About the Mangaka
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About the Manga
I reviewed volumes four and five some time ago, since they were released by Yen Press. I tracked down the earlier volumes that were released by IceK, but honestly had no desire to read them. Since I knew how bad it was going to end I had no reason to go back. Months went by and I finally decided to re-read the entire series…
Sadly my disappointment over this series reaches an all new height after reading the first three volumes.
The thing is this series literally oozes potential and mystery right up to the last page. The story is interesting, as it melds real history into fantasy and Park does it well. The character development is great though I felt that the focus was to much on Chiwoo and not enough on the other characters.
I like the way we get hints and bits of Chiwoo’s potential, and the way his power bursts out both spectacularly and softly. As in the first time it happens he blows up spectacularly, destroying a town in the process. Other times it’s more subtle, as in moving while unconscious or pulling off moves with a sword.
Oddly, through out the entire series there’s no indication of Chiwoo ever learning how unique he is. I found this a refreshing change from the series where the hero starts off as zilch, learns he’s a super god and then grows. Chiwoo knows nothing, and is kept in the dark throughout the series.
It was awesome watching him struggling to learn and stay alive thinking he was nothing more than a normal mangnani.
It was further made interesting by the ‘adults’ around him knowing the truth and actively going out of their way to keep him in the dark, while at the same time trying to teach him things he needs to know.
Sadly this excellent story isn’t without it’s faults. It suffers from some serious time skips. You’ll be in a fight scene one minute and the next sitting around the camp fire having breakfast. These time slips are damned annoying, but thankfully don’t happen very often.
The other aspect that is flawed is in Lee’s art. It reminds me of Croquis Pop with it’s style. However it gets ‘blocky’ and weird as the volumes progress. I wouldn’t say I hated the style, but it does take some getting used to.
However the area it fails in is cluttering. It’s not so bad except in fight scenes where the panels tend to end up overly crowded and thus hard to follow. It’s very annoying to have to skip entire pages that you can’t really see what’s happening because of all the buildings and other stuff in the way.
Sadly it fails in the fact that it doesn’t go anywhere. The first three volumes are spent building Chiwoo up with loads of dark story. However because the story literally just stops in mid swing, it doesn’t go anywhere.
You’re left wondering just what the hell is going to happen, where all that build up and innuendo has gone. In this respect it’s similar to Banya, which ends without really wrapping anything up despite all the hints of a deeper story.
IceK did a great job with this series for the three volumes they released. Nice covers (better than many other publishers), keeping the colour pages, and a good smooth translation. They also kept the names of thing, such as the weapons and moves intact. Adding translation notes, which was both good and bad.
For me at least Korean is a hard language, and some of the names and stuff are damned hard to figure out. There are also chapter texts putting the story in a historical context. Unfortunately initially IceK messed this up, and the background image, which should be faint, was to strong and blurs the text making it hard to read.
Sadly I’m leaving this on my Junk Pile. It’s a good series and worth reading, but due to the way it’s left hanging I can’t recommend you buy it. Better of borrowing it from a mug friend who bought it, or get your library to get it for you. However if this series is ever picked up again and finished it would definitely have a place on my Essential Read list.
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