Noblesse

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This review may contain mild spoilers.
Noblesse is a dramatic story piece with a hidden agenda. A compelling story meshed with vivid and interesting characters. Please do not let the early art put you off for even a second. By the time it's gotten exponentially better, you'll be hundreds of chapters deep and won't have even realized.

Characters: 9/10 - We are first introduced to Cadis Etrama di Raizel "Rai", a man of few words and even fewer facial expressions. Rai's character recieves the least amount of growth and for good reason. He's been alive for thousands of years. He's done plenty of growing. Immediately ... after Rai, we meet the trio of high school friends, Han Shin-woo, Wu Ikhan, and Seo Yuna. Finally we meet Frankenstein, loyal servant to Rai and pricipal of the high school our cast attends. The cast of this story is immense, more than I can list off here. While Rai may not need chacacter arcs, every single person around him grows and evolves. Rai's worldview is simple, he wants humans and mythical creature to get along, and he will do everything in his power to protect that. His kindness touches those around him. His strength encourages others to evolve. His weaknesses inspires protection.

Each character has such a well thought out background. Each character was loving created with hopes, quirks, and more personality than necessary. WHile at first glance they may all seem like generic fighters A, B, and C, when you really delve into the heart of this story, no two characters are the same.

Plot: 10/10 - While I cannot deny the repurposed plots, I would be remiss to explain their purporse. Yes, a bad guy appears, someone gets beat up a bit, and eventually the good guy saves the day. This story is not about winning, its about how it was accomplished. This story is not about waiting for Rai to show up and save everyone, in fact it is the opposite of that. The plot revolves around the people around him doing everything they possibly can to stop him from using his abilities. They want to be the protectors. While at first, Rai seems the overpowered Saitama type, he is actually the furthest from it. This story is about the weaker characters becoming stronger and overcoming obstacles. This story is about sacrificing to protect everything you hold deal. Watching the large cast of characters grow and evolve, with Rai at their center, is rewarding. The little guy gets stronger because he fights bigger and badder foes. How else are they supposed to evolve.

On the subject of fighting, this story is all about action. While the fights get more grand, the characters evolve new ways to adapt. The large casts of characters ensures no two fights are the same. The dynamics between humans, vampires, and werewolves creates dynamic fighting arenas and strategies. What worked against the humans won't work on the vampires. What worked against the vampires won't work against the werewolves. And so on. As our cast grows, so do the complexity of the action scenes. Every chapter leaves you on baited breath, waiting to see who resolves this problem and how. Will it be the werewolf companion, the human hacker, the vampire prince, or some new party entirely? This is what keeps us reading.

Overall, this is personally one of my favorite reads. I can understand why some people veiwed this as dragging and repetitive. I didn't see it that way. This evolution of all the side characters is what made Rai's story so interesting. Each character is so fleshed out, so unique in what they bring to the table, I fell in love with each and every one of them. I loved loving the good guys but I also loved hating the bad guys. It was so easy to get roped into the drama of everything. This is a brilliant story with beautifully written characters. I enjoyed every second of this story. Please, do not watch the anime. It was a slap job of story beats that were fleshed out in hundreds of chapters squished into a 12 episode disaster. A poor representation of literally every character and plot.

Plot is a bit strange and not held together well, lots of filler fight scenes especially in the later arcs. Lots of plot armor too, however it’s a pretty good concept and I enjoyed reading it very much.

Characters were very funny and realistic with the way they behaved, getting to see everyone become friends and build relationships really helped bring the story together.

The art is a bit weird at the beginning. (Almost reminds me of yaoi art that everyone makes fun of for some reason lol.) However it greatly improves throughout the series and is incredibly good at the end of the manga.

Overall, ... it was enjoyable to read but did have it’s drawbacks. Kind of reminds me of Stardust Crusaders with this, since there were lots of unnecessary fights but was still fun to read.

Sure, the first part is good. A little bit of humor, some mystery, interesting characters, but then the remaining 400 chapters happened... Unbelievably repetitive. Random bad guy shows up, transforms into weird monster thing, and then starts shooting laser beams. At its core this is just mindless battle shonen, and the combat feels VERY dated. No strategy whatsoever. You know enemy #217 is more powerful than enemy #216 because they arrived later. It's basically a conveyor belt of bland enemies, and it gets old fast. The artwork is the bare minimum here and doesn't really fit the heavy action at all. Disappointing series for sure.