This story is basically identical to Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed The World but he has gotten better at hiding his bad habits. For Mad Snail, expect endless ass pulls, endless plot holes, endless plot threads that go no where, endless people pointlessly praising the MC, endless contradictions and endlessly cringey romance and social interactions where even the love interest is just another puppet there to praise the MC for doing things that shouldn't even be praised. He also likes to endlessly repeat the same Chinese idioms but I didn't notice it as much here but I don't know if that's due to the translator leaving them out or because Mad Snail finally learned something.

I could review his older story and you'd have a hard time knowing I wasn't reviewing TDG. MC dies and is reborn into the past with future knowledge. Future knowledge continues to be useful even when it shouldn't. Side characters are completely one dimensional and regardless of whether they are ally or foe, they exist just to prop up and praise the MC. MC asspulls super powers whenever they are needed and frequently forgets they ever existed. World building only serves to create contradictions and plot holes as the story progresses and plot threads with no resolution continue to breed endlessly. All social interactions of the MC make him seem like a sociopath and everyone just feeds into his psychosis. His relationship with his underage future wiafu is super cringey and pedo and he treats her like his personal possession, since they are fated to be together. Friends are just tools to show off his magnanimity and how much stronger he is, while enemies just exist to praise him and be seemingly impossible hurdles that he easily steps on. After going to the past, he immediately starts finding the magical McGuffin (chapters or pages, pick your story) that will make him instantly super powered to the point that no one can contest him, until they can and he just asspulls new super powers. Often, said McGuffin is forgotten about, until suddenly it's important again and fully assembling it is a task that will suddenly become important only at the very end, when MC needs to officially become a God to fight the Last Big Bad. I haven't read the ending of TDG but I'm sure he gets stupidly injured near the end and has to enter some kind of recovery montage where he rapidly gains power again and finally gets the final chapter/page of his McGuffin and becomes God like he did in the Thief story.

Honestly, Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed The World was probably the better read because it had an almost so-bad-its-good train wreck going. However, the MC really deserved to meet the same fate that sent him to the past to begin with, so the ending was exceedingly lackluster. It's obvious Mad Snail tried to hide his bad habits better with TDG but it just resulted in an even more bland and generic story. Also, he still ended up revealing his fetishes, even if he was slightly less blatant about it.

Edit: I forgot to mention but I have not read the novel for TDG and have no idea how accurate my predictions are and no idea if they qualify as actual spoilers, since they are a guess based off of reading Thief. I probably should mention I dropped Thief after chapter 925 because I read a spoiler summary about the asspull of him getting shot by a sniper (in spite of being able to dodge sniper bullets) and still survived. I would have been able to give mild praise to Mad Snail for the ending if he had let Nei Li, I mean Nei Yan, die from the sniper shot but he couldn't give the MC a fitting end and asspulled a magical recovery. I didn't bother to read the spoiler summary for the final chapters, so I don't know if he really became God or whatever but it's the prediction I made somewhere around the time he started collecting chapters and felt was written in stone a few hundred chapters later when an actual quest to become a god was introduced on top of him becoming Pope or whatever after finishing the book. It's possible Mad Snail had completely forgotten about the quest like so many others. Honestly, he doesn't need the official title of God because he already had broke OP powers long before then.

... Last updated on January 20th, 2020, 6:52am

if you read carefully, the story is very interesting ... but unfortunately there is something that can be said "very less" ... the main character is impressed only focus on the family of the woman he loves ... but does not care about his own family ... I think the author is less observant here. on one hand he remembers his father's sacrifice before ... but on the other hand ... he is even more busy teaching the family of his future father-in-law and never teaching his family (his own sister not taught only helped by being given strength, that's all) ... is a miracle (except interfering with the story's author ) if later his family arrived there would be survivors except, from his girl family ...

Thus shit just goes on forever without any plan. Just don't read it and save your time.

It's so boring. I feel like it's a waste of your life. There's another similar manga that's better(don't remember the name off hand). Literally nothing happens. Why does even the money have some magic name that it doesn't need. It redefines generic. It isn't average, but painfully mediocre. At least the main character has a nice colorful design.

It's truly a struggle to read.

If you're looking for nice fighting shounen read, this one does the job. I did not get a masterpiece feeling from this one (yet). There's still potential. However it kept me entertained through all the chapters. The art is decent as well.

... Last updated on July 19th, 2019, 12:31pm

Just another Mary Sue polluting the air...

The manga was quite interesting and it gets you hyped at first. The first few chapters are full of adventure and shocks and the way the MC handles the situation in Mangazuki and Guess I'll Die is admirable and amusing to watch.

I'm personally not a fan of this kind of shounen manga but this one had some great elements to it The only thing I believe it lacked was good character development. The idea was very simple and the character development can be slow. This manga might have had the chance of coming in the top 10 of all time and maybe we could have seen it among Naruto and one piece but characters development failed it

I don't know what all the fools are doing in this review section, throwing names and insulting eachother, comparing it to this or that... Let's just write a proper review for what it is instead.

So, this was actually my gateway into chinese novels and thus actually the novel world itself. At the time, I was all about japanese manga and japanese anime, I had never humored the thought of reading novels nor had I humored the thought of enjoying "delicacies" from other countries.

When I first got to this manga, it was just so damn fresh, it blew me away, I loved everything about it and I couldn't get enough. I had never seen anything like it. Thus I, desperate for more after reading the measly two dozen or so manhua chapters that were translated at the time, found my way towards the novel! Wow. After that, I spent day after day reading it until I was done and craving more enjoyment, I started a lengthy crusade, I mean, journey, to pillage all the novels on the internet! Ah, good times. By the way, go for the novel instead! Or rather, try another chinese xuanhuan or xianxia novel, because this shit has an author that is slower than a sedated sloth, we're talking about posting 1 chapter a year or something and then a very, very slow rate when he comes back(at which point the story isn't the same anymore because he obviously changed and forgot things about the story after being absent for so damn long!). Anyway, so, satisfy it to say that I was spellbound.

This doesn't mean that this is actually a super awesome novel. Look at my score. 6/10. That thing includes at least 1 point of nostalgic value and gratitude for introducing me to something so awesome.

No, this is actually a pretty damn generic and super cliché chinese novel. It has nothing that special to offer and it could even be called simple and subpar in many ways. However, what it does offer is a mild way to get used to the idea of chinese novels(or manga). It's pretty easy to swallow for people, there's no outrageous stuff going on here. The mc is just an OP as f*ck sage of 1000+ years acting like a teenager and dominating everything, always showing off how damn good he is. Things that you find in other chinese novels might be much more outrageous and hard to accept for newcomers, such as rape, murdering millions, extreme torture, brutality, horror, tragedy, pussy hunting, killing for petty reasons, revenge and hilarious moments where the obnoxious people you despise finally gets screwed over and killed, crippled or tortured, or why not all at the same time. Stuff like that is quite common. It's far, far more gruesome than japanese stuff, and I love that about it, it's a nice change of pace. Someone annoys you? looks at you the wrong way? Eyes your girl? Has shiny stuff that you feel you would be much more deserving of? Well, they'd better wash their necks because mr. forgive-no-slight is coming to get them, no more forgiving and acting like a doormat. I mean, after reading about that stuff a lot, you start wanting more extreme stuff, no longer the kinda gray-good guy but instead the crazy, insane bastards that does everything for their own profit, that type of mc(one example of many, "reverend insanity" where the mc kills an innocent girl, feeds her to a bear bit by bit in great detail, including bones which he forces the bear to eat, then kills the bear and refines it into a pill to advance in level, where he sacrifices his entire home village to level up, eats brains that tastes like ice cream of a still alive monkeys twitching in horror and pain, burns innocent twins alive in a fire to get a skill, chops a messenger up and sends him home in a box amongst many other things). Would you find that in japanese novels? Nah, not easily at least. By the way, avoid stuff like "reverend insanity" until you're well tempered... It's not meant for newbies that haven't strengthened their stomachs and acceptance ranges.

Well, in this particular manga(and novel), you'd get a guy that is a pretty nice guy compared to most mcs out there. He kinda wants to help those around him as he journeys to become stronger. He does kill, but it's never a big deal(unlike many other chinese mcs that seems to have an experience counter where they level up if they kill enough, wahahaha). He tends to have good reasons to do so as well. There's no torture that I can remember or anything else, overall it's a nice introduction to start with, for the absolute newcomer, I don't doubt it would be a 9/10 or 10/10. If you want another introduction that people usually start with, it's coiling dragon amongst others. I never liked that one since I tried reading it after already going through many novels, but if I had started out with it, I bet I would've loved it.

... Last updated on October 23rd, 2018, 4:15pm

This is actually my first Chinese Xuanhuan Manhua, or basically chinese fantasy which is the equal version of Japanese Isekai, I've read this because the manhua is so popular.

As much as I'm new to Chinese Xuanhuan, this type of series is their greatest flaw or what you call generic, if the Japanese Isekai have those Pacifist Herbivore Overpowered Chick Magnet Protagonist, then Chinese Xuanhuan have those Carnivorous chick maget OP MCs with too many power-ups, legacies, hidden items, and their characteristics being underestimated and ruthless, not to mention that most of them talks about how godly they, even though they don't deserve title.

Before, I was blind to the Xuanhuan world, but I'm already enlightened to some degree that I know what is good or bad, either way I can tolerate some generic or average series as long as they have interesting premise, but I've learned that Knowledge is power, being enlightened is important and Time is precious, and I've concluded to Drop this manhua.
To make it simple, this manhua is one of those Trash covered in Fake Gold, it's too attractive because of its Popularity but it's also the greatest Regret that I've done in my comic Milestone.
Now I can't think better but Disappointment to many Chinese manhua if these kind of manhua are on the Top Rankings, especially if their so Highly praised but doesn't deserve the Recognition. Actually I don't detest Chinese manhua, in fact I love them,

Most of the Xuanhuans are Shallow, and only few are Genuine Xuanhuan.

Now Unto TGD, is this really bad as people says or is worth to read? well I can't judge this properly since I've DROPPED it after reading it, as long as I can remember, It's in the time of Testing the Guardian Totems, but don't expect Biased review.
~STORY~ 2.5/10
The score was low but the characteristics of Xuanxuan element is still present, the world building was ok, but the element of where the plot revolves is unbalanced, to make it simple, the greatest in the City is none other than the Protagonist, and the outside was still a mystery, and I don't plan to read it. The Good thing in this series was there's some 'Connection' that revolves in the plot, and again, it's because the author wrote MC's awesomeness just to make a preparation for plot devices, just think of a Soldier with a decent Gun (plot devices and plot development which makes sense), who can reload (Repeat or Recycle) because of many ammo (connection made in the plot, like Achievements and Character Interaction) but can't hit the target (The Quality of the Plot)
In short this is nothing, you're like Cooking and there's a Decent Ingredients, yet it didn't taste Good. And I doubt that TGD is getting Better.
And forget about the Decent Ingredients, sometimes there's so many Plot Holes about the Past.
~Character -1~
The Biggest Downfall of the manhua. I'm not sure why is the Manhua is so popular and it's being compared to Naruto, I want to rant how good Naruto is compared to TGD, but let's be logical. Naruto has at least a decent amount of Characters, and these Characters were given depth through 'Back Story alias Fillers' and the Anime did much better (or worse) Fillers than the manga, but TGD is nothing compared to the Epic Characters of Naruto, None of them have relied to Naruto to get Stronger, they've only relied/depended on him during the hardest times which they can't Handle, and there's so many worthy and badass Antagonist too.
Now Think Naruto as a Buffet Dinner set in a Table, then Flip it, (table flip) that would be TGD's worth, wasted tasty food in the floor.
The Protagonist Nei Li, lived for a Thousand Years, luckily he got a Plot Device Legendary Notebook (like Dragonballs) that has Resurrected Him, and his adventure is about relying on the Past, that's why he can't move on, so he decided to Rate and Judge people based on his Experience, and the scaling was simple, which was good in the past, is good also in the present times, vice versa with the bad guys. Then the story sticked with that motto that none of the asshole have become better in character, they are even just getting worse, as for the Side characters, well they were friends to glorify the mc, these guys can't live without the MC, I mean seriously author, at least on Naruto, the Side characters were Badass and they didn't relied so much to Naruto, and even the author mentioned that side characters were much badass compared to the MC, yet the author have turned them into Character Decoration?... Tsk, the MC is a wimp in the past who became badass, I would prefer to read the story of his Past adventures than to read what is presently written on this manhua, since in the Past he knows 'Manners' and 'Respect' but you could say that he's weak that have become strong in knowledge
(but there's so many plot holes about his story, like he didn't past the Silver Rank, but he's the Greatest Alchemist)
~Enjoyement~ 2
I can't enjoy these type of series, thought I'm amazed that I've tolerated it up to this point, this is a waste of time, even though I appreciate the Translator and I respect the Author for his Job, and I didn't pay a cent for it for reading it, still... I regret that I've read it. Save your time, money can't buy it!!!
First of all, this story has nothing to Offer, but only 'Glory' of the Protagonist.
Second, the protagonist can't even make himself Respectful, he does not have Charisma to become one, he's just an asshole in character. The author could have made him Respectable through intelligent arguments or debates, at least he has a knowledge of worth of a Thousand Years.
Third, the MC is a pedophile, it's only natural to get attracted to women, and it's reasonable since he was resurrected, but in that child's body is an experienced old man, I doubt that People will love to read it if he has an image of an old man too.
There's so many reason why I have to drop this, but the only thing that I want is 'Quality' and this one does not have that 'Quality' that I want to see in a manhua, and I've already Decided to Abstain myself from reading Xuanhuan, unless it has received Positive Reliable Reviews with a proper Judgment and refined taste when it comes to comics.
Overall This series has the potential but was destroyed by Glorification and Fanservice (not only ecchi thing has fanservice, but also Overpowered Moments is a type of Fanservice) and Shallow, and full of disappointment.
If you're into Chinese manhuas, especially the xuanhuans, (since I'm not) Make sure that You're reading a manhua Worthy of its Praise, not full of shallow moments, not full of retard characters, not repetitive and make sure it's Unique. This manhua is also one of the reason why I don't read Chinese xuanhuan especially their novels, since only few has written character depth, and Even the praised one which is similar to it ISTTH which is a xianxia which was recognized was barely able to keep up on my Standards.

... Last updated on July 30th, 2018, 7:14pm

First things first TDG (Tales of Demons and Gods) is not a Naruto copy/fanfiction/etc. The author Mad Snail personally said he was inspired by DBZ. Make sense? Of course it does. Nie Li boasts Goku's outfit. It's like people only watched Naruto and then picked up a Manhua without knowledge on anything but Naruto. Talk about frogs at the bottom of a well.

Now let's get started on why I gave this novel a 10/10. The story itself is pretty amazing and Mad Snail's storywriting is quite decent. He uses many Chinese idioms such as, "the ignorant frog at the bottom of the well", to keep the novel quite humorous. The MC is not like the typical overpowered MC (such as One-Punch man, Ains Ooal Gown, etc.), instead he offers something a bit different. He is the smartest but not yet the strongest so he does get beat up sometimes but usually wins. Our MC traveled through time back to his 13-year old self (pre-puberty) and spent over thousands of years in frozen time-space learning hundreds of languages and reading thousands of books. Now one might question: How does his memory fare? To answer that I should first layout the basis/context of Martial Art Manhuas. People more or less cultivate through knowledge. They repeat a philosophical phrase over and over again to comprehend it's true value and by doing so, increases their cultivation level. For that reason, many manhua writers and readers assume that every cultivator has eidetic memory.

As for the story, you basically read about how Nie Li reincarnates to change his fate by overcoming his adversaries. The only advantage Nie Li has over others is that he lived life twice and knows his stuff. Put it this way, Nie Li has an A+ in a course but on one of the tests some dude cheated off Nie Li and got him expelled. Nie Li then goes to retake the course in some other school. That's basically what makes him OP. By reading TDG you are basically watching Nie Li retake a course but Mad Snail's writing keeps you captivated and wanting more. I find myself always wanting to know more and how Nie Li handles things because I know it'll be interesting.

Nie Li basically has a mental age well over 1000 years old and is actually quite smart and mature. After being transported through time, he quickly realized he has to maintain the behavior of a 13 year old kid but that is all an act. While alone or with anyone who knows his real age, he lets his mature self show, but when dealing with people who pick on him he puts on an extremely arrogant tone to taunt them. According to Mad Snail, Nie Li's arrogance is just for comedic relief. In Nie Li's past life, one could tell he was very humble. In his current life, he purposely makes himself seem arrogant and ignorant to enemies so there's a bigger impact when he beats them up or shows his worth (their overexaggerated defeat/reaction is comedy gold). But this personality makes sense because of his backstory/past life. Because of it, Nie Li doesn't want anyone to step on him or his friends and makes sure those who do will not have a great time. He is willing to do anything to make sure those who want him to suffer will be the ones to suffer.

If you enjoy reading about MC's who are extremely cunning, everything goes their way, they're
constantly getting OP, and constantly put stupid evildoers to shame then you will enjoy TDG.

If you like MC's who are humble, constantly getting OP, and not constantly starting shit with idiot evildoers then you probably won't like TDG but you may like Star Martial God Technique. The reason for this is because Nie Li can get really shameless at times just to flip someone off while the MC of Star Martial God Technique never brags and would even apologize for being too strong. Humble af. Still a power creep novel though. But hey, that's just how Chinese writers do things. Nowadays, Manhuas are basically the epitome of power creep novels with OP MCs. You wouldn't be reading a Manhua if you didn't enjoy reading about the power creep.

... Last updated on July 24th, 2018, 5:33pm