Quick Guide to This Review:
- 📚 Basic Info about the Work
- 🧩 How This Webtoon Made Me Feel
- 🎯 Ratings & Memorable Quotes
- 📘 Learn a Korean Phrase
- 🟦 Recommendations & Warnings
Official Summary
The following is the official description of “Dead Man Switch” from Tapas. It is provided here solely for reference. All rights belong to the original author and publisher.
We’ve all had that nightmare where we’re late for a test, right? How about the one where your teacher’s trying to kill you?! Just me, huh? Guess it’s only fair then that I woke up in an actual zombie-infested nightmare! Almost everyone on my campus has become a creepy, flesh-eating monster! Except for this one ax-wielding badass named Youngwon Ki. He seems perfectly fine with all the chaos. I’m glad he’s here, but I don’t get why he acts like we’re close!
✨ 1. Introduction (Mild Spoilers)
“Dead Man Switch” is a rare gem in the BL world: a zombie survival story with a time loop twist. That combo alone was enough to pull me in.
We open with Jung Houyun (the bottom) waking up in his dorm, only to realize his school has become a zombie-infested hell. Just as panic sets in, he’s rescued by Ki Youngwon (the top), who slays zombies with a medium-sized axe like he’s done it a hundred times before.
But something feels…off. Youngwon clearly knows Houyun—intimately even—but treats him coldly. He doesn’t explain anything, yet insists: “You can’t die.”
Turns out, Youngwon is the only one who remembers past loops. Houyun dies over and over again in each cycle, and Youngwon is desperately trying to save him and break the loop.
The setup sounds intense—and it is. But with only 67 episodes, neither the survival plot nor the romance gets enough time to breathe.
So is it worth your time? Let’s break it down.
ℹ️ 2. Basic Info
- Title: Dead Man Switch / 데드맨 스위치
- Author: (Original Novel) Eise 아이제 / (Adaptation) coinmint / (Art) gunbam 군밤
- Platform: Ridibooks (Korean), Tapas (English)
- Status: Completed (67 episodes)
- Tags: Zombie Apocalypse, Time Loop, Survival
- Top (Ki Youngwon / 기영원) – obsessive, unstable, survival expert
- Bottom (Jung Houyun / 정호현) – just a regular student (at first)
🧩 3. How This Webtoon Made Me Feel
“Dead Man Switch” was easy to score, but hard to write about in detail.
The characters didn’t feel contradictory—whether it’s the violent and ruthless Ki Youngwon or the sometimes brave but generally ordinary Jung Houyun, they both felt like people who could exist in this kind of story.
But I couldn’t really empathize with either of them. I didn’t feel any emotional highs or lows. It was like watching a movie I understood, but didn’t feel much about once it ended. The story wasn’t complex, and yet it just… didn’t leave much of an impression.
Youngwon has looped through this timeline too many times, and by now he’s clearly unstable. From beginning to end, he never really seems normal. His feelings for Houyun are complicated—he has to keep him alive in order to break the loop, but Houyun keeps dying over and over again.
To be honest, I couldn’t tell when or how he even fell in love with Houyun. There are a few steamy scenes in the middle, but they felt sudden and a little out of place.
As for whether Houyun ever falls for Youngwon? That’s even more of a mystery. If it’s just some affection from being saved a few times, that makes sense—but judging from his internal monologue, his feelings toward Youngwon seem more like confusion than attraction.
Rather than deep romantic love, it felt more like a strange emotional bond that formed from meeting in an extreme situation—a zombie apocalypse + time loop. The two of them shared the same goal: if they were going to escape, they had to do it together, and they had to break the loop.
Like I said in the introduction—67 episodes just isn’t enough. The author tried to include both survival and romance, but that made both feel shallow. As a survival story, it wasn’t particularly thrilling; as a love story, it didn’t make my heart race.
Overall, it felt just okay. Worth reading once, but I wouldn’t read it again.
🎯 4. Ratings
🎨 Art – ★★★★★
1. Perspective Mastery
One scene with Youngwon sitting on a staircase and Houyun standing beside him caught my eye—the angle and depth were so well done I had to pause. Staircases are notoriously hard to draw, but this one nailed it.
2. Body Anatomy
When characters are fully clothed, the art is clean. But in shirtless scenes? The anatomy, especially Youngwon’s back, is stunning. Great lighting, believable form—it’s the kind of attention to detail you’d expect from a high-end sports manga.
Faces, though, are less distinctive—nice, but not super memorable.
🎬 Story & Pacing – ★★☆☆☆
Season 1 follows Houyun, who knows nothing. The reader is just as confused as he is, and Youngwon keeps dropping cryptic lines without context.
The pacing is flat. There’s no real “training arc,” no thrilling fights, and the survival tension never escalates. The characters mainly hide or wander, and nothing truly happens.
Season 2 finally switches to Youngwon’s point of view, giving us backstory and motivation. This part was way more engaging, but it came too late.
And the ending? Abrupt. They escape in the last episode, with little explanation about the virus and Houyun’s immunity. It just… ends.
Even the spicy scenes feel awkward—inserted for fanservice rather than plot.
💬 Favorite Line
“넌 예쁜 짓을 너무 잘해.”
Houyun was acted cute toward Youngwon. Youngwon froze for a second, sighed, and said this.
[Translation]: “You’re too good at acting cute.”
📚 5. Korean Language Tip: What Does “예쁜 짓” Mean?
In the line “넌 예쁜 짓을 너무 잘해,” the phrase 예쁜 짓 is made up of the adjective 예쁘다 (meaning “pretty” or “cute”) in its modifier form 예쁜, combined with 짓, which means “act” or “behavior.” Put together, 예쁜 짓 refers to “a cute act” or “an endearing behavior.”
In this context, it’s similar to saying “you’re good at acting cute” or “you’re such a flirt.”
✔️ More example sentences:
• 예쁜 짓 하지 마. (“Stop acting cute!”)
• 너 예쁜 짓 잘한다. (“You’re really good at acting cute.”)
• 강아지가 예쁜 짓 하고 있어. (“The puppy is doing something cute.”)
🎥 This line will be featured in my 【Korean with BL Webtoons】short video series, episode #11.
If you want to learn how to pronounce it, don’t forget to follow me and practice together!
🟦 6. Who Should (or Shouldn’t) Read It
✅ You’ll probably like this if…
- You love zombie or apocalypse settings
- You enjoy obsessive, unstable tops
- You’re into psychological twists and trauma bonding
🚫 Maybe skip it if…
- You want a bottom who grows into a strong survivor
- You prefer a slow-burn or emotionally fulfilling romance
- You like your plots tied up with clear resolutions
🔚 7. Final Thoughts
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆
It’s a story that starts off slow, gradually builds up, but ultimately doesn’t deliver anything particularly memorable. The art is solid, but the plot lacks the impact to make it stand out.
Once is enough—I don’t see myself coming back to “Dead Man Switch”.
That’s all for today’s review of “Dead Man Switch”—what do you think? Leave your thoughts or questions below!
✍️ Got a webtoon you want me to review next? Drop it in the comments!
📌 Cover image source: Dead Man Swtich (데드맨 스위치) on Ridibooks . Copyright belongs to the original creator.
This site is intended solely for personal reviews and language learning.
If you have any copyright concerns, please get in touch via the [Contact Me] page — I’ll respond promptly.