Aru Character Review

Hello!

SPOILER ALERT

I’m certain that I will get a whole lot of hate and both logical and illogical comments contradicting this, but that’s okay. , this is MY OPINION!

Refund High School Summary

Four teenagers die in a car crash at the same time, and all four are sent to a place known as Reincarnation/Refund High School where they must earn karma to be reborn.

I. Who Is Aru Kim?

II. Relationships

III. First Impressions

IV. Why Aru is a Badly Made Character

V. Why “Maru” Will Never Logically Work

I. Who is Aru Kim?

Before Refund

Aru Kim is the main protagonist of the WEBTOON series Refund High School by LICO. At the start, Aru Kim is a nineteen-year-old female that only wishes for a boyfriend, more specifically, an insta-star known as Gunn Ryu as a boyfriend. Aru’s mother often compares Aru to Aru’s cousin, and about how her cousin is successful while Aru is not. She is often frustrated by the lovey-dovey couples and children around her, including dragonflies (?), and is embarrassed by her mother when her mother yells that Aru is forever single out loud.

Aru had a pretty easy-going personality before she died. She got jealous easily, and attempted to comfort herself in her mind, but god was against her and almost instantly destroyed her ego again with the fact that she was one of the few single beings that existed.

During Refund High School[Present]

Aru continues to be the main character of Refund High School after she dies. The other main characters are Gunn Ryu, the old insta-star, Sehui, Mar, Sua and Mook. The group of four: Aru, Sehui, Mari, and Sua are good friends as well as roommates. Aru dated Gunn for awhile, but broke up with him after she was yelled at by him for ruining his pictures. She also felt constantly rejected in the relationship. At first, Aru missed their old “sweet” relationship while Gunn tried (and failed) to mend their relationship. Aru eventually got over it. Mook is shown to care for Aru, and would qualify as her friend.

Aru is currently shown to be extremely forgiving and kind to others, and even has a fan club for herself. Aru often jumps to conclusions then doubts herself. She continues to have the dream of having a nice boyfriend when she’s in Reincarnation High School. She is described to have “puppy dog eyes”, “lips like buttons”, and “a nose like a grain of rice” (the organs-eyed cyclops dude). He claims that “she’s simply a perfect beauty”.

II. Relationships

Gunn

Gunn was Aru’s first boyfriend ever (life and afterlife). Due to his bad attitude and treatment, they broke up. She originally thought Gunn was sweet, but after being cropped out of many photos and getting yelled at, she gave up on their relationship. She missed their relationship for a while, but eventually forgot about it and accepted Gunn as a friend.

Mari

To put it simply, Mari and Aru are friends. There’s not much going on between them, but they’re roommates and good friends.

Mook

Aru and Mook consider each other as friends, and Aru has helped Mook a couple times before. Mook has saved Aru’s life two times (?). He’s shown to care for Aru. They help each other out.

Sehui

Another good friend of Aru’s, Sehui is a kind, beautiful person. There isn’t too much going on between Sehui and Aru either. They are roommates as well.

Stretch Nam

A tall, slow, friendly, unreliable person. Stretch Nam can’t notes for Aru and Gunn in class. She do blocks the board in front of Aru. Either way, the two are on good .

Sua

Sua is another roommate and friend of Aru’s. She’s often seen dripping water everywhere, and has a fear of water. She’s protective of Aru and gets mad when someone tries to hurt her friends.

Yeohee

(my favorite character in the series)

Yeohee is shown to be rude to Aru, and has a manipulative personality. She tripped Aru in a race and tried to separate Aru and Gunn multiple times. She wears lots of makeup. She also owns a book called “Understanding Women” even though she herself is a woman (that’s why I like her).

III. First Impressions

My first impression of Aru was based on the first episode. I initially was okay with Aru’s character. She was much more relatable. She had no boyfriend, a bunch of worries, jealousy, a strict mother, a rude failure of a brother, and so on. I originally thought that Aru was a well made character that could be related to, but boy was I wrong. She’s getting worse and worse, and the author is trying too hard to make her perfect.

VI. Why Aru is a Badly Made Character

Mary Sue

Mary Sue

adj.

A Mary Sue is an idealized and seemingly perfect character. Often, this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment

Credits to: Wikipedia

^the first source I found^

Aru is most certainly Mary Sue. This can’t even be an argument, since this is a legitimate fact. Ever since she died and entered Reincarnation High School, she’s been so nice, forgiving, beautiful, popular, etc.. She even has a fan club. She’s always smiling and someone else will say “Oh she’s so pretty” or something like that. Let’s be realistic here, who doesn’t say anything at all to someone who purposely trips them? “Oh it’s okay, I just got tripped by Yeohee, but it doesn’t matter since I’m a nice person.” That’s basically what happened. That’s extremely unrealistic. How many people will you meet that can go from jealous of everything to kind, forgiving, etc. just by forgetting everything? Your personality is your core, that can’t be changed. Look at Mari for example, she’s still as rude as ever, although she’s learned from her past mistakes.

If anybody wants to know what Mary Sue is, look at Aru. Here’s a small example.

Aru is:

Brave

She ventures out into the night out of pure stupidity and gets herself stuck on a rock in the middle of lava

Beautiful

As said by so many

Athletic

She competed in the race

Loved

Gunn

ired

Fan Club

Heroic

Sike, jk she’s a scaredy-cat

Modest

She’s humble

Kind

Too nice, very annoying

Talented

No not really, but she somehow attracted a fan club

But There Are Other Mary Sue Characters, and Other People Like Them?

Short Answer: They’re actually funny

Short Answer 2: Aru sucks

Little but longer answer: They have more unique traits incorporated into them along with their Mary Sueness. Either that, or their purposely made Mary Sue just for a laugh or something. The point it, they have more story. Mook is another example of a Mary Sue character, but for some reason, even people who don’t like Aru (me and a few others) are okay with him or like him, for unknown reasons. There’s just some part of his character that we like.

I’m personally okay with him, but I believe I’ll end up disliking him soon. He’s getting too close to Aru.

Was She Ever a Good Character?

No. Even in the beginning when I mentioned that she seemed relatable, she was still a pretty bad character. She was extremely generic and obsessive. Even more popular characters like Shin-Ae are generic, although they are better character due to their humor and how they play a part in the storyline. Plus, they aren’t “perfect” beings like Aru.

Will She Ever Become A Good Character?

Lolololol NO

V. Why “Maru” Will Never Work

If this so-called “Maru” comes true, then this author will be considered a seriously shitty author in my opinion. :0 Strong word, right? That’s for a good reason.

Their Goals Are Completely Different

In the episode with their wishes, the idiot known as Aru decided to wish for “a good boyfriend”. Why is this stupid? Well, a good boyfriend isn’t happiness. Ffs, money is happiness compared to “a good boyfriend”. What if that good boyfriend is a bad, irresponsible husband? Smh Aru, such a dumbdumb.

Mook wished to be a dragon (I think). We saw his dragon form in that whispy smoke thing, so most readers, including me, believe that he wishes to be a dragon.

Now, lookie here you Maru shippers. Their goals are so different. I doubt Mook gives a crap about whether Aru wants a boyfriend or not. So, why do you readers ship him? Because he was the original icon. No offense, but what are you, idiots? Just because he’s an iconic figure for Refund High School doesn’t mean you hardcore ship him with the main character.

”Oh but they’re so cute together.”

You’d say the same thing if Gunn was the icon and he had never broken up with Aru and her “puppy dog eyes”.

They Have No Reason to Be Together

”But Aru needs a good boyfriend!”

Sure, maybe she deserves some dude like Trump as a boyfriend, but not Mook. Mook is too good for her. Mook doesn’t appear to have interest in a relationship, he just wants to be himself, and Aru basically wants to be a prostitute to “good” men.

#TLUCC

#WWW

All picture credits to LICO