I recently (ish) watched All of Us Are Dead , which fixed the biggest plot hole I had with the webtoon: how the zombie outbreak began.

All opinions are my own and my opinions are trash, but loosely my criteria for a good character can be found in other posts like this if you really care (you don’t). There are more female characters than just these (the nurse, Jimin’s mom, etc.) but this would be crazy long if I included all of them.

*spoilers galore*

Hyeon-ju

• patient 0 (sort of)
• wrong place, wrong time
• zombie hamsters
• bully
  • other students were too afraid to wake her up after she fell asleep

Basically don’t be a bully or you might end up becoming a zombie.

Hyeon-ju Rating: Zombie Hamsters Starting A Zombie Outbreak/10

Eun-Hee

• big wig (aka a politician)
• fresh looking outfit
• hair on point
• assembly woman for Hyosan
• semi-decent person
  • accepts that civilians take priority for rescue without much of a fuss
  • helps So-ju rescue his daughter (On-jo – without him all the kids likely would’ve died in the gym) and takes the L
  • advocates for rescuing the children/citizens of Hyosan until the very end
  • ripped up her resignation letter

Though initially she’s set up like one, Eun-hee not being a text book corrupt politician was fairly shocking and unfortunately unlike reality, where in real like we all know our politicians would be the first to take a helicopter out of the city, leaving us to get ripped apart by zombies.

Eun-hee Rating: 8.3/10

Eun-ji

• queen of chaos (ate a gold fish, destroyed everyone’s phones despite knowing their was a zombie outbreak going on, generally was a menace -she tired to kill Suhyeok (who’d previously tried to defend her) and Cheong-san))
• troubled past – bullied horribly and is about to unalive herself when the zombies arrive
• hambie
• ate that one dude who locked her off the roof
• Hyosan high student
• survives and escapes Hyosan only to (probably) die

Eun-ji was actually done so dirty. She was bullied, sexually assaulted and harassed, locked off the roof by her friend the midst of a zombie outbreak (effectively dooming her to die), turned into a hambie, then when she is rescued she’s experimented on and tortured presumably to death.

Like my girl deserved better but at least she ate Cheol-soo.

Eun-ji Rating: 9/10

Ji-min

• soondae
• semi-useful
• tries to unalive herself after learning her parents are zombies
• Hyosan high student
• lives way longer than I would’ve
• abandons her friend (SAME girly)
• almost rescued via helicopter

Ji-min was WRONGED with her death cause her homegirl shouldn’t have tripped, and should’ve hopped up immediately. Poor Ji-min then gets separated from her friends and dies alone crying for her parents, fighting off zombies in the middle of the field.

I actually really liked Ji-min because she was angry after her parents died and she carried that rage with her throughout the show, seen most clearly in her distrust of hambie Nam-ra.

Jimin Rating: 7.5/10

I-Sak

• Onjo’s bff
• Hyosan High Student
• dies

I-sak’s Rating: 4/10

Hyo-ryung

• Hyosan high student
• cries a lot like she even cried when she thought Na-yeon had died
• seems to dislike Dae-su
• often seen gossiping with Ji-min

Hyo-ryung should’ve died instead of Ji-min. Girly fell while zombies were chasing her and then just lay there on the ground like girl, get up and r-u-n, what are you doing?

Hyo-ryung’s Rating: Gwinam’s 77th Resurrection/10

Na-yeon

• elitist
• cute pink outfit
• murderer
• unhinged but understandably
  • one of the first to realize how serious the situation is and didn’t want to mess around
  • she was extremely afraid
• selfish and prideful, the latter of which ends up being her downfall
• found the perfect place to wait out an apocalypse and leaves it

I was with Na-yeon until she intentionally killed Gyeong-su like girl, be for real. Ultimately her pride leads to her death, because she was unwilling to reveal herself to the others and give them food, despite knowing they were starved. When she finally has her come to Jesus moment and musters up the courage to find them, it’s too late.

I appreciated that there was so much build up to her redemptive moment, only for it to come to a violent halt by the hands of Gwinam before it even started. Alas, “[h]e who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing.” Na-yeon’s unwillingness to recognize Gyeon-su’s humanity led her to permanently losing her own.

Na-yeon’s Rating: 9.5/10

On-jo

• generally useless but sometimes useful
• Hyosan high student
• actually survives
• surprisingly brave
• has a dad who’s a firefighter
• love interest to Cheong-san but initially thinks his teasing is uninterested
  • she’s intially interested in Su-hyeok (who is actually uninterested in her)
• has nice hair
• bffs with I-sak (and Cheong-san)
• gopher
• doesn’t want to abandon anyone
• will never trust adults again (period)

Unlike webtoon On-jo, tv On-jo is resourceful and useful at times, calling out the coach for having been bitten, using the fire hose, and coming up with the idea for a barricade in the music room. Her father crosses hell and highwater (literally) to rescue her and is successful only to die at the hand of zombies shortly after saving them.

Despite losing those closest to her, she persists until the very end and is rewarded with her life.

On-jo’s Rating: 9/10

Ha-ri

• archery queen
• failed to win some contest, which rapidly become irrelevant
• has a brother (who dies)
• generally a bad a$$ – she and her partner killed lots of zombies with just their bow and arrow
• generally looked over it
• survives the entire ordeal
• Mi-jin’s type

Ha-ri Rating: 6/10

Mi-jin

• generally chaotic
• sense of humour despite being under constant assault by zombies
• smoking queen
• locked her friend in a stall after realizing she was turning into a zombie
• deserves special admission into college

Mi-jin Rating: 6.2/10

Hee-su

• somehow hid the fact she was pregnant from everyone
• has a baby right before the zomzbie apocalypse
• abandons said baby in toilet
• changes her mind after she realizes their are zombies everywhere
• has nice hair
• generally looked distressed, even before the zombies appeared

Heesu initially comes off as very timid in the short span of time she’s on screen, but she exemplified terms of the story’s main theme, which is not only the lengths people will go through to survive, but also the lengths people will go through to protect their children. Once Hee-su realized she had turned, she barricaded herself in a restaurant, placed her infant out of reach, and tied herself to the door. Her plan worked because after she turns, her baby is safe until help arrived.

Heesu Rating: 6.5/10

Cheong-san’s Mother

• owned a chicken shop
• doesn’t have a name
• has an unnamed husband
• brave af
  • did i think she was dumb for going to the zombie outbreak epicenter? yes. did i respect her for doing what she could to see if her kid was safe? yes
  • she somehow got all the way up to the school on foot with a limp and basically only died because she didn’t realize Gyeong-su was already a zombie

Cheong-san’s mom did what any parent would – make sure their kid is safe. Her death was sad, both for the viewer and when Cheong-san eventually finds her and realizes his parents didn’t give up on him, but his mother died trying to save him.

Cheong-san’s Mother’s Rating: Useful Adult 1 of 3/10

Sun-hwa

• more useful than she was in the web comic
• broadcasting room
• relatively chill, given the circumstances
• teacher
• saved Na-yeon (who was underserving)
• generally a kind person who actually cared about the kids
• dies (maybe)

Most of the adults in the show abandon the kids entirely. The few adults the kids encounter in school tend to be solely focused on their own survival except Sun-hwa. Even until the end, she did her best to keep the kids safe, even going after Na-yeon (who was underserving).

That said, she didn’t do enough to put an end to the shenanigans when the kids were BSODing in that room and like what was she doing for all these kids getting terrible bullied pre zombie outbreak?

Sun-hwa Rating: 7/10

Nam-ra

• class prez
• hambie
• really strong
• survives
• Hyosan High student
• lone wolf outcast before the outbreak
  • to be fair, she also becomes an outcast after because she’s a hambie
• throws Gwinam off a roof
• love interest to Suhyeok
• ATE Wujin
• silver spoon
  • she became class president because of her mom’s donation which is why no one considers her the class president
• smart and observant – exposed Nayeon for intentionally infecting Gyeong-su

Nam-ra turns into a super solider at the story’s end and decides to abandon society, staying in Hyosan after the bombs drop (she survives). She wisely realized her zombie urges aren’t entirely within her control yet, and decides to separate herself so she doesn’t incidentally harm the others.

My biggest gripe with Nam-ra is she seemed under utilized in general as a character, both by not really being the class president like in the webtoon and by using her super soldier skills only to alert the others when zombies were around, and not to be a general menace.

Namra Rating: 7.2/10

All of Us Are Dead is centered around children, trapped in high school, desperate to survive, and believing that eventually help will come in the form of adults or the government. However, the adults abandon the kids literally without explanation during the helicopter scene. It’s very much a “you’re on your own, kid,” situation and the kids step up, using all their resources to aid one another and flee the zombie infested city.

Notably, the South Korean government is relatively efficient, rapidly locking up the city, still providing a route for evacuees but keeping the zombies at bay, quarantining everyone regardless of their wealth or status, which is completely unlike anything any government would be able to accomplish in real life. Ultimately those in charge bomb Hyosan, killing most of the zombies and probably more than a few humans too, creating an interesting moral dilemma. After all, it’s clear that without some sort of major intervention, the zombie outbreak would eventually spread beyond Hyosan (it already had). Yet, there were probably many survivors awaiting rescue only to be bombed by the very government that’s supposed to protect them.

While All of Us Are Dead has its plot holes and continuity issues, it is a story that’s less about zombies, and more about bravery and courage in the face of impossible circumstances, seen most clearly through a group of high school students who do everything they can to survive.

All Of Us Are Dead Rating: 8/10