Vagrant Soldier Ares

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Adventure stories are mostly exciting stories. There are several parameters that make the level of these stories rise to the top or not. You should take the stakes of the universe, the construction of the world where the story takes place, the construction of the characters, the course of the events and many other minor elements.
For Vagrant Soldier Ares, I'm honored to say that it checks all the slots. I think it's an excellent manhwa, and possibly one of the best adventure stories I've ever read, or at least one of the ones I was most excited about.
The story takes place in a world ... broken by territorial wars and impressive geopolitical issues. The author immerses us in a complex and painful universe where the law of the strongest reigns. We see this story through the eyes of young teenage mercenaries. This is how we are put into an adventure where various genres and ideas are combined.
First of all, I love the world-building of manhwa. As I said before, the author made a real effort to give us worthy and interesting stakes. We understand very quickly the challenges of the universe and what it implies for our characters. This is a real catching point that allows us to be fully involved in the story. In the course of the manga, the geopolitical situations change and each time it brings its part of surprise. On 26 volumes, it is quite honorable.
Then, a strong point is the development of the characters. The cast of the manhwa is really excellent. We are presented with characters with endearing personalities and sometimes even more complex than it seems. Where some works choose the easy way by accumulating stereotypes, in Ares there is a real work around these characters, and the path they take to evolve and face the challenges they face. The author has fun taking us against the grain by working around the notions of heroism and anti-heroism, war and its consequences. There is a real sublimation of the adventure story genre. There is a real exploration of the typical psychologies of soldiers and the consequences of war.
Finally, I would like to come back to the drawing. I have become a real fan of the author's style. There's a real charm to his imperfect style, where you multiply the size of the line to accentuate feelings or postures. We are in something quite similar to Taiyou Matsumoto, even if the cutting is not as advanced as the latter. In any case, there is a real charm in it. If I had had the chance to draw a manga, I would have gone towards this kind of style.
Ares ... It was really a crazy adventure. I keep very good memories of it, especially because all the points mentioned before really won me over. Nowadays, there are few adventure stories that offer us so much stake and work around the psycology of the characters. I was surprised to be so involved in the story. In a few years, I will probably enjoy reading this story again.

Ares is a fun, action-packed manga and has great surprises.

The characters are fun, charismatic and have a certain depth to them. That said, the author doesn't develop them, wanting to give that depth to artificially impact what happens to them. For me it didn't work, causing me not to have a connection with them.
Even those who have a more important role in the story lack a deeper understanding. However, at least their charisma manages to maintain an interest in the story.

The protagonist, Ares, is the typical brainless character. However, its purity manages to generate great moments in history, so it has its merits.

The story is ... good, it manages to surprise at various times. From fights to character revelations. The way he builds antagonists and the struggles he has with them is very commendable.
However, history lacks in detailing the details of what is proposed, this being the war. For example: the author likes to give the war a lot of impact on people's lives, being very raw and merciless with the characters. Trouble is, he only cites it, not giving a further development to the characters' pain at losing their loved ones or showing a character who had his vision changed after the war consumed his life.
That said, as an action it's still an excellent work. Always being emotional and delivering well-crafted fight scenes.

The art, it is the weakest part of the manga. In general, isolated fights can deliver a good job with good choreography and action scenes, but when they are army battle scenes it gets confusing and unclear.

Ares was a good read delivering great battles and a very lively story. However, failing to deliver more depth and connection to their characters.

One of the greatest warfare manga/manhwa I have ever read. The major characters are extremely well-written, both the protagonist and the antagonists are well-liked and believable. Their personalities stand out, and their background is great.

One of the things I do love about the main character, Ares, is that he's not some goody-two-shoes who's afraid of killing people and is going to win through peace and love and make friends along the way. He's the kind of guy who would kill anyone he has to, and he doesn't flinch one bit. I suppose maybe it's because I've read a little too much shounen manga recently that ... I find it very refreshing to have a main character who doesn't just rely on the power of friendship to save the day.

Something else to bring up is that the main characters are very strong. They are able to kills dozens upon dozens of men all by themselves, and it just feels so badass when that happens. If you enjoy watching strong characters, then this is definitely a good one.

Another thing I love is that there are a lot of character deaths. It is a seinen manga, so deaths are to be expected, though there are some deaths that seemingly come out of nowhere, which increases the impact of the character's death even more. Something else to point out is that the story does not dwell on a person's death for too long. There are many people that die throughout the story, but there may be only about half a chapter, sometimes it's just one or two panels, and then the story continues on. It really brings up this feeling, the reality of being expendable, where no matter how strong a person really is, at the end of the day, it's just one person, and they really aren't going to change the course of a battle all on their own.

The twists and turns in this manhwa are great, and keep you turning to the next page looking to find out what happens next.

The last thing I want to bring up is the art-style. This is definitely the most controversial opinion, as Ares does not have a "beautiful" art-style. When reading seinen warfare manga, most people are probably expecting art-style similar to Kingdom, or Vagabond, or many others. Then they come to Ares and are turned off by the art-style for being too different. Personally I really love the art-style. This is the only story you'll ever see with this kind of art-style, and I think it adds to the feel of the story. It's a little hard for me to explain. I can't find the particular words that make me feel this way, but somehow, it just feels like this art-style was meant for this kind of manhwa. After having read all 207 chapters three times now, it's very hard for me to imagine this story in any other art-style. It really is quite unique, and there are some very amazing panels.

This is an absolutely amazing warfare seinen manga with great character development, backstories, personalities, lots of fighting, and a good amount of world building, or should I say continent building. If you are a fan of warfare of any amount, then I highly suggest you check out this manga. This is one of my favorites, and I always find myself coming back to it every now and then. I've done 3 full reads of the story, and I'm sure it won't be my last!