put it in a rar or zip file?  :3

I don't know if you had any luck with this or not, but nah, not me, I went through the process, and I'm not sure if it's different for this since you actually have to open an 19+ account, but it was too big a pain, it finally got to the end (I assume it was the end) where the process was asking to verify me by sending a text to my cell phone..............yeah, the potential of a long distance charge from Korea pretty much told me I wasn't that interested in seeing the original chapters.   >_<

 

Wow, four weeks of basic training........and they're talking about abbreviating that.........holy cow, even during the Viet Nam war when the US was sending people off to die non-stop  they still got six weeks. These kids are being prepped to be lambs to the slaughter. 

[svines85]

aaaaand............the tension steadily mounts. 17-18 year old kids who've probably never even seen real firearm and already with live ammo............scary. 

[svines85]

Wow.......yup, I kind of expected that once the story got somewhat established that the action would start. So far the author has done a great job of almost lulling the reader to sleep in order to spring isolated violent incidents on them. 

 

And from not only the "interview" scenes but also some of the individual character interactions, we're starting to tell that the seriousness of the situation is starting to sink in much more so with at least some of the students. 

[littlewhims]

Ha Il-Kwon has made another masterpiece, and before long, I believe that this will get the same amount of attention Annasumanara received once this series gets more chapters. 

This is absolutely freaky, considering that it feels rather realistic and possible. Although this may sound bad, I find these ideas completely breathtaking and fascinating (in fiction). 

The most recent chapter has a slaughter of teenagers due to the USOs, I'm getting chills all over, and I want to look at the raws, but I don't want to spoil myself. 

[truepurple]

W . . . Why would you post a guard for a mysterious and hostile alien life form and NOT give him real ammo? It hurts to think about this. 

 

For that matter, they should have one person observing the medium cell. To have them stand two meters away from it with their backs turned... It was really foolish to assume they knew enough about these mysterious purple blob sphere to be certain nothing would come out. And as someone mentioned before, have them stand slightly farther away then two meters, that way in case someone faints or trips or some other accident, there's a margin of safety.

 

 

Then to only give them 5 rounds when they got report of small cells in the area. I wonder if those other slaughtered students were given no live ammo at all.

 

And before all that, to lie to the students like that. To say they probably won't be deployed, to talk about csat credits. I honestly would have called them on it from the start, it's too suspicious, them turning a school into a boot camp like that, for it to not be a super critical situation. I'd be like 'tell us the truth'!   Many of those military guys are showing too little respect to students who are having to go through a very difficult situation and shortly put their lives on the line with minimum training, if that. And for no pay at all. At least give them proper food, or is it that those kids are too picky? Either way, its a absurd shame to have all that food wasted in the beginning when it might get desperate enough for them to be eating out of a trashcan like that latter on.

 

I wonder if one of those large cells shot a attack beam earlier, which could have absorbed people and caused it to multiple, I would have reported having seen that anyway.

 

Its interesting to read this, they really bring out the awkward personalities of the kids. But I wonder if it will get too dark for me now, I don't want to read something that is just a variation on a zombie survival manga.

Edited by truepurple, 16 August 2013 - 12:21 PM.

[Passerby]

Uhm, you're misinterpreting some of the things.

 

1. In the military, you never have one person on guard duty - at least not in Korea. It's at least two.

2. Observations have been made around the world that medium cells remain inert as long as they aren't touched - the guards aen't really there to watch the cell, but to prevent people from getting too close and get injured in the process. Also, the practice of posting guards was a part of training the students to the ways of being a soldier.

3. Reports of small cells weren't verified and thus it's understandable that officers would be fidgety about issuing live ammo - while students aren't likely to be psychopath, they are quite likely to cause mischief and the chance of an accident is very high. And of course, if an accident did that happen, heads would roll and those would belong to the officers who made the call to issue the ammo.

4. The military didn't lie - they told the students that they will receive military training in return for CSAT points and that they will be deployed as reservists - obviously they glossed over about the risks involved, but the student are free to leave at any time and they are hardly being oppressed or deceived.

5. All Korean men are conscripted for compulsory service, and they get paid around $100 a month - yes, it's a pittance, but that's the sort of treatment young Korean conscripts have been subject to for the last fifty years (they were paid less than half of that until a few years ago).

6. And the food the students get is the exactly the same fare the regular soldiers get - and those aren't trash cans, lol. Those are food bins. But the soldiers and students aren't lacking for food - they just don't get a variety of it. The Korean military is nowhere as well-off as the US military, though Americans would still complain about how shit their army food is, lol.

 

For that matter, they should have one person observing the medium cell. To have them stand two meters away from it with their backs turned... It was really foolish to assume they knew enough about these mysterious purple blob sphere to be certain nothing would come out. And as someone mentioned before, have them stand slightly farther away then two meters, that way in case someone faints or trips or some other accident, there's a margin of safety.

 

 

Then to only give them 5 rounds when they got report of small cells in the area. I wonder if those other slaughtered students were given no live ammo at all.

 

And before all that, to lie to the students like that. To say they probably won't be deployed, to talk about csat credits. I honestly would have called them on it from the start, it's too suspicious, them turning a school into a boot camp like that, for it to not be a super critical situation. I'd be like 'tell us the truth'!   Many of those military guys are showing too little respect to students who are having to go through a very difficult situation and shortly put their lives on the line with minimum training, if that. And for no pay at all. At least give them proper food, or is it that those kids are too picky? Either way, its a absurd shame to have all that food wasted in the beginning when it might get desperate enough for them to be eating out of a trashcan like that latter on.

 

I wonder if one of those large cells shot a attack beam earlier, which could have absorbed people and caused it to multiple, I would have reported having seen that anyway.

 

Its interesting to read this, they really bring out the awkward personalities of the kids. But I wonder if it will get too dark for me now, I don't want to read something that is just a variation on a zombie survival manga.

[Serafita]

I don't know if you had any luck with this or not, but nah, not me, I went through the process, and I'm not sure if it's different for this since you actually have to open an 19+ account, but it was too big a pain, it finally got to the end (I assume it was the end) where the process was asking to verify me by sending a text to my cell phone..............yeah, the potential of a long distance charge from Korea pretty much told me I wasn't that interested in seeing the original chapters.   >_<

 

It's why I was asking, haha.  Unfortunately, Afterschool War Activities is flagged as mature on naver, so you need to be signed in, i.e. have an account.  And trying to work out how to make an account is ARGH.  XD

[truepurple]

Uhm, you're misinterpreting some of the things.

2. Observations have been made around the world that medium cells remain inert as long as they aren't touched - the guards aen't really there to watch the cell, but to prevent people from getting too close and get injured in the process. 

 

 

You mean, come within two meters of them. These things just arrived a week or two ago and were completely unknown before this, for that matter, they sat guards in front of this thing days after this happened, and this is in a environment where communications are limited so news travels slower.  So to assume you know anything about what these alien purple spheres will for sure do or not do, is foolishness to the extreme. 

 

 

3. Reports of small cells weren't verified and thus it's understandable that officers would be fidgety about issuing live ammo -

 

To expect to be able to verify any information when the worlds on the edge of collapse and your reduced to using highschool students who aren't even fully trained with the basics, as frontline soldiers, is totally unreasonable. And if ti was reasonable, then verify it before setting out! (not that it is reasonable) Any information about dangerous should be taken as true, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, and small cells being around is not that unreasonable thing to prepare for.

 

They expect these kids to fight and die for their country, with live weapons, in a short amount of time. Yet they would hesitate handing them said live ammo for them to protect themselves on the way there? Even if there wasn't any reports about small spheres, they should have provided these kids a means to protect themselves from the unforeseen with live ammo.  I mean, can't you see how disrespectful and unreasonable it is? It's like they want them to bear with harsh military boot camp treatment, to potentially be cannon fodder on the front lines with their pathetic level of training, yet can't show them enough respect or credit for them to be issued live ammo? So which is it, are they highschool kids or not? It's like the military wants it both ways. For them to be fearless soldiers to sacrifice themselves for god and country, and to look down on them as immature kids too, Yes I know they are immature kids, but you can't treat them like that but expect that much from them at the same time, to do so is to carelessly and throw away their lives and not value their lives.

 

 

 The military didn't lie - they told the students that they will receive military training in return for CSAT points and that they will be deployed as reservists - obviously they glossed over about the risks involved, but the student are free to leave at any time and they are hardly being oppressed or deceived.

 

By talking about CSAT points, they lie about there being a future where CSAT points will even matter. And if they thought that was even a possibility of those CSAT points mattering, they would be also providing them with normal schooling, but clearly the situation is too desperate for that. They also told the kids that this was just in case, that they most likely won't ever see combat. So that would be two major lies.  

 

 

6. And the food the students get is the exactly the same fare the regular soldiers get - and those aren't trash cans, lol. Those are food bins. But the soldiers and students aren't lacking for food - they just don't get a variety of it. The Korean military is nowhere as well-off as the US military, though Americans would still complain about how shit their army food is, lol.

 

This isn't a trash can/place to dispose of unwanted food? http://img.batoto.net/comics/2013/05/19/a/read51994ef8c3448/img000009.jpg By food bin, you mean someone would eat that mixed up slop latter on?

 

Variety isn't the issue when it's their first day. If they have made the food so bad as to be worth throwing away, then that is bad. They are placing these kids in a unreasonable situation, at least feed them well, it doesn't matter what Korean military normally gets. And if the food was not so bad, then there should be punishment for wasting it in such a situation where food is precious.

 

Sera, perhaps use google translator to make out enough of the website to register?

Edited by truepurple, 16 August 2013 - 04:19 PM.

[Passerby]

1. well, no. General communications (and the internet) was still quite active for at least a week, and if you remember, students talked about seeing clips on youtube of the cells' behaviour. Obviously there are still more to learn about them, but it's pretty safe to assume that what the Korean military knows is just about what the rest of the world knows and what they know is pretty extensive despite it being just a couple of weeks since the d-day.

 

2. The students aren't quite treated as regular soldiers, and the school is no bootcamp - they are being treated as 'kids' who might be sent to battle as extra hands, thus being given a watered-down training regimen. For now, that is. But it's not that I disagree with you about the live ammo being issued to the students - reason prevailed as the platoon leader convinced the captain to issue live ammo (though only 5 bullets per person). I was just explaining the reasoning behind the captain's reluctance to issue them. 

 

3. So they suddenly have this infestation of hostile alien beings, but as you can see, the situation doesn't seem to be that urgent (I mean, this isn't quite like one of those apocalyptic zombie movies) - why wouldn't the military and the government act as if there yet is hope for normality to be restored? For that matter, even the readers don't yet know if the world has really come to an end (there's a line about the end of the world in the first chapter, but it could be understood as the end of the world as the kids knew it). So by promising CSAT points, it assures kids and general populace that the society still functions and gives them hope for a future as soon as next year - which is definitely preferable to a total collapse of society and raging anarchy and disorder. And about the military telling the students about not seeing real battle, it's quite probable that military/government really thought that to be true at the time they made such a promise - after all, they didn't expect the war to go so badly so soon.

 

4. Ah, you're right - that's a food bin, my mistake. But there's no reason why kids should get better food than regular soldiers for fighting - even in modern history, young students of countries being invaded eventually had to take up arms when the war was going against them and this is no different. And you have to remember that in this war, there's no such thing as civilian casualties, because the humanity is fighting a war against hostile aliens who don't look like they will take any prisoners, and if the army is obliterated, then these kids will be next along with the general populace... And well, I didn't see any indication of food shortage. Anyway, I think the students throwing away food was a plot device to show that they are still undisciplined kids and not soldiers just as yet.

[truepurple]

I still don't get what you mean by food bin.

 

With much of the population out to war, and the world filled with dangerous purple alien spherical blobs, who exactly is going to produce, process, and deliver the food that is meant to keep everyone fed? The only thing that probably helps food shortages is the quantity of people dying.  If it's a plot device meant to show how undisciplined the kids were, all the more reason for them to get punished for it, or at least yelled at.

 

2. The students aren't quite treated as regular soldiers, and the school is no bootcamp

 

They have to live there. They have to live in cramped communal conditions. They have to rise early. The privacy curtain separating the genders is removed right at wake up time making it difficult for them to get dressed for the day. They have chains of military authority. They have to obey all orders.  Failure to perform results in group punishment. There are no regular classes. They are required to learn things like fighting with a knife, even though that is useless against alien purple blobs. Or hunt down shell casings even though there is no real good reason for that.   How is it not a boot camp?

 

BTW, I bet with that girl who found the shell, went to the bathroom, then brought it out again, maybe it was a unspent bullet, and she replaced it with a shell so she had a extra bullet, which would be smart.

 

But it's not that I disagree with you about the live ammo being issued to the students - reason prevailed as the platoon leader convinced the captain to issue live ammo (though only 5 bullets per person). I was just explaining the reasoning behind the captain's reluctance to issue them. 

 

The compromise of 5 bullets per person is funny, if someone accidentally shoots a fellow student, you think 5 or 50 bullets will matter? But if they get attacked, they might need a a great deal, especially with limited aiming capability. So it's a nonsensical compromise. Hopefully the group leader has extra bullets that can quickly be handed out or this will be even more of a travesty. 

 

Well, I suppose if bullets are limited in quantity, it means they won't waste em all in a blast at the first sign of a threat. To prevent that, I would make sure that no rifles could attack in auto and maybe limit the number of loaded bullets. (but still giving them extra bullets on their person to quickly load in)

 

 but as you can see, the situation doesn't seem to be that urgent

 

They discontinued classes, turned the school into a boot camp and students into soldiers in a rushed way.  The purple spheres are EVERYWHERE in massive quantities, and proven to be very dangerous.

 

How could that not be signs of urgency? If they really thought that the situation wasn't that urgent, regular classes would be continuing, the boot camp would be set off site and something the kids would go to after school, or something.  Clearly the military knew the situation was dire from the start, how could they not with what was witnessed of the spheres from the start. They didn't count on the kids having to even cut the 4 weeks short, but clearly to me, they expected those kids to see action.

 

 mean, this isn't quite like one of those apocalyptic zombie movies

 

Zombies can be brought down. The large spheres, well they don't even know if those can be destroyed yet or what dangerous consequences would happen if they tried. These purple things reproduce like zombies too (one kill, one new enemy it seems) I think zombies would be safer, with more hope for the future. (well, depends on how fast, strong etc)

 

So by promising CSAT points, it assures kids and general populace that the society still functions and gives them hope for a future

 

The kids sure, but the general population wasn't even in the classroom when they promised the CSAT points.

 

If your going to turn kids into soldiers who are meant to lay down their lives, don't give them false hope, especially recruiting them with said false hope. And since the points won't matter, basically they go unrewarded. We don't even know that they are going to get paid for this (assuming money still matters at this rate)

 

And even if authorities honestly thought that CSAT scores would matter next year, and that the kids wouldn't likely see action, of which I both highly doubt. I am sure it became obvious quickly enough that such was not the case. I suppose they worry about heavy desertion, but to string the kids along like that and tell them nothing as they they are marched into a den of death, its really rather ugly and despicable. And then to give them only 5 bullets to protect them on the way... Presumably no bullets if it weren't for the rumors of the small cells. I bet those corpses are from another class of student soldiers who didn't have a single bullet to protect themselves.

Edited by truepurple, 16 August 2013 - 06:29 PM.

[svines85]

It's why I was asking, haha.  Unfortunately, Afterschool War Activities is flagged as mature on naver, so you need to be signed in, i.e. have an account.  And trying to work out how to make an account is ARGH.  XD

Right, yeah, and I think it's a different "sing up" if you just want to get on the forums(Naver Cafe?) than it is for the 19 stuff. But I actually was almost signed up, yeah, just wasn't going to give them my phone number for the confirmation text mail. It probably wouldn't have done any good anyway, it would have probably been in Korean too...................the only way I got all the rest of the online stuff as far as I did was keep hitting the google "translate this page?" button every time it took me to the next page

[Passerby]

I still don't get what you mean by food bin.

 

Ah, I mean you're right that it's a trash can or food [trash] bin.

 

 

 

With much of the population out to war, and the world filled with dangerous purple alien spherical blobs, who exactly is going to produce, process, and deliver the food that is meant to keep everyone fed? The only thing that probably helps food shortages is the quantity of people dying.  If it's a plot device meant to show how undisciplined the kids were, all the more reason for them to get punished for it, or at least yelled at.

 

As I said, there hasn't been any indication of food shortage, so your argument is moot here. And the fact they aren't yelled at for throwing away food also implies that 1) There's no food shortage (yet); 2) the kids aren't in a bootcamp and aren't expected to act as full-fledged soldiers while being trained.

 

 

 

They have to live there. They have to live in cramped communal conditions. They have to rise early. The privacy curtain separating the genders is removed right at wake up time making it difficult for them to get dressed for the day. They have chains of military authority. They have to obey all orders.  Failure to perform results in group punishment. There are no regular classes. They are required to learn things like fighting with a knife, even though that is useless against alien purple blobs. Or hunt down shell casings even though there is no real good reason for that.   How is it not a boot camp?

 

Nope, still fails to qualify as a bootcamp - regular soldiers would scoff at the idea. 

 

 

 

BTW, I bet with that girl who found the shell, went to the bathroom, then brought it out again, maybe it was a unspent bullet, and she replaced it with a shell so she had a extra bullet, which p[would be smart.

 

This is dead wrong. If it was an unspent bullet, then from where did she get a shell to replace it with in the first place? All shells minus 1 (the one the girl found) had been accounted for. No, she found an empty casing of a spent round, that's all. I grant you that you have an imaginative mind, though.

 

 

 

The compromise of 5 bullets per person is funny, if someone accidentally shoots a fellow student, you think 5 or 50 bullets will matter? But if they get attacked, they might need a a great deal, especially with limited aiming capability. So it's a nonsensical compromise. Hopefully the group leader has extra bullets that can quickly be handed out or this will be even more of a travesty.

 

No, 5 bullets limit accidental/intentional casualties to five, while 50 can take out the entire platoon if an unstable kid decides to go on a killing spree.

 

 

 

They discontinued classes, turned the school into a boot camp and students into soldiers in a rushed way.  The purple spheres are EVERYWHERE in massive quantities, and proven to be very dangerous. 

How could that not be signs of urgency? If they really thought that the situation wasn't that urgent, regular classes would be continuing, the boot camp would be set off site and something the kids would go to after school, or something.  Clearly the military knew the situation was dire from the start, how could they not with what was witnessed of the spheres from the start. They didn't count on the kids having to even cut the 4 weeks short, but clearly to me, they expected those kids to see action.

 

The military is still there, the government still runs, and communications are still intact. There are battles being fought in the front lines, but most people in the cities are safe for now. The life isn't normal, but it isn't quite urgent yet. If it was urgent, the kids wouldn't have been able to train in peace for 2 weeks to begin with.

 

 

 

Zombies can be brought down. The large spheres, well they don't even know if those can be destroyed yet or what dangerous consequences would happen if they tried. These purple things reproduce like zombies too (one kill, one new enemy it seems) I think zombies would be safer, with more hope for the future. (well, depends on how fast, strong etc)

 

Zombies don't exist, and they don't exist in this webtoon either. I only mentioned zombie movies to compare the lives of people in those zombie movies with the students here. I don't know why you thought it necessary to discuss about zombies at all, even coming to conclusion that zombies would be safer. 

 

 

 

The kids sure, but the general population wasn't even in the classroom when they promised the CSAT points.

 

Well, the kids have parents, right? And the parents would talk to other people in the shelters, right? They'll tell them about the CSAT points and think that things will probably come back to normal in a year or so, right? And the parents and the other people would constitute the general population, right?

 

 

And there's something really important that you're being ignorant here - I don't know if you've noticed, but the biggest thing for these kids at this point is whether they can go to university in a year or so's time or not. Students in Korea face extreme competition for uni places, and it's normal for third years to be at school or some tutoring classes from early in the morning to midnight every day to prepare for their CSAT. This webtoon is satirical in that regard, pointing out that the obsession for uni is so extreme in Korea that the government would think of offering CSAT points as carrots to make students volunteer to fight in a war against aliens, and that students/parents would actually accept such an offer.

Edited by Passerby, 20 August 2013 - 06:32 AM.