Saving the girl he loves, by sacrificing himself Sahu pushes the girl he loves out of the way of on coming truck and is killed. But Sahu has a second chance to life, and to tell the girl he loves how he feels, but unfortunatelyhe has to do all that as a zombie. And now he's trying to survive in a stone jungle, believing that one day he will sing for the world.
Wake Up Deadman is Korean Webtoon by Kim Yong-hwan, who is also the author of A Fairytale for the Demon Lord.
Provides examples of:
- Came Back Wrong: While Sahu is happy with his second chance, he's not happy that he's a rotting zombie.
- Most zombies share the sentiment.
- Childhood Friend Romance: While Sahu had romantic feeling for her, it's unknown what Yu-Hyeon felt for him.
- Delicate and Sickly: Ju-Hyeon is waifish and suffers the occasional nosebleed. It's revealed she have a terminal brain tumor.
- Despair Event Horizon: Skull's past. Having come back from the dead as a zombie, his best friend welcomes him with open arms only to betray him later to the police. When he goes to see the girlfriend he came back for, he finds her in with another man. He kills her out of anger.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Sahu dies in Ju-Hyeon arms after saving her from an oncoming truck.
- Dissonant Serenity: The doctor tends to act quite cheerfully at some quite inappropriate times. Hogan-Ajeossi comments that Doc treats picking over corpses for zombie parts is most like grocery shopping to the good doctor.
- Driven to Suicide: Ju-Hyeon, is introduced trying to commit a suicide before Sahu stops her.
- An unnamed girl that hanged herself only to return as a zombie, still restrained by the noose.
- Eye Scream: PlayedForLaughs, Sahu and Ju-Hyeon tend to poke Skull eyes much to his anger, when they are annoyed by him, ironically him having Skull for head it shouldn't affect him.
- Non comedic example during Skull's battle with German Pinscher. Skull ends the fight by stabbing Pinscher through the head, destroying the eye.
- First-Name Basis: Everyone refers to Sahu by his first name, leaving his last name unknown. Most characters are this or known only by a nickname.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Sahu dies while saving his crush Ju-Hyeon. He gets better. Kinda.
- Hogan-Ajeossi tries this as well. It doesn't work. At least he survives.
- Sahu again in the second part. To save the other Ju-Hyeon, Sahu sacrifices one of his arms, dooming his ability to play guitar.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Dying from his injuries, Sahu calls Ju-Hyeon on bawling her eyes out, surprised that she expressed so much emotion for him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite how Skull treats Sahu, he clearly cares for him.
- Love Confession: Sahu's goal is to reach his old crush Ju-Hyeon and confess his feelings to her.
- Made of Iron: Zombies are much more resilient than normal humans and can take a lot of damage. They don't heal naturally though, so they can be destroyed, and over time they can fall apart.
- Special mention to German Pincher, who's very tough and resilient even for a zombie and was able survive a headshot, a grenade explosion, a sword stab through the head by Skull and multiple gunshots wounds.
- Meaningful Name: The name 'Sahu' is derived from 'sahue' which translates to 'posthumously'.
- Mood Whiplash: Any given scene can be PlayedForDrama and PlayedForLaughs Played For Laughs. Some go back and forth.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted, during his travel Sahu finds a girl that has the same name as his childhood friend Ju-Hyeon.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Sahu's friend Skull is usually refereed to as simply "Skull" or "Ajeossi", his real name is never spoken.
- Pet the Dog: German Pincher takes care of Ju-Hyeon after Sahu left her, and becoming her caretaker. He insists that he's taking care of her only because she's a human not zombie, but after he grows to care for her he admits privately he would prefer she become a zombie so her life can continue without suffering.
- He also spared the hanged zombie girl. He makes clear that his mercy will not last should she ever free herself.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: As Sahu and Skull board the train to leave the city, Ju-Hyeon chases after the train desperately begging him Sahu to stay with her in her last days. They stay
onboard.
- Two-Faced: The lower left half of Sahu's face has rotted away, giving him this look. However, he averts the usual implications of this trope as he's a flawed-but-sympathetic Nice Guy instead of a villain. (He manages to stay a White-Haired Pretty Boy.)
- What the Hell, Hero?: Sahu get's it from German Pincher for leaving Ju-Hyeon to board on a train to the city.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Fate that awaits everyone unfortunate to turn into a zombie. Since they are hated and feared by living humans they can never return to homes and lives they had prior to transformation. And are forced to live in hiding as they are hunted down by humans that want to kill them.
- You Remind Me of X: At one point Skull comments that Sahu reminds him of himself in his younger days. Skull stays with Sahu to keep Sahu from suffering the same tragic fate, and to keep Sahu from falling into the same despair Skull once did.
