'Duty After School' creators on breathing life into popular webcomics

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Entertainment & Arts

Tue, September 26, 2023 | 07:46

Shows & Dramas

'Duty After School' creators on breathing life into popular webcomics

Posted : 2023-04-07 17:35

Updated : 2023-04-08 10:57

The series "Duty After School" follows a group of high school seniors fighting insect-like creatures. Courtesy of Tving

By Lee Gyu-lee

The creators of Tving's original series "Duty After School" said that they felt overwhelmed at first to make a live adaptation of the hit webcomics.

"Duty After School" series director Sung Yong-il / Courtesy of Tving

"The original webcomics were very popular and there are fans of that original work. So there was a lot of pressure on how they might accept the parts that changed" the series' director Sung Yong-il said during an interview with The Korea Times via video chat, Thursday.

Based on the webcomics of the same name by the popular cartoonist Ha Il-kwon, the action thriller series follows students at Sungjin High School, fighting against insect-like creatures. When mysterious beings start to invade the world and attack humans, the Korean government makes it mandatory for all high school seniors, both boys and girls, to enlist in the armed forces.

With only 50 days left to their university entrance exams, the students at Sunjin High School take up guns instead of pens to commence their military training in the schoolyard, preparing themselves for battle with the invading creatures.

A scene from the series "Duty After School" / Courtesy of Tving

Lee Nam-gyu and Yoon Soo, the screenplay adaptation cowriters who adapted the webcomics for the series, said that their priority in scripting the adaptation was to make the story relatable.

"I'm a huge fan of Ha, the cartoonist. So I put a lot of thought into actualizing the original work and making it realistic," Yoon said. "The concept of high school seniors getting into a war felt like it could be unconvincing. So unlike the original work, we put in real civil defense and reserve force concepts."

Lee said he tried to fill in the gaps between stories that were not covered in the original webcomics.

Yoon Soo, screenplay adaptation cowriter of series "Duty After School" / Courtesy of Tving

"Every time I write a series, I always prioritize making things believable. There were some things that only webcomics could do … so I focused on finding relatable elements to make into series," he said. "We put in a lot of effort to fill up the characters and stories to connect the in-betweens."

The series, which released the first six episodes on March 31, is enjoying huge success on the platform, breaking a record by collecting the highest number of new subscriptions out of all of Tving's original series.

The director said that he wanted the viewers to follow the story from the students' perspectives.

"I tried not to make the kids look bad. I wanted them to look as bright as they can be and emphasize how they care for each other," he said. "I remember seeing some comment that said, 'save the kids.' I've tried to make each of the students leave an impression on the viewers, and seeing that kind of response assured me that the viewers are empathizing with the students."

A scene from the series "Duty After School" which commenced streaming on March 31. Courtesy of Tving

The series' theme of apocalypse in a high school setting has drawn immediate comparisons with Netflix's zombie series "All of Us Are Dead." But creators noted there are distinctions in the characters and message of this story.

"Both our series and 'All of Us Are Dead' are about survival. But within that survival, 'All of Us Are Dead' is about children escaping from school and zombies. On the other hand, the children in our series stay inside the school," Lee said. "Even under the circumstance that the students need to get out of school, they stay in, which is what the series is about … if you go a little deeper, the two series are different in terms of what these characters are fighting against."

Yoon also emphasized that the series also has elements of a coming-of-age story. "Compared to 'All of Us Are Dead,' our characters start out somewhat naive. Normally, apocalyptic genre works portray human nature within such circumstances, but with our series, we tried not to forget that this story is about the characters as they mature, which makes our series different."

gyulee@koreatimes.co.kr