kim gongja is SUCH a refreshing protagonist because he’s so emotionally open and vulnerable. like, the premise of sss-class revival hunter makes you think that he’s going to be some kind of edgelord but his entire character from basically day one is ‘i am going to build genuine connections based on trust and believe in people unless explicitly proven otherwise; just because i grew up alone and one person betrayed my trust and killed me does not mean the rest of the world is like this. in fact, fuck him, i’m going to DOUBLE DOWN on trusting people and believing in the inherent value in the mortifying experience of being known!!’ and then goes and bares his soul to basically everyone he meets.
cale henituse: please do not give me validation. stop acting like i’ve done something cool i need everyone to think i’m trash so i can sit around doing nothing. wait why are people cheering no-
kim dokja: every bit of validation i receive is, in fact, proof that these people are using me for clout and money and you know what? i approve. wait no don’t be sincere about it oh god i have no choice where’s the nearest coffin-
han yoojin: i feel guilty about being praised because i’m really just cheating with my time travel skills but you know what? it is helpful when people think i’m a good person, because then i can do many murders without consequence!
kim gongja: oh are you being nice to me? congrats you’ve unlocked level two friendship with me and i will now die for you. another few levels and we’ll be giving each other therapy through shared catharsis haha.
i love you, you are an angel.
sss class revival hunter is that doctor who episode where he goes "just this once, everybody lives" and i cry but then Also it's not that everyone lives all the time, it turns out, it's just that we are making the most satisfying ending. kim gongja went back in time a bunch of years and he remembers how miserable everything was and he said "right we're doing None of that and im not gonna be cool at all i really am just fixing things" it's a fix it fic of a story you dont know and it's making me so feral
like bro?? sir?? this was a philosophical debate on how to view the world, on how to approach making it better. this is where "starving children waiting for the sun" came from too i had to take breaks in between speech bubbles bc i was so overwhelmed i didnt expect this from a stupid action story!
like bro, bro we're past "are monsters evil and do we need to kill them or are they alive and have emotions" we're Past it we're talking about whether you should strive to fix the world out of anger at all the injustices, or because you have experienced happiness and see how beautiful the world Can be if you fix it im Losing it
sss-class revival hunter altered my brain chemistry (and why you should read it too)
now that it's the holiday season, may i suggest that you spend your downtime not enjoying festivities, spending time with loved ones, or relaxing your body, but instead choose to treat yourself to a good cathartic mental breakdown via the power of narrative? that's right, today i'm going to tell you why you, yes you, should read sss-class revival hunter.
what is sss-class revival hunter?
sss-class revival hunter (previously translated as sss-class suicide hunter) is a webnovel by shin noah, and is completed at 400 chapters, though translations are in-progress at 238 chapters. there is a manhwa of the same name that is also in-progress, having just completed its second season.
what is sss-class revival hunter about?
kim gongja (name literally translates as confucius) is a young hunter in a world occupied by the 'tower', a large series of dungeons that people can enter if they forsake all earthly connections in order to challenge the monsters within. in this world, he is a failure, a f-class hunter with no special abilities, capable only of bitterly envying the #1 hunter: flame emperor yoo sooha.
one day, his envy manifests into an sss-class skill, the highest possible level skill- unfortunately, there's a catch. the skill stipulates that he can steal a skill from someone, but only if they kill him. despondent, gongja gets drunk and wanders the city, only to accidentally witness a crime perpetuated by yoo sooha, who immediately murders him to ensure his silence. in death, gongja is given a choice to steal sooha's abilities, and accidentally but fortuitously chooses an ability that allows him to wake up 24 hours earlier every time he dies, allowing him to make use of the combination of his abilities. he proceeds to hatch a plan to gain revenge and challenge the tower, discovering the secrets that lie behind its seemingly random challenges along the way.
huh...this sounds pretty grimdark and edgy, i'm not sure i'll enjoy something like that...
LET ME TELL YOU MY SWEET CHILD...i ALSO thought, when first reading, that this would be an incredibly boring revenge power fantasy featuring a grimdark edgelord protagonist. however!! the entire point of sss-class revival hunter is to subvert that character trope, and it does it MASTERFULLY.
let me explain.
while, at first glance, the plot of ssscrh seems to be setting up kim gongja as your typical edgelord protagonist who doesn't need any friends or emotions, the reality is...quite the opposite. in fact, despite his initial motivations, gongja's motivations are to gain recognition through authenticity, and to help people in ways that yoo sooha never did. fundamentally, sss-class revival hunter is a story about human connection and empathy, and more often than not chooses to showcase the best of humanity through having its protagonist giving people a chance to be good.
so it's about the power of friendship?
it's more accurate to say it's about the power of understanding, but yes, friendship factors heavily into it! gongja's skill allows him to steal abilities from those who've killed him, but there's a penalty - he has to witness the 'trauma' of those people, and understand why they've come to be the way they are. as his ability grows stronger, so does his immersion, and his ability to understand his opponents.
as you might expect, this leads to a lot of rumination on the ways that people are hurt by and become twisted from the world around them, and the book goes out of its way to point out societal and structural issues that cause suffering, rather than blaming individual events. the story isn't so sappy as to excuse every person who murders him, or every villain, but does make sure to show us how multifaceted they are.
not only that, but this book also has some of the most refreshingly reasonable character dynamics i've read in a while. everyone…is reasonable? unlike in other dungeoncrawler works, most people is ssscrh actually act in believable, human ways according to their characterization. the guild alliances, in particular, are refreshing in how reasonable and willing to cooperate they are - if you're sick of random people being made into incompetent scapegoats so that the mc can make an obvious point as if it's gospel, then this book will be a breath of fresh air.
how dark does it get?
i'm not gonna lie - very dark! this book touches on not only the titular theme of suicide and death, but also other incredibly heavy themes around oppression and trauma.
in my opinion, the author is never too heavy-handed or overwrought with the heaviness of its subjects, and handles them with an impressive delicacy that shows compassion towards its subjects without making them caricatures of victimization.
above its darkness, though, ssscrh is fundamentally a story about hope in despair, and holding joy in the same hand that you hold sorrow. the dark themes are not here to titillate, but to make readers understand how difficult and profound it is that there are people in this world that have chosen happiness, despite everything. this book truly has every kind of catharsis you can imagine, and will yeet you through the equivalent of years of therapy in every volume.
okay, that sounds painful, but are there any lighter moments in the story?
oh, plenty. ssscrh is not one to wallow, and for every moment it makes you weep with the tragedy and beauty of the world, it will also make you scream with laughter at how ridiculous the characters are. i've made a post with a scene that made me cackle, and the story delights in the absurdity of the world as much as it cares for everything within it.
more than that, this story also has one of the most hilarious and incredibly strong and stable romantic relationships you will ever read about. i'm not going to spoil things, because i truly believe that this is something to be Experienced, but trust me when i say that gongja and his eventual partner made me scream with laughter and say 'oh my god you guys are INSANE' every time they have dialogue together. if you like malewife/girlboss dynamics, or time travel shenanigans, or overwrought battle couple proclamations of romance, you will ADORE this pairing.
why SHOULDN'T i read this book, then?
good question! as much as i'm obsessed with this book, i can't say that it's going to be everyone's cup of tea. some caveats are about the incredibly heavy themes being touched on, including:
- child abuse
- bullying
- poverty
- famine
- religious oppression
- racial discrimination
- cultural genocide
- mental illness
- slavery
...and more!
also of note that volume 4 of the webnovel centers around the development of an ancient society of various races aided by hunters having the deeply unfortunate name of 'race war'. i will say that it's not as bad as you're imagining, and handled with, if not grace, then clear thought, but yeah. yeah that made me wince too.
is there anything else that makes sss-class revival hunter worth reading?
if you're not convinced yet, here are a few notable quotes from the book that live rent-free in my head (no context or explicit spoilers but skip if don't want anything spoiled!):
- People don't just decide who they leave scars on. They also decide whose scars to wear. The common people you are trying to save will never be good. The crowd you have saved will never be honorable. The one you love will never be perfect. Even so, if you want to be hurt by everyone. If you are willing to give them your bare skin- think about how they scratch you with their fingernails, how they will hurt you even if they hug you too tightly. Life is pain, but that is only human suffering.
- If you mourn so much over accidental tragedies, you should celebrate accidental blessings just as much. The depth of one's sadness should be equal to the height of one's happiness.
- There's a 99% probability that the lover you meet will be a bitch [...] Similarly, you are also highly likely to be a bitch.
- Cynicism isn't childish in itself, [but] people who live while being cynical are childish. Fairness is childish, but the people who live fairly are not childish.
- Congratulations on becoming Cinderella, bro
anyways, please consider dedicating your holiday season to another stupid long book. you can find translations here and the manhwa here. please let me know if you've read/enjoyed it i'm losing my mind over here.
When the Sword Emperor says “Sorry but I lasted 130 years by myself” to cut against the Heavenly Demon’s Solitude Death but instead of it being a rebuttal of pain, his sword shows the ocean and birds singing and sunflowers and autumn leaves and it’s about the beauty and wonder and good of the world that you can find even alone.
ok i just saw someone comparing gongja to kdj and cale and like… what. how did you come to that conclusion.
no but while all of them are good, complicated people, gongja is just so much more… human than both of them? he grapples with morals, he’s genuinely selfish, he relies on the validation of others to feel good, but he’s also so incredibly determined and persistent and he genuinely wants to save people. basically im in love with him. anyways
cale and kdj both have this ongoing trope abt being in denial abt things. kdj refuses to think that people might care for him, or acknowledge the stress he puts on his teammates- and sure, he and gongja both die a whole lot, but kdj is much more abt sacrifice as a form of love and gongja is much more abt giving up now so he can save later. he uses death as an advantage, and- again, one of his key traits is his persistence. he dies, so he can try again, and again, and again, and again- as many times as it takes. he wants to live WITH the people he’s saved, so he can look around at them and take pride in the fact that he did this. he saved them.
cale is all about not acknowledging that he wants to do this, that he’s a good person, that his actions have and will continue to save people, that people care for him because he is a person who deserves caring for. he thinks of himself as self-serving, when really he has symptoms of severe depression and should really get that checked serves others. gongja is someone who believes in the reciprocation of love, and the beauty of relationships. he wants to be admired by people- especially people he himself admires. ‘the validation of those who may not be the best, but have the right to say that they’ve tried their best.’ he wants to be seen as a good person, and he wants to be a good person.
they’re all so completely different, and gongja is just. so much more relatable than them. also his mental state isn’t as bad, despite killing himself over 4000 times. somehow. (*shouting in the distance* ‘get therapyyyyy!’)
ugh. okay. sorry im just thinking abt gongja a whole lot today :/ it honestly doesn’t matter that much that someone compared them. really i am just insane and like analyzing character differences.
Hilarious that kim gongja is the only one of the self-sacrificial bastards to be canonically straight, has a relationship mid-novel, and actually end up married with a badass Queen. King shit 👑