I have read many manga's and I have been impressed before. However this manga is what truly made me remember why i read manga. That is to be taken away to another world and honestly be astonished and amazed.

This manga takes you on a journey like no other. The story involved in this manga is wonderfully thought out. Everything flows perfectly at the right time just when you need it. You can tell the amount of time spent planning and putting together a story, as intricate and beautiful as this one, is very long. The story seriously pulls you into another world. The connection you have with this manga is story. You will feel every emotion from complete bliss to agonizing sorrow as the plot unfolds. This manga takes you on a psychological trip, where you will question right or wrong, or ever your very existence. This manga goes through many morals, just what exactly makes us human will be questioned. You will tear, you will laugh, you will hope, you will be shocked simply put you will feel attached to the manga.

The way this manga presents itself is beautiful. The artwork is wonderful. Though there are times when something gruesome happens (to be honest there were a few scenes, very few, which were disturbing so please keep that in mind) it adds to the story and characters. Even though it may seem repulsive at times, the amount of beauty in the other scenes more than enough makes soothes your mind. The art captures the essence of the characters and their situations perfectly. It perfectly adjust to the situation at hand. If there is something funny, they look hilarious, and when something serious comes up the art hits the spot in getting the detail in every panel. Simply put, this manga is visually is marvelous.

The characters in this manga, wow, I can't really talk about. Every character was so great in their own way. Each character has their own back story which is so deep that they could have their own manga's if they wanted too. When the story continues you will realize the importance of each and every character. The lead Munsu is wonderful. He appears cruel and heartless, however.... READ to find out. I really just want to talk endlessly about every character in this manga but i do not have the time. I absolutely cared for every character.

All in all, this manga will shock and awe, astonish and amaze, and bring you to a world you wouldn't believe. Shin Angyo Onshi will inspire many. It hits everything perfectly. I have given out 10's before, but this manga is one where I believe truly deserves this 10. This manga is special. (After finishing reading I went out and bought all 17 volumes!) I wish i could go on forever and try to tell everyone in the world how amazing this manga is but that is impossible. I know I will never read any other manga as great as Shin Angyo Onshi. So I end by saying this is an absolutely, positively the best manga, that every person should pick up and read. I recommend this to anyone so please read this manga and take yourself through an amazing journey.

....ABSOLUTE JUNSHIN!!!

... Last updated on September 11th, 2009, 6:33pm

I have completed this manga in a personal record amount of time, since i picked it up. In fact, i have finally registered on this site (which i have been using for years!) just because i really wanted to input some feedback and my strong lasting impressions of this very accomplished and fabulous manga.

Honestly, this is definitely one of the most memorable and best manga that i have ever read, despite being 17 volumes long, but you will really never see it coming, until it's already over. Don't agree? Read on... It is very fast-paced and there is really no pages or space lost, as every single page delivers new actions or emotions. It is an absolute pleasure to read. Don't get me wrong, it is NOT rushing through the story, but it certainly does not allow any slackening in the reader's interest. Shin Angyo Onshi has that single ingredient that so many other mangas have tried so hard to accomplish -- make the reader care for the characters. And this is beautifully accomplished in this story.

As the story unfolds, you quickly get pulled into this fascinating world and start to care about the characters, as you learn that neither of them have had an easy life before we finally meet them at some point where the manga's story starts. Don't worry, the author covers the past of each of these characters rather cleverly, whenever a particular character takes center stage in the story. So, this does not keep the actual story on hold, while going over the past of the main characters. There is an enthusiastic feeling of adventure and discovery as you follow the protagonists when they move on throughout their journey, meeting up with varied mysteries and it keeps getting even more gripping as the truth and solution is revealed. The authors could have really pulled this one for many more volumes, had they wanted to. There is always the possibility of having more side stories, but the story in this manga has been adequately sized to keep the main story going without losing focus on the ultimate final conclusion of the story. This demonstrates the great care and attention that have gone into the script, and the authors being Korean, makes that they have had to overcome bigger challenges than Japanese authors normally do, as they interestingly explain and justify the choices and logic in the story at the end of each volume.

As you might also notice, some of the scenes and creatures in the big battles, have struck me as having a rather close resemblance to the Lord of the Rings, especially the last sequel; The return of the King. However, that's about the limit of where you can compare this manga to any Hollywood movie ever made. In the final battle encompassing the last 2 volumes, the creatures and the story's setup, are very cleverly stringed together to give a vivid image of the battlefield. You can never really guess the outcome of each battle, as everything is spanned on the pages to give a real-time sort of impression, as the different main characters deal with their part of the battle.

I very highly recommend you read this. It is something that you will read and will not put down until you have ravaged every page of the manga, including its side stories, which have been all been completely translated into English (Huge Thanks to all the translators!).

The authors of this manga, particularly impress me, as it is obvious and clear that they have really been pouring all their time and efforts into this work. The story is one of the very best i have read, as it always manages to keep that last element of surprise, so you really never know what's going to happen next. New twists happening when you least expect it, and i was especially fond of Munsu's Sando, and his entertaining Bang Ja. The characters will mark you for a long time after you have read this manga. Sando especially. She adds a heart-wrenching/warming side to the story and you really get pulled into the whole Shin Angyo Onshi world. The planning of the story (which also combines various episodes of the main protagonist, as he and his followers explore the world) is extremely well written and illustrated in an equally clever way. My only little regret, is that in some scenes, Sando could have been drawn better, with more realistic curves, but maybe that's just me caring a bit too much

I rate this a perfect score.
The ending is great and unexpected as well, as is everything in this surprisingly good Korean manga.
I might re-read this, after i read the other works from the same authors. Just to take all my time this time and appreciate every little detail in the drawings leisurely, as the first read will probably make you turn the pages like crazy!

... Last updated on January 26th, 2009, 10:45am

I had to sign in just to comment this manhwa, 'cause all the critics I've seen are "there's no personal development", "Berserk is much better", "clichée ending" blah blah blah.
First of all, this is a manhwa, if you want to read a typical manga, don't read this. It's based losely on korean culture, don't expect it to be the usual "the strongest/most determinated wins all, some kind of miraculous twist happens because I'm such a badass" story, pllllease, go read shounen manga if you want that...
And the comparison to Berserk! For god's sake! There is nooo comparison! The only similarity is the demon like enemy, that's all... There aren't naked women or rape at EACH CHAPTER like there are in Berserk (don't get me wrong... Berserk is good in it's own way, but after six/seven volumes or so you're already expecting a rape in the next five pages...), and he isn't fucking damn invincible, he uses his BRAIN, and there aren't gratuitous violence and miraculous comebacks all the time.
Anyway, this is a story about MUNSU, not about Sando, Bang Ja or whatever. Sando, for ex., is a inocent, weak minded country girl... to me, her ending were fitting, giving the amount of chapters; Bang Ja were just comic relief, the author said so himself. The only one I really felt sorry for was Won Sul, it was just tragic.
There's a lot of flashbacks, and it takes a while to understand. There are a lot of enemies changing sides, but you kind of get it, they were "monster like" soldiers who lived to battle/be ordered around; AND they were completely helpless against Aji Tae. So, give me a break, what were they supposed to do? Say "I'll kill you!" and have their head exploded in the next five seconds?
Finally, Munsu is a hella nice antihero, don't expect him to be a nice guy like "i'm invencible", "the world is great, just keep on believing!". He's a realistic guy, he just loses it when it's about Aji Tae (with reason).
So, I'm giving it a 8, 'cause the art, the story, the strong kickass women and the main character kept me interested 'till the end. The only flaws to me are some random dialogues used to make you feel one way now so that in ten chapters ahead you totally change your view. It's a trick used a little too many times in this manhwa.
Overall, I liked it a lot, I couldn't stop reading until the end. It's refreshing, and it didn't make me roll my eyes like most of shounen/seinen series does oh so many times to me nowadays (and stop comparing everything to Berserk! It gets annoying after a while!).

... Last updated on February 26th, 2013, 6:54am

But not everyone will, as shown by this vitriolic fellow RexIX below me.

What he says doesn't completely lack merit. The manwha is very psychological (not horror psychological, its just a lot of things have more to do with the mind rather than some kind of crazy celestial power or something), and a lot of what goes on is deliberately left unexplained for a while, but if you bear with it, it becomes clear. A lot of things are heavily influenced by people believing things and force of will, not like pure power, like in Bleach for example. If anything, this manhwa is NOT straight forward.

I, personally, understood the characters choices rather easily once events became clear, but that's just me. If you think the ending is cliched, there's no help for you, in fact I really don't understand how you could possibly think the ending was cliched at all. In fact, its probably the least cliched ending that I could think of (thats good anyway)...



*deep breath*
*exhales*

If you're the kind of person who likes a Fairy Tail like "friends" thing going on where everything turns out great, this manwha is not for you. If you don't mind a little convolutedness, then go for it. I loved it.

Well ! Never read any manga which had super good story like this one. It was somehow hard to understand at first. At about vol. 11 or 12, it explained the whole story , at that time, you will know how good it was.I like the main character, he was super cool man and the way he talk, act is unique,never seen once alike.The the ending is super sad.Really recommend!!!!!!!!!!

One day being bored I read this because it was on my wishlist... I never thought I'd be blew away so randomly. I don't have many words to say but it was beautiful. I could see the emotions in the characters, and the plot got to me. This manga is easily one of the greatest I have ever read.

The core concepts in this manga are doubt, self-reliance and relativity. Specifically, how doubt can corrode will and concentration, how self-reliance requires pain, and how different people can view the same perspectives wildly differently.



It's not a perfect manga--sometimes the slapstick humor occasionally falls flat as a platitude surrounded by otherwise novel devices, and Sando's S&M hooker outfit surviving to the last chapter is totally bufeddling, but the art is gorgeous and the story unique enough to make up for it's saving graces, and beyond.

As a post-script, this manga's comparisons to Berserk are absurd. Their similarities are: a) dark, b) demons, c) resolve of main character, but the themes, styles, content and premise are wholely different.

This series made me shed tears TT_TT
I'm not sure what I can criticize. The author was extremely successful in creating characters with depth, while maintaining an intriguing and motivated storyline. This manga was really a page turner for me (as are the author's other works). There is a fantastic blend of humor and tragedy that contributed to making this one of my favourite mangas of all time.

... Last updated on February 16th, 2014, 2:15pm

I really enjoyed this series from beginning to end. It's sort of episodic at first, but it doesn't take too long to get into the main plot. The story is really rather common good vs evil fare, but it's interesting and well paced. The action is good, the drama is touching and there's just enough comedy to keep it from feeling overly somber.

The flashback arc, "Deeply Rooted Tree", which spans multiple volumes took me out of it at first, but it was well done and greatly developed the characters. The main story actually did move forward at the same time so I've no complaints about it.

The art is absolutely top notch. Most of the characters were well crafted and many were developed well enough to feel a real connection with them. However, some got a lot more attention than others that were really only touched on and I'd have liked a bit more information about them for added depth.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable series. It gets bonus points for being a good length; it's long enough to develop and conclude itself nicely without ever feeling too dragged out. It also gets bonus points for having Sando in it. Just because.

Well at first I was sceptical about this manga.I thought it will be a simple stereotypical shonen manhwa,but I was really wrong.The plot was a little slow at first.No specific backgrouund info was given and it was a sort of hero comes to towb-summons soldiers-defeats the bad guys-goes on to another town kinda thing.It seemed that way at first to me.But then the plot started to pick up speed and when it got to the part when we see what actually happened to Munsu in the past and reasons behind why he was fought as a traitor started coming to light,
and aspecialy his relationship with the girl he loved I was really addicted to it and
want more.It is sometimes difficult to judge if Munsu is a good or bad person.He isn`t the typical knight in shining armor protecting everything that lives.Sometimes his actions may seem cruel and wrong but thats because of his iron will to judge things coldly as they are and not to rely on ones emotions.Also the actions of some characters are portrayed from different angles and it often happened that to a character who seemed evil to me at first I started to feel pity.
In short this is one great manga with deep and I mean DEEP story and interesting plot.You will be a #$%#(insert disrespectful words here) if you dont read it!