To not die – When the victim pushes back

Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. Hope you all are safe and healthy. Here’s another one from the Blue String universe. I think I’ll just read them all at this point because they’re amazing. As usual, mild SPOILERS ahead.

The story follows Im Dajun a high school student who gets bullied at school every day. On the day he decides to commit suicide, he comes across an interview on TV about a student who had murdered his classmates that bullied him. Dajun becomes inspired by what he saw and decides to take revenge as well. However, his life steered into an undesired direction. Im Dajun ends up leaving the school and after meeting a strange but strong guy on the streets he joins a Runaway Fam. Now Dajun is free from his school bullies but life on the streets is not as easy as it seems to be at first. Learning how to fight from his runaway fam with the desire to take revenge, Dajun finds out that there are much more violent people in the world than just school bullies, and his strength, will be useful in dealing with them to stay with his new family.

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The characters in this manhwa are not really developed all that much after the MC. Dajun is a person who is seeking strength in order to get his revenge on an unfair world only to be met with the more brutal realities of the world. There’s the strange man he meets on the streets, Cho Hangil who takes Dajun in and teaches him how to fight because he saw potential in him. Carefree and yet cunning, he’s the leader of the runaway fam. There’s Cha Daeyeob the red-haired runaway with a specialty in Judo. There’s Kim Taek a long blue-haired runaway who knows kickboxing. Ha Sungbin, the dark blue-haired who’s a great boxer. And lastly Hong Gayong, the girl who knows wrestling. All these characters are the main cast so to speak but only Daejun gets development while the rest of the characters are just there. They are interesting and fun to watch but you cannot really connect with them.

The manhwa has really good intense and brutal fighting. That’s where it truly shines, in the fights that Daejun fights, his using street tricks and other methods to beat opponents stronger than him gives the entire manhwa a very Holyland-like vibe. The mental growth of Daejun is also shown very well as he grows from being a bullied kid with low self-esteem to someone who has confidence and doesn’t stand down in the face of wrong. The good fighting and strategies combined with the zero-to-hero storyline with the MC make for a good read however I would love to see more character development for the others in the runaway fam as well because that is where this manhwa lacks.

The manhwa shows how a bullied kid who was pushed too far by his tormentors starts down a path that is very difficult. Daejun is pushed over the limit and only then does he get brutal and fights like a madman to survive. I feel like it shows that not everyone who is living on the streets wanted to live that life but in their desperation, they committed acts from which there was no going back leaving them to find some sense of happiness in their street life as some like Daejun plan revenge due to their bitterness that they just can’t let go. I think it’s up to a person’s personal opinion to think that what Daejun did is right or wrong but what we have to remember is that this story isn’t trying to glorify the things it shows rather it shows the reality of that which we know little of while providing us some entertainment.

The manhwa is completed the first season at 66 chapters and I’m desperately waiting for the second season. While not as good as it, if you liked Holyland and want a story that is similar to that then you definitely need to read To Not Die, the story of a boy pushed too far who just wants to survive with some great action and fighting.