The story, plot, character backstories are all so damn good. While reading this story, you really can relate and understand why the mc does the things he does. Unlike most other manhwa, this mc actually has a lot of faults and weaknesses despite being strong asf. All the characters are so 3-dimensional and almost feel real, all of them have reasons for all their actions and are not just villains just cuz they’re evil or something (like raven, the primary antagonist)

CONCLUSION =
Overall, the characters are so amazing, the author can really make us sympathize and relate to these characters. The story and world-building is also phenomenal. Art is also pretty great and mc looks super unique compared to the ordinary black-haired mc in all the other manhwa. This is a seriously a masterpiece, please read it if you can!!

I can’t wait for the rest of the chapters to be translated and overall, this is one of my favorite manhwa to date.

... Last updated on September 8th, 2020, 9:38am

The story and artwork and characters are all great and amazing for the first 100 or so chapters. Then the story begins to slowly crumble. I stuck with it because of sunk-cost. After dealing with somewhat sporadic releases and my patience growing a bit thin, I had a fresh new set of eyes to continue reading with. After reading c180 I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. After c182, I had no interest what-so-ever in anything going on in this complex and interesting world anymore. Note to any story writers: if you introduce either twists or new elements to a story, they have to be reasonably expected, logical, and most importantly feel earned. Otherwise, your readers will feel ripped off, confused, and frustrated.

Please don't waste your time reading this

Rating for first 100-odd chapters: ~7-8
Rating for afterwards: A fat goose egg

... Last updated on May 19th, 2020, 8:05pm

I like conspiracy theory mangas and manhwas but this one does a pretty poor job, I don't find the story neither engaging enough no coherent enough, I think it has way too many unexplained and conveniently ignored plot-holes that it's just rendered... boring, to put it simple. Author: "Hmm they way I did this scene 3 volumes before didn't make much sense and doesn't match with what just occurred to me, what to do... I know, let's do a flashback and change the content, heh, that's storytelling!!"
Same goes for the characters, they felt interesting and real at first but not before long they just felt more like puppets, dancing to the authors need to make them do this or that for the incoherent and lacking story to continue its course. Author thinking: "Now (black mana) you are evil... you know what? better not, (remove black mana), wait maybe that was rush, evil again (BM), hmmm f**k it, let's just brainwash this other char..., I wonder what mischief to do next..."
In all, I think the narrative and writing are what are lacking here, might have been better if executed properly.
After 117c I've had enough of this mess, dropped.

... Last updated on September 7th, 2017, 10:03pm

I'm currently on chapter 114.

This manga starts off with a mysterious man in a red robe committing murders throughout the city that should supposedly be impossible to commit due to the restrictions on the spells used in the murders. All of those murders happen to involve people who some might say "deserved it." We find ourselves following a wider range of characters as the story continues, but in the beginning we start out predominantly following Detective Kim, who hates magic for reasons to be revealed later on, as he tries to capture the "Crimson Robe," as the public begins to call him. We come to question whether the Crimson Robe (CR) really is a hero or not and whether he should leave things to the law. What I liked about this series was the anticipation of having CR meet Detective Kim, as well as the constant change in who you as the reader believed the "villains" to be. To top it all off, even important, likable characters are killed off, so you feel a real sense of danger every time there's a huge fight.

I will say that while I loved the first couple of arcs, I feel like it becomes a little too typical "shounen-esque" after around ch. 80 as characters train their abilities, etc. Still has lots of fun stuff happening though, but there just doesn't seem to be as much on the line for the main characters in the most recent arc. Don't let this deter you from reading it, however, as there is some fun up ahead for sure based on recent reveals.

As for more mature content, there is a lot of blood shown in some of the deaths, mostly in the early chapters. The first person CR kills is a rapist, but nothing bad is shown and there is actually very little "vulgar" talk and pretty much 0% fan service OHMYGOSH.

The art is decent, and despite my misgivings about Crimson Robe's hair style in the beginning, it changes after a couple of arcs and becomes MUCH better looking. The quality of the art also picks up as you go along, though it's VERY gradual. The artist does enjoy distorting the faces a bit sometimes to make characters seem extra evil or derpy or whatever (you'll understand when you see it), and this can make for some funny moments. Some character designs are even purposefully made to look odd/creepy almost just for the heck of it. I mean, there's a random convenience store worker who has large, round, black pits for his eyes that I keep expecting to appear behind one of our main characters, ready to suck out their soul like a dementor. But nope, still hasn't happened yet. (Though I'm still on to you, Pit Eyes...)

The characters are all pretty well-developed and likable, though be prepared to switch point of view right when you want most to see what's going to happen next with a certain character. -_- They're each pretty funny to watch, too. The series makes use of references to things like Noblesse and Harry Potter, among many other nerdy references, which I greatly appreciated.

If you like stories filled with OP characters (and that one really smart "normal" human thrown in the middle) all duking it out, only to have alliances change (not to mention your feelings towards each character), this is for you. While there are places where the plot slows down just a bit, it's usually only for a chapter or two before things pick right back up again.

Alright. I only read up to chapter 36, where I stopped. The story started out great and I thought it was going to be a cat and mouse sort of games like Death Note. I always enjoyed that kind of game, especially when the protagonist is on the other side. The protagonist, while dull, is relatable somewhat. He's an anti-hero, which is more realistic than hero. He's powerful, he's mysterious, he's fallible.

The first arc is awesome - "Magic isn't yours." That motto spell it out for where this story was heading, about discrimination usage of magic, buuuuuuuuuuut then it did a stupid shonen turn to align with power vs power in the later arc. Basically, our powerful hero isn't so powerful. In fact, he's a newb compared to his dying race "true" mage and other seclusive characters. The MC lost his aura of mystery the moment he revealed his identity to his so called "opposite". I don't need to read more to know he going to be whiny and bitchy about his so called tragedy... umm someone important to him murdered by that all so powerful guy.

Typical Shounen plot-line. I still give it a 8 rating though for entertaining me for a while. The magic system is logical, but then I realize it will be come more bullshit as the story went on since it keep adding on more "branches" of mana due to the numbering of magical particles. 01 and 10 are stated, so obviously 02-09 will appear later. They are all can't be felt/seen/touch/sense/smell by the norm.

I've been following this one on Naver every Tuesday Korean time, and really enjoy it even though I don't understand it. EGScans has picked this one up and it is now being released regularly.

The plot is a bit confusing at first, and the main character is presented in a bad-guy sort of way, but there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. I'm not really sure how to describe this webtoon other than the mystery behind the "crimson robe" and the random old guy and grandson showing up just really grabbed my attention.

It is sci-fi, but really not so much in the future. It's kinda like technology has truly taken over, which is kinda like how it is now, but in this story the technology is like "magic". It's a mix between not-too-distant future and not-too-unbelievable-fantasy.

Also, I laughed quite a bit reading this, even in the Naver raws. Humor always draws me in a story. The characters have some really funny expressions.

... Last updated on June 29th, 2014, 3:52pm

I wonder, did you even read the series crazy? Your review/summary is just plain wrong in several parts.

Anyway, the protagonist is the "Crimson Robe". This is readily apparent before this first arc is even over. Hell, he even has his picture on the series page.

I stumbled upon the webcomic by complete chance and was instantly pulled in by the first chapter's introduction of this story's take on magic. A lot of sci-fi series that I've read have tended to be uncomfortably overwhelming at the onset, so I enjoyed and appreciated this series's "how we got here" approach to showing the gradual changes the world has undergone in order to reach the place it is at in the story. Though the idea of controlling magic through apps sounds ridiculous, the author has managed to make it believable and even conceivable by depicting sequences of cause and effect, introducing problems that arise with the free use of magic and then showing how the government remedies them by creating restrictions. This is all done in the first chapter, ensuring that the reader is relatively comfortable with the physics of this alternate future before heading into the story. Suffice to say, this whole setup felt very real to me, and so I have to give the author props for that.

As for the actual story, it's intriguing and high-tension but also thought-provoking and psychological, asking the reader to think before judging. This series presents a beautiful example of "grey and gray morality," as even the characters admit that they are merely doing what they believe is right as opposed to acting in accordance with some universal ideal of good and evil. It's this dynamic that makes the story so interesting. In essence, this comic is everything Death Note should have been but wasn't. Whereas Death Note floundered under the direction of a bad writer (who even admitted in an interview that he didn't care about the issue of conflicting moralities despite basing a series around the concept), this manhwa flourishes under that same principle (there's even a Death Note reference within the comic).

The protagonist of this story, Detective Kim Hyunook (who, for those who are curious, looks very much like the lovechild of Roy Mustang and Lin Yao from Fullmetal Alchemist ^.^; ; ) , dismisses the idea of real-life heroes, postulating that the desire for power and a pull towards absolute justice are entirely incompatible. He himself pursues justice - this is obvious in his devotion in revealing the truth behind a schoolgirl's alleged suicide. However, in that same case, he fails stop himself from using his power and status to verbally and sadistically torment the culprit, revealing a very human part of himself in doing so - that he is so enraged by the girl's murder that he inflicts unnecessary suffering on the man despite having "served justice" by apprehending him. Furthermore, the story's antagonist, the serial killer Crimson Robe, is shown to have a sensitive side - and is, in fact, very broken - despite what the ruthlessness of his crimes projects about him. In particular, his guilt at reveals him to be an actual human character with genuine emotional disturbances rather than an idealistic sociopath. These two characters seem to be incomplete yin and yang to each other, and it'll be interesting to see how they develop and change in the coming chapters.

So yeah, TL;DR: So far, this manhwa has an intriguing premise with likable, complex characters and a suspenseful but quite profound plot. The art is beautiful, a pleasure to see in full-color. I also must admit that I liked all the references to Korean pop culture that were thrown in (i.e. one of the characters' fathers is seen watching the k-drama Boys Over Flowers and a case is named BEAST after "that old idol group" xD). For now, I definitely recommend this one!

Edit in response to bludvein: I would like to ask you the same question. Also, could you kindly direct my attention to the errors in my review so that I might go about correcting them? I follow this series as the chapters are released, so there may be some inaccuracies with regards to particular details I may have forgotten between waits, but really, if there is something I wrote that is "just plain wrong," I would very much like to know what it is. In regards to your question about who the protagonist is, the word "protagonist" is defined as "the leading character." As the story is mainly told through Detective Kim's POV, I think it's safe to assume that he is the main protagonist. Of course, a work can easily have more than one protagonist and be told from multiple POVs, as has been demonstrated in certain chapters of this webtoon, but I don't think I'm at all wrong in what I said.

... Last updated on October 25th, 2012, 6:49pm

Read till ch08.

This is seriously good.Within the limits of webtoons, it got a decent pace n a good flow. The story is engaging. Good effort in creating the story world. Artwork is good. Stories like this makes you asking for "MOOAAARR!".