After neglecting to read this some few years back, I started re-reading it from the start till finish because of the glowing reviews in here. But man, what's with the positive superlatives? Tricked me into picking this up again!
The story is dull and predictable. I was waiting for a damn twist! But alas, there is none. Romance is very cheesy (the creators know it so it's almost alright to forgive them but no. It is not a valid excuse to just mix in some lovey-dovey scenes in there haphazardly especially when they know that it is half-baked and sappy. It is so laughable that it makes me want to tear my heart out
like the 9 Dragon's master did).
Dialogues are flat. They want me to labor on reading these clichéd script when I watched Karate Kid and Kung Fu Panda already? I know I know, childish analogy but come on, who are we kidding here? Can't this manhwa just get on with the fighting already? The characters are so put out, contrived, unrelatable and showing unnecessary boobs and camel toe exposure. Am I heartless to not care for any of the characters in here? No. I've cried with the characters in varied forms of literature but this one is dastardly different. This manhwa seriously lacks character build-up that I did not care even if they'd be beaten to a pulp while spouting their holier-than-thou ideologies or end up dead in a ditch somewhere.
! When that Shiho died? Good riddance. Don't think the plot moved with or without her. Her boobs and panties missing in action is a welcome sight.
And don't tell me that Shion kid was not one dimensional. From wimpy to being ass-kicker in a month? Please. I've had enough of those green characters that it makes me want to puke whenever they don't present anything new and convincing to the plethora of THOSE kind of "transformed" characters. Where are the witty characters gone?
In sum both the plot and the characters are not to die for however the kid disciple would want you to believe otherwise.
However, the martial arts are cool to look at. Capturing each attack frame by frame was refreshing since I am kind of used to not understanding what has happened on most of the fight scenes in Blade of the Immortal.
The ending: Do you take us for a fool??! We know who is gonna win, alright? Just got to hang on for the martial art moves for the next one. God, on second thought, I don't want this sequel anymore unless there would be NO useless yapping about and dammit, not showing their naughty bits here and there would really help this thing to become a bit less shallow.
PS: How did this excuse of a plot become Seinen? Because of the boobs and panty shots? The world must be crumbling. Props to the scanlation team, though.
(-80)
(+34)
