The story is good actually and nice drawings too but some aspects especially of the characters are a bit too stupid to my liking which's rather unenjoyable.

It's like having a dose of insanity injected directly into your eyes. Hideki seems to love creating these unpredictable and interesting original characters, although a bit more cartoonish and grandiose than those in Kiichi!! but that's not a bad thing. It's only real bad point I guess is the first volume, it's been awhile since I've read it but I remember it having pacing issues and something about it was just off until they reached the police station, but it wasn't down right bad or anything.

... Last updated on February 8th, 2011, 1:57pm

after that first volume im now convinced
Arai Hideki have powerful friends in the right manga circles
how else could someone get paid for random noncense like that
i could say that it gets slightly better later on but that would not be fair to the reader
so
if you do not like the first volume you will not like the rest

I read all kinds of manga, and enjoy several seinen series thoroughly, but I struggled, and I MEAN struggled through the first volume.... I could not bring myself to like hardly anything about this sadly.... The art was so-so at best in my opinion, and I couldn't find a shred of coherent story to keep it afloat.... No real direction it seems.... I hope others have a better experience with this than I did....

Thank you for scanlating this. I just finished the last volume. Words can not describe my feelings, but I'll try. This manga does not wimp out. It goes all the way to its inevitable conclusion. Best retelling of the Monkey King story ever. For reference, up until now "Blame!" has been my favorite manga. But this one pulled ahead in the last chapter and is the winner by a nose. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the story of the Monkey King and with Buddhist principles. Oh, and I didn't realize it until after I finished but the word "Mon" in Japanese means "gate" which makes perfect sense.

... Last updated on December 20th, 2014, 1:12pm

I love this mangaka's works, this one is great, the characters are wonderuly weird, the storyline is unpredictable.

I don't like cheap violence. Some might say this manga contains such violence, but it's far from cheap. It serves a bigger purpose, i.e. to stop you from liking/worshipping it. Sounds like a contradiction at first, but it works out pretty well. Society's morals are on the run ; a big-ass bear is on the run.

I have to say it's a pretty interesting read. But it really, really suffers a lot from a lack of direction in the opening volume. Hideki Arai has excellent qualities as a seinen mangaka, his art and characters are very dynamic and extravagant; and he manages to set up some very intriguing situations within the first volume of TWiM. I personally really want to read more to see how it all comes together in the end.
I highly recommend you read it if you like your gritty seinen.

... Last updated on June 3rd, 2007, 9:25pm

great art, great story and great characters.
a most read for everyone that likes seninin manga.