The Uncanny Counter | Korean Drama Series Based on a Webtoon

The Uncanny Counter is a Korean drama series based on the Daum webtoon “Amazing Rumor” written by Jang Yi. The first episode of Season 1 aired on OCN, and internationally on Netflix on November 28, 2020. The series ran from November 2022 through January 2021.

The Netflix release date for Season 2 is near the end of July 2023. There is also a Season 3; however, there is no confirmed date for when it will be added to the Netflix database.

Explain the Levels and Why a Team of Grim Repears is Necessary

• The first question is: Why do you need a team of grim reapers anyway?
• The answer is: Because there are some evil spirits who don’t want to go to their Final Destination.

These evil spirits or demons roam the earth here and there and hop from body to body. Each time they find a new host body, they grow stronger. They advance in levels.

Level 1 and Level 2 are usually easy to catch and may not require a team IF the grim reaper has enough skills to subdue them.

But Level 3 evil spirits are a tad bit more challenging and may require the joint efforts of a well-trained team.

If the evil spirits ever reach Level 4 … they become immortal. That doesn’t mean that the team of demon hunters can not capture them. It just means that it won’t be easy.

Each member of the grim reaper team is called a “Counter”

How do Counters Blend in With Everyday People

The evil spirits don’t go around looking for grim reapers. They do their best to avoid them. But suppose I was an evil spirit trying to find a team of counters. The last place I’d look would be a noodle restaurant. Yet, that’s exactly where the Counters hide, in plain sight. Eonni’s Noodles is a restaurant that is so good it consistently has a long line of customers waiting to be served every day. The restaurant is run by 3 Counters:

• Ga Mo-tak, the assistant cook, played by Yoo Jun-sang (“Alchemy of Souls”);
• Do Ha-na, the server or waitress, played by Kim Se-jeong; and
• Choo Mae-ok, the head chef, played by Yeom Hye-ran.

How Do Everyday People Become Counters?

Each team member has a different tragic life story. The one experience that they all have in common is that they were in a coma near death. They would have died but they were visited by heavenly spirits in Yung who made them an offer.

• Continue living in the world, but no longer as themselves.
• Become Counters, each with special supernatural powers.
• Hunt down evil spirits in the world of the living and make sure they reach their Final Destination in the afterlife.

Who is the Uncanny Counter?

So Mun, played by Jo Byung-gyu, is an 18-year-old high school student. His parents had been killed in a car accident when he was 11 years old. He survived but his leg was badly injured, so he needed a cane to walk. Mun and his best friends were currently working on a superhero webtoon. Little did he know that he would actually become like a superhero.

Unlike the other Counters, So Mun was not in a comatose state. Nevertheless, the Yung spirit Wi-gen, played by Moon Sook, possessed his body because she sensed something “uncanny” about him. She sensed that he had an intensely sincere desire to save others, especially those dear to him, and a strong sense of justice. But since he was a student, he could only be a part-time Counter. Initially, his special powers were: superhuman speed, short-range psychometry, and the ability to sense evil spirits that enter Yung’s “Territory”. Later on, he acquired psychokinesis and the ability to summon the Territory with his own willpower.

(NOTE: The Territory is like a special force field that merges the energies of the human and dvine realms and boosts the special powers of the Counters. Even if the evil spirit is extremely powerful, once they are trapped inside the Territory, there’s no escape. The Counters will defeat them and send them to HELL!)

Counters Must Obey the Rules

There are Rules the counters must follow to maintain the balance between the world of the living and the afterlife. But they constantly break these Rules and are brought before the leaders in Yung to explain their actions. They always provide justifiable reasons. Sometimes tough decisions have to be made when they’re on “the job”. The goal is to subdue the evil spirit. Why obey a rule that limits them from achieving the main goal? The demons don’t care about The Rules! If the Yung leaders did not approve, the Counters are given Warnings and told that their powers will be taken away.

But there was one “exception” when the leaders gave the Counters permission to break the Rules. That was when evil people decided to hire evil spirits to do their dirty work! Can you imagine? Before the evil spirits would just take over a wicked person’s body and work through them. The wicked person didn’t actually give them permission. But in this exceptional case, the evil spirit and the evil person AGREED TO WORK TOGETHER! The current Rules in Yung were not made that type of situation. But no worries. The Counters had a plan and it would be carried out successfully in just 16 episodes.

• 5 Reasons To Watch “The Uncanny Counter” – kdramadiary

Should you stream or skip the Korean series #TheUncannyCounter on @netflix? #SIOSI

— Decider (@decider) December 9, 2020

Viewer Ratings

Overall, viewers were pleased with this series and gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I agree. It’s totally understandable why fans are excited about Season 2, the sequel, and Season 3, a prequel.