This week we’re reading ‘Refund High School‘ by LICO. LICO are a Korean creator collective, and the name stands for ‘Life is Comics‘. They actually have multiple cool series on Webtoon. ‘Refund High School’ is a fantasy, with elements of comedy, drama and romance.
The story
Aru is a just a normal high school girl, going about her normal day. Her dreams of the future, ever getting a boyfriend, getting into university are unfortunately cut short when she’s hit by a van on her way to school. Suddenly she finds herself presented with two options; reincarnate as a fish, or attend the underworld’s ‘Refund High School’ and attempt to change her fate.
It’s a place of second chances. All manner of creatures, human and non human alike, attend the school. There she’ll meet new friends, experience new adventures, fall in love, and hopefully, learn enough about herself and grow so that she’ll be able to reincarnate into her ideal self.
The verdict
So, first off, I love the idea of a second chance during a limbo state of existence for people who die so young. It’s such a clever name too. Fun fact: ‘Refund High School‘ is set in the same universe as ‘Ghost teller‘ by QTT. Or at least in a much happier corner of the same universe. LICO’s other series, ‘Ghost Theater‘ is also in the same universe.
Aru is overall a very likeable heroine. She’s not perfect, she’s not particularly special, but she’s so pure it melts your heart. It’s amazing to watch how she grows through the story. The same goes for pretty much the whole main cast – they all have strong character development arcs. After all, that’s the entire point of this Underworld school experience.
It’s very well written, by all accounts. The art, like all LICO works, is beautiful. Brilliant colours and details. Being their earliest work, you can actually notice how the art evolves and gets better with every panel. The writing is gonna have you in fits of laughter at times and bawling the next minute. The romance is freaking adorable (Aru x Mook forever).
I literally have only one bad thing to say about ‘Refund High School’ and it’s that it has unfortunately been added to Daily Pass on Webtoon, so you’ll need to settle for patiently reading one free chapter a day, rather than bingeing the whole thing as I did.
So, jump in, and enjoy the ride!
