Thoughts on - Weak Hero

Binged Season 1 and 2 in one weekend.

This weekend was pretty open for me, had no trips or meetup with friends planned. So I was looking to Binge watch some new TV show. I had been hearing a lot of chatter about Korean series called Weak Hero. Action series are always something I find myself easily attracted to, and I heard that this was some good action show, setup in college or high school.

Now I generally try to avoid Korean TV show or K Dramas, because as I am not much interested in drama. I like action or comedy shows more. So to get with cool kids and get on hype train of Korean shows, I have been selectively picking shows which are more into action. And boy do they do action well over there in Korea. My first Korean show was last years Bloodhound. Good revenge story involving some good boxing fights. They know how to choreograph action sequences thats for sure. Also I will never understand how rampant Bullying is a thing in Korea, which as a country is a very high trust society. From where these bullying theme shows come from in Korea and Japan as well I dont know.

Now coming to this show which reminded me of an anime I watched long back, Tokyo Revengers, which i dropped after just one season because I found it super slow and main hero was weak but didnt grow up and just kept crying. So I was little skeptic going into this show thinking this gonna be another show which i drop half way through. But was I in for a surprise, 48 Hrs later, a weekend completely spent at home, I finished both the seasons of the show. Binged succesfully.

Season 1

The show starts slow but only in first episode, once it gets going it covers a lot of ground and covers a good amount of story points. I was impressed that this 8 episode season was able to do two stories conclusions, one at episode 4 and one at episode 8, I was even left wondering "oh this happened so now this story arc will definetly go for next 2 -3 episodes" but nope, the arc got its conclusion the very next episode and we moved on to another arc. First half of season has some adult people mixing with school gang stuff and that made for a thrilling but anxious watching, because you know, no matter how strong the character feels they are no match for working adults. But we get some good fights and some creative solution and handicaps to deal with those situations. Second half of the season goes back to more school gang stuff and i think it excels at that. We have our Main Weak Hero who's name is Si-eun and he fights with his heart, he is weak but he doesnt give up and he certainly doesnt fight fair. He is a proper street brawler, he doesnt care for rules or anything. He is there to win and he will use everything the environment provides, to fight and win.

A hell lot of bullying in this season, Bullying by school mates and even bullying at home for one character. And we get to see how bullying impact people, how much physical as well as mental damage it causes to a person. We get to see friendship bonds formed and destroyed because of bullying. The show also doesnt shy away from almost killing one of the crowd fav character and making him useless for two season. Bold move. Also I notice all strong character in Korean and Japanese shows eats a lot and they never get fat, I guess they are kinda burning all that energy fighting. Also Bromance so strong between Si-eun and Su-ho that you might get confused, LOL.

Also l loved the final episode of the season, we get to see over the top berserk weak hero. :)

Season 2

Yeah Berserking comes with a price and season 2 starts with Si-eun transfered to a proper delinquent school. This time around there is bullying but not that much. This time story revolves around Turf gang wars, which is funny considering this is still a school gang, based show. We see a lot of paralleles from season 1. We see protagnist trying to become like his best friend from season 1. We see another weak character who in begining was bullied but from the help of Si-eun learns to standup on his own. And to replace the fighter character (Su-Ho, also the best friend of Si-eun) from season 1 this time we have one super powerful character named Baku. I see Baku and i see Luffy, in his characterism. He is super enthusiastic, always smiling and first to apologise. Takes good care of his friends. Yeah I see luffy in him. Plus he also struggles in his personal life, everyone have their struggles i guess.

This season doesnt have mid season finale, the plot is one flow this time around but there is a super cool fight in Episode 4. We see Si-eun fight with unwavering spirit with one of the top dogs. The fight reminded me in some ways of Rocky, how he never gave up and just keeps coming back for more. Just chipping away at his opponent. Later on finale episode we see the same tactics again. Just chipping away at his opponent, one step at a time, one round at a time.

Final Thought

Loved it. Will watch season 3 if it ever comes out. I would suggest you can give it a watch for sure. Only maybe Season 1 Episode 1 might feel little slow but thats to setup all the characters and give us their stories. The friends group we have going now, this gang is gonna be unstoppable in season 3 if that ever happens.