Review by Karl Verhoven

Rather than a new story, Get Schooled 2 picks up with ‘Episode 16’ and presents a further seventeen chapters. Hwajim Na’s original and occasionally violent methods have been successful in dealing with troubled boys’ schools, but Get Schooled 1 ended with the announcement of his being transferred to a girls’ school, and the opening pages here show that’s not been going very well.

He’s at the school with Hanrim Im, who was under his command as Captain in the Special Forces, although he claims not to recognise her. She’s masquerading as a student teacher, and what Yongtaek Chae shows is that there’s a difference between the top dog among the boys in school, who’s usually the most intimidating, and the manipulative equivalent in a girls’ school. In this case it’s Yeri Han, who’s never directly involved in violent activities, but coerces others into acting out her plans, resulting in false accusations of inappropriate behaviour causing one teacher to lose his job and commit suicide. Han is well characterised as really nasty piece of work, Garam Han changing her expression from smirk to serenity as required.

Still, in Im she’s met her match, but is too dim to realise it, so the torments don’t just continue, they escalate until a revelation establishing a new target a third of the way through. It shifts the focus of the Teacher’s Rights Protection Agency to a rogue teacher. Mr. Cheon is unconcerned about rules forbidding corporal punishment as he’s intimidating enough without them, and additionally a corrupt predator.

A matter Chae has reinforced throughout the series is a class of children having the aggressive instincts of sharks, and while a pecking order can be maintained for a while, they’ll easily turn against anyone. It’s a characteristic Chae uses through the segment dealing with teachers.

You may be wondering about the series title. It’s a catchphrase Na uses. “It’s time for some people to get schooled” is a chapter ending here as well. Out of context it sounds cheesy, but delivered with Na’s confidence and Han’s reinforcing illustration it serves as an appetiser. The focus switches between both main characters, displaying Im as a wily addition to the cast and around for the long term.

Chae’s plots twist effectively in dropping surprises, but he works in broad strokes with clear separations of wrong and right, so it surprises when he occasionally drops a thoughtful pearl such as “Forgiveness… for such a common word it sure carries a lot of weight doesn’t?” The emotional strength of his ending to the stories of Han and Cheon is even more surprising.

The final third of Get Schooled 2 begins with a massive brute of a kid still under fourteen who believes his age ensures he’s beyond any punishment. Whether actually the case in South Korea or just something Chae’s phased in for Get Schooled, anyone under fourteen committing a crime can only be jailed for a maximum of two years, and once the sentence is served their record is restored to clean. This section is brutal, but also the weakest for not having as many surprises as the remainder, although the ending leading into Get Schooled 3 certainly piques the interest as intended.

As before, nuance is at a premium, but entertainment is high.