Zombie related contents sweep over the world such as zombie movies, dramas, webtoons, and even games including Train to Busan and Walking Dead Man. The craze hits the whole world. One noticeable thing is that zombies are fictional but becoming another charter that is rapidly evolving. When zombies first came out, they slowly walked so people could avoid them. But, current zombies can walk like humans and even run fast. However, humans couldn’t defeat zombies up until now in most of the movies that portrayed zombies, unless they killed them. Zombies were also depicted as a scary existence that people should avoid. If a family or a lover turned into a zombie, people just allowed them to be bitten or had to let go of them, shedding tears.

But, what if you could raise a zombie who turns into your family?

Let's talk about Zombie’s Daughter, a new zombie-themed webtoon.

For reference, this review may contain a spoiler for the webtoon story. Please be aware of it if you haven’t read up to Episode 10.

The beginning of Zombie’s Daughter is to illustrate a story of Soo-a and her dad before she turns into a zombie yet. At this time, it is still the initial stage of the zombie situation that they don’t know anything about. Dad is a translator, working at home. When his daughter begins talking about people who are fighting outside, he comes close to the window to see them. Until then, they don’t know about the zombie situation. At that moment, TV news is on air, saying a strange situation is happening in Seoul that unidentified zombies bite each other.

Actually, this situation shown on TV is a realistic advertisement that was filmed to look like a real situation. Dad and his daughter try to report the police on the phone, but the police don’t answer. In addition to this, a woman, who sponged her husband off, is breaking the windows and about to come into their house on the first floor. In this absurd situation, dad and Soo-a approach her to stop. But they check a message and photo from Soo-a’s group chat room that a zombie situation might occur. Then, they avoid her and enter a room.

This development of the story reveals how sensible the artist, Lee Yun-chang is. By creating tension, he leads the story based on a zombie material to be as exciting as a cliffhanger, and at the same time, he brings a comedy element to release the tension in a second and adds a scorching critique of society together. In reality, what is happening in Korea is known by the public while they communicate with one another rather than news media that is supposed to properly deliver information to the people. 

The woman next door who became a zombie eventually rips off the door of the room. They can’t just sit and get attacked by the zombie so that they push themselves through her and try to drive to Soo-a’s grandmother’s house in the countryside. Of course, the roads are already occupied by a crowd of zombies. And both of them are even put into a dangerous situation by a crowd of zombies. Eventually, dad leads a large number of zombies and makes a sacrifice until Soo-a runs to the car. At this inevitable and crucial moment when he might be killed by zombies, Soo-a roughly drives the car and saves her dad – she calls driving a virtue of a middle-school girl. Finally, Soo-a and dad barely make it through occupied roads and fortunately move near the grandmother's house. Suddenly, Soo-a shows an abnormal symptom. When he approached and created aggro towards zombies earlier, she was bitten by zombies. Turning into a zombie, Soo-a runs amuck and causes a car accident. After all this hustle and bustle, dad finally moves to his mother's house in the countryside.

Will the zombie behave well if she goes to a country house? That’s absurd. She makes a complete mess in the house. When his mother comes back home after an outing, she just makes one comment; Soo-a’s nickname, Beanbag Doll is changed to Douchebag. When Soo-a springs out at her, she puts Soo-a into sleep, smashing her with an earthen pot which is one of the back-stretcher tactics. The horrifying zombie ends up becoming the weakest one that can’t even defeat a cat in this granny’s house.

Dad keeps Soo-a at his mother's house for a day, thinking that she could be healed. So he heads to the hospital for treatment.

But what he finds there is a kid who is infected by a zombie and being shot under the order to shoot. On the way back, he also finds there is an order to kill a crowd of zombies for stopping the zombie situation. Thinking his daughter will be shot to death, he can’t let it happen. After all, he brings Soo-a back to his mother’s house, again. Of course, it’s advised on TV that if anyone hides people who are zombies, it’ll cause big trouble so that anyone should kill zombies since they are not humans or families anymore. A suspense crisis is created when soldiers search the grandmother’s house under the martial law, Soo-a is so close to getting caught. Finally, dad tries to let go of her nicely and bury her in the front yard of the house. How could he kill his daughter by his bare hands? He eventually doesn’t succeed.

And he listens to his mother. She says when zombies are flocked together, they are ferocious beasts. But, when they are alone and surrounded by someone stronger than themselves, they are like a frightened beast. After listening to his mother, something comes across his mind. It is a book of taming wild animals that he would translate. And he tries to tame Soo-a. This is the story of Zombie’s Daughter so far.

Zombie’s Daughter tells the story of a dad who can’t kill a daughter who becomes a zombie just like the title, and also a grandmother’s heart. Throughout the whole time to read Zombie’s Daughter, I often had my eyes wet because Lee Yun-chang’s power of delivery enabled me to feel a parent’s painfulness to see a daughter who becomes a zombie. Whereas there is a touching moment, there is also the comedy code of Lee Yun-chang that kicks in right after a sad moment. So it prevents the work from becoming a melodrama that tries to make readers shed tears.

Seeing Soo-a, dad feels guilty so he hugs her and cries. But when she tries to bite, he blocks her. If she misbehaves even slightly, grandmother defeats her with various martial arts. Will they be able to tame Soo-a who turns into a zombie?

Zombie’s Daughter is not a cliché zombie webtoon. This Line Webtoon makes readers feel intrigued and look forward to seeing how the story of this family will be unfolded.