Afterschool War Activities is an exciting and devastating story about a group of high school students who are organized into a reserve battalion to help protect the country from murderous purple orbs. And as things become more and more dangerous, it gets clearer just how much they'll have to grow up if they want to survive. But can they really? And in what other ways will they change along the way?

Why Afterschool War Activities isn't more popular is a mystery to me. It isn't some poorly-written story of nothingness. It has lot of depth and substance, and it left me feeling both moved and devastated. It deserves to be read.

At the beginning of Afterschool War Activities you see a bunch of high school students goofing off in class and waiting for college testing to start. And then it flashes forward to them being interviewed individually, introducing themselves and describing how that day went. The day they found out that their country is being attacked by living purple orbs (they call them "Cells"), and that the military is forming their class into a reserve battalion to help fight them.

The story follows the kids in the reserve battalion as they go through several weeks of training, get assigned to the field, and work the frontlines. You really get to know a lot of the characters and see them interact with one another, learn new skills, deal with personal issues, go through horrifying experiences, and try to push themselves and keep going. They have to if they want to live. And all the while the author never lets you forget that these are teenagers. We switch back and forth between seeing them go through these experiences and seeing them talk about it in the interviews on camera, slowly changing over time.

Afterschool War Activities is a character-driven psychological action drama. It focuses on the kids, not what they're fighting. You never really learn what exactly the Cells are or why they're there, but that isn't the point. AWA isn't an invasion story, it's a survival story, and a story of adaption. The Cells are an enemy that the author invented to shift the story from reality slightly, while still portraying certain aspects (like teenagers forced into combat) in a very realistic way.

One of the strongest points of the story is the characters and the way they develop. There are so many that it's very hard to tell them apart at first, but as the story goes on and the art gets cleaner and you begin to recognize characters by their personalities, you can really begin to understand and sympathize with the characters being focused on. The characters themselves are not particularly unique in any way really, but the way they interact with one another and slowly change throughout their experiences is very intricate and realistic, making it a lot more emotionally resonant. They all have fears and worries, strengths and weaknesses, friends and enemies, and we begin to recognize these things in the characters as they go through the training and join the front lines. They are forced to grow up quicker than they’d like, if they want to survive.

The art is definitely the weakest point, especially at the beginning. When I first started reading I almost laughed because of how bad the art is. The character designs are very messy and inconsistent, and when you have a story that focuses on dozens of characters with similar-sounding names, it's pretty important to be able to tell them apart, and for them to look the same from one scene to the next. Everything just looks like it was drawn far too quickly. However, after a number of chapters the art cleans up quite a bit, and by the end it looks pretty normal. The reason I gave the art an 8 is because in addition to the quality going up, the use of color is fantastic, as expected of Ha Il-Kwon. Most of the art is black and white, except for some neutral colors for hair and clothing, and bright colors for things like the Cells and blood and a few random details. Some of the night scenes where you can see the Cells glowing in the sky are absolutely gorgeous.

I enjoyed AWA a lot more than I thought I would. I read Annarasumanara and loved it, so I figured since this is by the same author I might as well give it a shot. And wow was I surprised. This story is the kind that sticks with you for a while. It is psychological at times, hilarious at times, and horrific at times. When I finished it I didn't even know what to think or feel.

So, to summarize, Afterschool War Activities is a story about teenagers adjusting to military life, and dealing with their personal feelings while also going through horrifying experiences. It is a character-heavy sci-fi action drama that is interaction-focused and has messy art at first, but the more you read, the cleaner and clearer and better everything gets. You really should give it a chance.

Warning: If you are sensitive to swearing or violence, you will not like Afterschool War Activities. It is about teenagers in the military, not a fairy princess tea party.