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kyogre-blue · 1 month

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Roundup of manhwa I've been catching up on and/or rereading recently. These are unfortunately mostly on Asura Scans, so linking or bookmarking them is useless. I really hate that about their site.

The scores are in regard to what I expect of the overall genre, not general quality per se. I'm not expecting deep, profound writing here. The range is A to F, with A being an easy recommend, B having some flaws but also having some really strong points that make it worth reading, C being extremely average, not terrible but not really doing anything well enough to recommend, and D being largely a waste of time. F is for outright offensive. But there won't really be many failing grades on this list because I just drop them and forget lol. Plus minus is based on my personal enjoyment.

Return of the Disaster-Class Hero, ch74 - Rank: B+. I really enjoyed it, but it's just that the different aspects are overall passable to good (art, humor, battles), plus it has some presence given to supporting characters (Hugo, Sungjae) and relationships, which I happen to enjoy. Additionally, the story actually advances, which can't be taken as a given lol... Unfortunately, the manhwa has been on hiatus since Aug 2023 due to the artist's health and later passing. It's unclear whether it will continue, or how it will look or progress if it does.

The Novel's Extra, ch93 - Rank: C. I was initially going to rank it higher, but while the art is nice and the characters are passable, the pacing is a mess. I genuinely couldn't tell you what the direction of the story is even supposed to be, despite how many chapters it's been. Have we even advanced at all here? I sure don't know.

The Protagonist's Younger Sister, ch33 - Rank: B, though this notably has the lowest chapter count here by a wide margin. Cute story and I like the protagonist family. It's just that it has always updated very slowly, and I'm not even sure it's still updating, so the pacing feels dragged out even if it's actually fine as a whole. But like I mentioned separately, the story has only just passed basic setup, so I don't even know for sure where it's going in the long term.

SSS-Class Suicide Hunter, ch113 - Rank: A. If I have to pick a manhwa I consider most overall impressive among those I've read, it would probably be this one. It has a very strong sense of its protagonist and what it wants to say, and it uses very distinctive arcs with strong supporting characters to do it. The murim arc was obviously a standout, but I think the romance genre arc that is wrapping up was impressive in what it dared to do. They really said "yeah, the protag falls in love and gets married, this is part of his growth as a person." I genuinely did not expect that they would go through with it and let him actually stay married. That's a thing they did. In general, this is just a very solid story, and I hope they are able to adapt it in its entirety, though that will probably take years to come.

I’m a Martial Art Villainess but I’m the Strongest!, ch92 - Rank: B. This one has a female lead (and thus a prominent romance) but it also does a lot of fight scenes and training and stuff like that. The fairly unusual (in my experience) combination of elements works well for me, though the actual contents are fairly average, nothing amazing or terrible, just okay enough. I think my biggest take away aside from the genre combination is the ML's big boobas. I seriously want the MC and ML to bang, they deserve it.

Ending Maker, ch56 - Rank: B. Actually, this one hasn't had any progress since I caught up on the TLs a while back, but I wanted to note it. I like how much focus is given to the relationship between the MC and his love interest, and I don't really have any major complaints. However, I hope they're able to flesh out the plot going forward. It's been very "go to a place, get a thing" without really giving any major weight to anything that's happened, and the supporting characters haven't really left an impression either.

The Duke's Redemption, ch50 - Rank: B-. This one also hasn't updated since I caught up on it a while back, but adding here. Pros: strong focus on the relationship between the MC and the duke, setup for potentially interesting conflict with Serpens not being chosen as the hero per the OG plot. Cons: art is kinda mid, the actual story so far has been largely filler or not very interesting in and of itself. They've built up the foundation of Shion and Serpens as a relationship, but the stuff around that could have been done a lot better.

Doctor's Rebirth, ch150 - Rank: C+, though that's being generous tbh. It is the definition of extremely mid. However, it does make me lol at least somewhat regularly about how gay the entire supporting cast is toward the MC. Truly peak shounen experience. Whether it's his master, his master's assistant (love triangle), the original novel's demonic hero protag, secondary novel villains A through D... they all want him so bad. It's very funny to me personally.

The Extra is Too Strong, ch50 - Rank: D+. I'm adding the plus purely because I spend a lot of time lolling about how buff absolutely everyone is. This includes the one notable female side character and background female characters. That aside, I'm curious what they're going to do with the original novel's protag. He's mentioned several times and with quite a bit of detail about what his deal was, plus he has a non-standard design, so I feel like we will eventually meet him and something is planned for that.

Return of the 8th Class Magician, ch81 (complete) - Rank: C. I know there's other series with a very similar title, so to be clear, this is the one where the MC has long light brown hair (lol) and regresses uses dragon tongue. A complete story that has no particular flaws, but tbh I don't think it has any particular strengths either. The thing I remember most about it is that, around chapter 60 or so, there is a note from the artist that directly says they're about to start deviating from the novel they're adapting. Immediately the main villain is introduced, dragon lore gets updated, and the MC's father is brought up, so you can just tell, yeah, his father is going to be a dragon. And he is. I didn't have any issues with the manhwa-original (presumed) ending, it was done more smoothly than I would have expected, but the whole story just didn't serve anything to make me really excited. Fine read tho, if you've got some time to kill, and the MC is quite pretty.

Trash of the Count’s Family, ch121 - Rank: C. The art is nice, and I liked the initial sections, but the pacing is a mess and nothing meaningful seems to happen. The biggest issue is probably that the MC is just not a type I care for, and the supporting characters don't feel like they're fleshed out enough to stand on their own. The entire story, with over a hundred chapters, has been just endlessly picking up power-ups in preparation for the supposed war, but 120 chapters in and we're still not to the actual war, so... I do think that I'm finally seeing the appeal of the crown prince, so there's that.

The Newbie is Too Strong, ch90 - Rank: C-. This is also a pretty basic series, but the popoi are cute, the MC doesn't annoy me, and I am legitimately interested in the plot mysteries. Also, it does seem to be promising to introduce some recurring side characters in the future, so there is some room to grow.

Overpowered Sword, ch88 - Rank: C. It's a shounen, functionally. I enjoy it in a brain off way, and I will say that I first shipped Leon with Eclid, but now I keep thinking that Karen is good, I ship Karen. However, it has a weakness in that the arcs aren't particularly interesting in themselves. Not enough emphasis on fucked up backstories for the villains and new allies, I guess. Shounen runs on fucked up backstories.

Of All Things, I Became a Crow, ch107 (complete) - Rank: C+. This is a female lead transmigration romance. It's cute! I like it well enough and it's complete. Not really a lot else to say.

#reading manhwa

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