The Uncanny Counter is a new ‘shonen-style’ manwha released in print edition by Ize Press. It tells the story of a group of people—counters—who possess powers from the dead to hunt down evil spirits. If you’re a fan of Bleach, you’re likely to enjoy this series.
Mun is an 18-year-old high schooler. He likes drawing comics with his friends, until one day, when they are visiting a location for their webtoon, Mun’s hair suddenly becomes curly. If that wasn’t enough, when he goes home and closes his eyes, he sees an old lady speaking to him in a different language. Moreover, he also gets moles in his hand that seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Something strange is going on, but Mun doesn’t know how strange until a bunch of people make him join their ranks.
Those weird people are counters: they made pacts with dead spirits to gain power and hunt down evil spirits that escaped to Earth from the afterlife, Yung. And apparently Mun is now one of them too. After a counter was killed in mission, the first body the spirit possessing it found was Mun’s, so the spirit turned him into a counter. It’s hard to believe, but Mun can’t deny it. So, he now starts to train as a counter while attending high school and also while dealing with a bunch of bullies.
In Volume 1, the readers find out about what’s going on together with the main character. The abilities, the afterlife and the counters’ mission, all is revealed. The topic which is slightly confusing is ‘the territory’, as the counters can increase their power by five times when they are in their territory. How the territory appears, when or even its varying size are not clear yet, but hopefully it will be further described in future volumes. While everything else is pretty much already explained, the readers are left with just a handful of mysteries—why Yung started merging with Earth and how Mun was able to get a spirit’s power when he wasn’t in a coma.
Mun’s parents died in a car accident when he was little. He survived, although his leg was badly damaged, which resulted in him needing a cane to walk. He was in a coma for a bit, but he woke up naturally. Spirits can only share their powers with humans who are in a coma and, in exchange, the humans who accept the mission wake up from their coma—that’s how counters are created. It’s quite the contrast to evil spirits as they instead possess evil people who are more likely to commit murder so that the spirit can absorb the soul of the victim. The more souls an evil spirit consumes, the more powerful it becomes.
I enjoyed the story and how it includes people from diverse backgrounds, nationalities, ages and even disabilities. It also covers the topic of bullying. Mun’s friend is being bullied by a bunch of guys in their classroom. When Mun steps up for his friend, he becomes the next target. Although he’s stronger now than a human, he doesn’t resort to violence until every other option has failed. I’m not sure how the bullying will evolve with the story as it seems to be a big part of Volume 1, but we just need to continue reading the series to figure it out.
What I didn’t like as much was the art. I found the depiction of the characters to be quite simplistic, with not many details. At times, it seemed like more attention was paid to the backgrounds rather than the characters’ expressions when something was going on, one example being when Mun was shown Yung at night for the first time.
Although violence is present in the story, the illustrations aren’t gory. During the bullying or when the evil spirit is on a murder spree, the readers can see the fighting and some blood, but it’s not gruesome.
The Uncanny Counter Volume 1 is written by Jang E (who sometimes appear as Jang Yi) and released by Ize Press. It started as a digital comic and due to its success, it was developed into a K-drama, which is currently on Netflix. Volume 2 is slated for release in June 2024.