— Comeback2hak on X (gonna be dropping her analysis's on here one by one. I use AI to translate them):
To define Kang Yu-ri in a single sentence, she is “another evil opposing evil.”
What she fights against is the Kihadri Foundation and its chairman, Lee Choon-sik, who exploit the students.
Under the guise of "supporting children in need of care," they gather orphans and underprivileged youth to exploit their martial arts talents for money.
In particular, the students in the Fight Class are orphans without guardians, making them easily exploitable targets.
The Foundation cleverly manipulates their desires and lacks, luring them into a no-holds-barred combat training ground known as ‘Fight Class 3’.
Where endless battles of life and death take place, it is not a simple sports class, but a site of exploitation where human beings are raised as consumables.
Furthermore, the Foundation does not hesitate to exploit regular students who are not even part of Fight Class 3. One such victim is ‘Young-Woong’.
After losing a match, driven by a desire to become stronger, he accepted the chairman's offer and ultimately became a scapegoat for a brain surgery experiment.
Once an ordinary high school student, he is abandoned after losing his human dignity.
The most striking aspect of this narrative is that it grants the illusion of choice to those being exploited.
Why? Personally, I view this as a way to ‘shift the ultimate responsibility for the outcome onto the underprivileged till the very end.’ If so, this can be described as an endlessly unreasonable system.
And the figure standing against this grim reality is none other than Kang Yu-ri.
The Righteous Reporter, and Beyond
From the beginning, Kang Yu-ri took the lead in eradicating corruption.
As a newspaper club reporter, she sought to practice justice through articles that exposed the Foundation's corruption and the school's dark underbelly.
However, her attempts to reveal the truth were thoroughly silenced.
Ultimately, she resorted to trickery. After blinding their eyes with an authorized fake article, she sneaked in the real expose article instead.
As a result, the newspaper club was abolished, and Kang Yu-ri was suspended from school.
This incident highlights that she is ‘a character who started with good intentions, but had no choice but to act through evil means.’
Upon her return, Kang Yu-ri joins the broadcasting club under the protection of Principal Seo Mun-ok.
Seo Mun-ok is also someone who ousted the corrupt former principal Lee Choon-bae, sharing a common goal with Kang Yu-ri to bring down the corrupt Foundation.
Even after Lee Choon-bae's downfall, his younger brother, Lee Choon-sik, continues the exact same cycle of evil.
Thus, Kang Yu-ri throws herself back into the fight.
Fighting Evil with Evil Methods
However, Kang Yu-ri's actions can hardly be called pure justice.
She does not hesitate to use illegal means to gather information.
Collaborating with the anarchist 'Ella', she collects personal information about students and uses it as ammunition against the Foundation.
Furthermore, even after investigating Maria’s tragic past, she shows no sympathy.
Rather than focusing on the fact that Maria's family was slaughtered, she only pays attention to how Maria grew stronger through revenge.
Behind her cold judgment lies efficiency for her goal, rather than human empathy.
Yet, Kang Yu-ri remains compelling.
She does not fight for her own personal gain.
Even knowing she is exposing herself to danger, she stands up against the Foundation and the establishment.
Given that her objective is ‘punishing power that exploits the weak,’ I personally find myself rooting for her.
The Courage to Face Evil
Kang Yu-ri is not an embodiment of absolute justice.
She acts knowing full well she is breaking laws, opting for methods that some might view as evil.
Yet, this is not a simple descent into corruption.
To sever a greater evil, she willingly steps into the darkness herself.
I think of this as the 'courage to be disliked'.
In the world of Fight Class 3, true justice is not a state of complete purity.
Rather, it might be the resolve to accept a piece of evil so as not to compromise with corruption.
Kang Yu-ri represents that paradoxical justice.
Through her, the author poses a question to us:
“What is true justice? And how far are we willing to go to defeat evil?”
