알람 
마이페이지 
즐겨찾기 
다크모드 
유튜브 
인스타그램 
트위터 
페이스북 기타
A guidebook to the afterworld, <Along with the gods>
CONIST | 탁정은
| 2020-01-05 16:02
A webtoon with a friendly approach to the after life.
A webtoon that makes you reflect on your life and sins.
Looking at reviews of TV shows of movies based on web-comics or novels, the general consensus is that “The book was better.”, “I shouldn’t have seen it.”, or “They took it too far from its original context.” Because so many people read the original work, they each have their personal interpretation. And it is the same with the movie ‘Along with the Gods’. In my case, I watched the movie <Along with the Gods> before I read the comic and I was glad that I had watched the movie first (Meaning that the comic was much better than the movie). The comic behind the movie that surpassed 10 million viewers in theaters and introduced readers to the world of the afterlife. That is <Along with the Gods>.
https://image.webtoonguide.com/f6/89/977be435f73549cd49d44e6dbfd9https://image.webtoonguide.com/f6/89/977be435f73549cd49d44e6dbfd9
<Along with the Gods> is composed of 3 episodes, the story of hell, the human world and the world of the gods. Each cover a different story but have the same main character. I was surprised by how intricately the author divides each episode. Each story falls together to explain the relationship between the characters, how they became the reaper of the underworld and ghosts of the afterlife.
<Along with the gods> is the tail of ‘Kim Ja Hong’ and ‘Jin Ki Han’ after his death where they undergo seven trials for 49 days. ‘Kim Ja Hong’ is the average man: he went to school, graduated from college, did his military service and worked at a company before dying of a liver-related disease due to alcohol drinking. “Jin Ki Han’ is a defense attorney in the nation of the undead. Despite being an extraordinary genius that could have been a high-level lawyer, he decides to be public defense attorney so that he may defend both the good and the bad, with his first client being ‘Kim Ja Hong’.
<Along with the Gods> Story of Hell focuses on ‘Kim Ja Hong’ and “Jin Ki Han’ as to why people hold the 49 day Funeral Ceremony in Korea. The writer successfully unravels the gloomy narrative in an entertaining and easy fashion. He portrays the King of the Underworld much differently from how we would imagine it. Also, reading his illustration on the various stages of life, we are reminded of why we need to keep good in our lives.
<Along with the gods> Story of the human world illustrates the lives of people living with the gods that protect their homes, based on Korean traditional folklore. Largely put, it is a story of the god of the home, the god of the kitchen, the god of the outhouse as they confront an official of the afterlife. The main character is ‘Donghyun’, who has become a mess after the recent death of his deceased grandmother. With the recent death of his grandmother, Donghyun’s family is in danger of being driven out of their home due to redevelopment while the gods of the household try to stop the death of the afflicted grandfather. The conflict between the official of death, who has come to take the grandfather’s soul and the house gods, who cannot leave Donghyun by himself, is intriguing.
<Along with the gods> Story of the realm of gods is an episode based on the gods that appeared in the first two stories. It begins with the creation story of Korea on how hell and the human realm were born and how the reapers and the house gods came into existence.
There is nobody who has read <Along with the Gods> once. It is a comic that you end up reading 3 or 4 more times. It keeps readers thinking after the comic and touches the reader every time. The episodes each have their individual storyline while being closely interconnected: a continuum of tension that you cannot take your eyes off once you start reading.
