This manga has everything that is wanted. Characters with depth, good art, great story and story progression, a nice balance between action and not action(?), historical value, comedy and social stuff which is natural.
In short, everything that most manga is not, it's what it should be.

The sword fights in this manga is just fantastic. It is the most amazingly detailed and realistic sword play I've ever seen in a manga. I'd be surprised if the author didn't have a background in martial arts or at least have done extensive research on it. The stances, the legwork, the sword moves are all either from real martial arts or based on real martial arts.

The only thing that comes close, would be the awesome sword fights in the Sword of the Stranger or Seirei no Moribito animes. This would be the manga (or Manhua) equivalent of those.

Some commentators have mentioned other sword fighting manga like Blade of the Immortal or Vagabond, but frankly this just knocks them out of the water easily. In those, the fights are mostly just the stereotypical "2 swordsmen passing by each other then one of the them falls over later" or "the hero fighting off enemies but somehow still standing even after getting slashed bloody hundreds of times" type scenes. In this, you see people actually use skills. Not bs magical skills, but real combat skills. They block, they parry, they deflect. They will use momentum to enhance their attacks, techniques to redirect the enemies' momentum. Legwork to dodge or surprise. They take into account things like the reach, weight and other unique characteristics of their enemies weapons and that of their own. And refreshingly even things like the calculating their chances of winning and the morale of the combatants. For sure these guys aren't the typical shounen heroes who brainlessly run headlong into everything. Another point of realism in this manga is that one solid hit with a sword you'd be severely injured, two solid hits and you'd most likely be dead. No unrealistic heroics here.

As for the story? Its great and multifaceted. There's no cliche good and evil here. The "bad guys" only crime is to follow the pure code of wuxia - to be the strongest martial artists ever. While they're merciless towards their enemies, they are also honourable to a fault. Meanwhile the people in the so called "good" faction would rather have peace over their somewhat forgotten wuxia roots. Even resorting to using underhanded tactics like poison or ganging up on people in a one on one fight. If a bad guy is willing to throw away their weapon to trade for an antidote to cure an unrelated poisoned civilian caught in the crossfire, are they still a bad guy? The interplay of ideologies and hypocrisy with a revenge driven quest is interesting to say the least.

Another thing I liked in this story is how the enemies aren't faceless minions whose job is show up and get easily defeated. The bad guys all have personalities. They're smart, capable and most of the time are actually more skilled than the protagonists! That's not something you see every day.

Lastly the author of this manga must be a genius because he came up with this revolutionary idea.... see the people in this manga don't shout out their techniques, they THINK it. Wow... what a concept. It always bugged me somewhat that people in other manga would shout out their techniques like idiots. But now you can convey to the reader what the characters are doing (without them looking stupid) by using think bubbles instead of speech bubbles! If there was a nobel prize for manga this man would deserve it.

Now some of you maybe wondering why I'm giving this manga an 8 instead a 9 or a 10 after all that praise. Reason? It's because its too damn short! I want MOAR! I read up to where its currently at in a matter of hours and I want to see what happens next. If it can keep up this level of quality later on, I'll definitely be upgrading the score and throwing some money at the author and translators. So until then, I guess oogling the smexy bishoujo is all I can do.

... Last updated on December 25th, 2017, 11:39pm

The art is amazing, the story has a lot of potential and is well-thought. The problem with all manhua is that there are extremely long, narrative texts in every page and there are hardly any dialogs. It's very tiring to read all this in order to get why this move or that move is so sharp and powerful and so on.

Average, and I have read all the chapters in hopes of it getting better. But it didn't the problem with it . It is going too slow, too many conflicts going on at the same time with too many characters and not enough development. In the beginning it was okay because there is a clear character and conflict but a couple of chapters later, dozens of characters were added in. It's a big mess and I'll take that challenge: I think what's above average would be stuff like Twelve Nights and Choukakou. Revenge with a few main characters that all have motivations from all sides of the story.

... Last updated on November 7th, 2013, 2:49pm

Well, my advice to you guys who said that this Manhwa is "average", please read again until the last chapter I would say. And if somehow you still call this "average", please enlighten me what kind of manhwa/manga that was "above average"...
Still, I appreciate any kind of opinion regarding this manga, and hoping that the manga discussion become more educating and enlighting. Have a nice read!

Many reviews here seem to indicate the story is quite average, and I agree at least for the first few volumes. As of volume 9 I can honestly say that I am quite looking forward to the next chapters.

As for the action, I think the quality and execution is concise and well done. My only complaint with the action scenes would have to be the large amount of naration explaining each movement.

If you enjoy martial arts manga/manhua than I definately recommend giving this one a read.

... Last updated on August 2nd, 2013, 3:38pm

Overall, I'm disappointed by this. The cover art is always nice but like somebody else said, the artist(s) doesn't really know how to convey the action well--that's a huge minus, as fight scenes are integral to a wuxia manga. The story, or perhaps the way that it's told, did not manage to sustain my interest within the first few issues, so I decided not to invest in this series any more.

It is obvious that the art is top notch but the story is definitely not "average." I understand why some of the users would think so.

I've watched and read chinese wuxia dramas/novels way before I read my first manga and I think the readers who are not familiar with the Jianghu world will mostly think the story is average. Like when I first read a samurai manga (Vagabond) and thought the story was average (ridiculous, I know). Blood and Steel has a very unique story in a well-established Jianghu world and has potential to be something great. A good example is the author's decision to use Wudang as the antagonist group. Never in any wuxia story has the Wudang sect considered to be evil/violent/power hungry.

I will be writing a review/backstory for Blood and Steel soon and hopefully it will shed some light on why the story is above average. I have been waiting for a great wuxia manhua for a long time and I wouldn't be surprised if this gets adapted into a drama.

I truly like how this series illustriate some martial things, and how its drawn... Even I agree some negative things given I think this series got that something and this will just get better! definitly worth a following!

well this one have amazing artwork like some other Manhua titles
great storyline although its not focused on some main cast
the only negative is the naration thought not as bad as some other Manhua titles
after reading till ch46
I can say that this became my favorite historical/fighting title
after the end of Blade of the immortal and dropping/hiatus Vagabond
this title can be compared to these and thats something a few titles can do

... Last updated on September 13th, 2013, 8:14am