Kubera

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Time and time again I try to get my feelings and thoughts about Kubera across, but each and every time I feel I haven't done the manhwa justice. So here I go, once again.

You've most probably heard the proverb: "Don't judge a book by its cover." I didn't judge Kubera based on its cover, but I did on its art. I by chance heard about Kubera and decided to give it a shot one boring night. When I did, the first thing that bothered me was the art. The overall art was poor and just cheap-looking—the colors were too bright for my taste, I didn't ... like the "thick and pasty" coloring style, there was a lack of decent backgrounds, and both the characters and the backgrounds lacked detail. (Despite this, though, I gave the art a thumbs-up for its consistency—something I find very important.) As a result, I didn't take Kubera seriously because of its poor art.

My first impression of Kubera, after having read a couple of chapters, was "a funny, silly fantasy story"—far from being something I'd call good, but still fun to read. When I returned to Kubera several days later, and read many more chapters of it, that's when I started to realize there was more to this series than met the eye.

Currygom, the author of Kubera, is an exceptional writer. She is without a doubt my favorite author. Plot and characters aside, the world of Kubera is one of great intricacy and, because it is one, must have taken her a long time to create. The thing I like most about the intriguing world of Kubera is that it's logical. We see in so many fantasies that aspects of their world are simply blamed on the fact that the story is a fantasy, or on some other fantastical element of that story—most of the time, without a plausible explanation. This is one thing that is different about Kubera. Its world, despite being purely fantastical, makes sense. The magic system, the three major species, the universe—all of it makes sense.

Perhaps the thing I like the most about Kubera is its unique narrative. It combines flashbacks of the past with events happening in the present with "insights" of the future. Unlike many other series, flashbacks hold great importance in Kubera. In the beginning of Kubera, it was like I was thrown into the middle of the story—I didn't know what was going on. Slowly, as I read on, the mysteries of the past started to unravel and things started to make more sense. I started to understand why certain events took place and what roles the characters played in everything. However, it didn't stop there. Piecing together the information obtained from the flashbacks and insights is solely up to you. I have always viewed Kubera as a sort of puzzle. The middle of the puzzle has already been pieced together, but the beginning and end have not. I view the middle of the puzzle as the foundation of the story—the part you begin reading—and the missing puzzle pieces as the information you must obtain through the flashbacks, insights, and progression of the story, in order to see the bigger picture. I really enjoy piecing together the story.

Now that I've explained two important aspects of Kubera, let me tell you about another important aspect of this series: the plot. I won't give you a summary of the plot, since you can just read the synopsis (however bad it is), and also because the plot isn't something I can easily summarize, but I will tell you what to expect. This manhwa is incredibly plot-driven. If I had to describe the plot in one word, it would be "grand". The plot really is grand—it's by far not simple, and it involves so many different things. Though it's seemingly simple and straightforward in the beginning, things change—sometimes so quickly and sometimes so drastically—and the plot just seems to get more and more complicated the further you read. One thing is sure in Kubera: nothing is sure. This series is really unpredictable. When you think everything is starting to make sense and things are starting to calm down, Currygom will surprise you with a plot twist hiding right around the corner—leaving everything in a bigger mess than it originally was, and leaving you with more questions than you originally had. This story has so many plot twists and, on top of that, it has pretty unbearable cliffhangers to support them (which I actually really like).

Now for the fourth and final important aspect of this series: the characters, of course. If the manhwa didn't already shine, the characters definitely do the part. I've always been a fan of big casts, but it is true that a big cast can make the story lose its focus. However, this is not at all the case with Kubera. With a cast of about ten main characters (that may increase or decrease over time), it also has numerous supporting characters. There are two things I really like about the character department of Kubera: one, how every character is important to some degree and plays a notable part in the story (Main cast aside, the supporting cast, though obviously not as important as the main cast, does play a significant role in the story—sometimes a supporting character even plays a very major role in the overall plot); and, two, how every character is somehow related to each other—whether by circumstances, persons, or something else. (The complex relationship web is one very fascinating aspect of the characters. It always surprises me when I find out that a certain character is unexpectedly connected to another certain character.) Moreover, most of the characters (namely the important ones) are, of course, well written and developed.

Although art isn't a very big concern of mine (if the rest of the story is good), I have to say, although it started very weak, the art improves greatly over time. I really like how the art turned out. To name some changes, the toning and shading changed immensely, more detail was added to specific things, the backgrounds look better (though I still wouldn't call them good per se), and some things—such as the hands—are drawn much better. Even my brother, who read the first chapter in the past, remarked, "Wow. The art is pretty now." He couldn't, however, put his finger on what changed, because the characters still look very much the same—which, to me, is a good thing. (I just hate it when the characters change to look almost nothing like they did when the series started—even if they come to look a lot better.)

So far, I've probably described Kubera as an overly serious manhwa, haven't I? Well, it's true that Kubera's plot has dark undertones (Tragedy is one of its genres, after all), but it's also filled with comical moments that will have you laughing out loud—especially in the beginning (Another reason I didn't take Kubera very seriously at first). Though there aren't that many action scenes in this series, it has some pretty intense battles—and, to my liking, they don't span out for chapters and chapters. In addition, Kubera may not be flooded with romance, nor do I think it's lacking any (considering what the series is about), but the author did say its core is a love story, so that speaks for itself.

Although Kubera started slow and maybe even weak, it is now my number one favorite comic and is the first series I've given the score of 10 to. I believe it deserves it. Currygom has written and outstanding story and both Currygom and her series definitely deserve praise. Kubera is truly a hidden gem. If you're even a little interested in Kubera, I urge you to read it. It's not filled with (mindless) battles every chapter nor is it a very easy story to follow, but if you're interested in a good mystery with a great plot and cast of characters, then Kubera is definitely the thing for you. I'd recommend this series to anyone looking for a well-written story.

Ok I'm here to write a short, concise review as someone who is experienced in all sorts of manga, manhwa, manhua, etc.

(There will be a TL;DR at the end of the review if you aren't bothered to read it.)

I went into Kubera with minimal expectations, as I would go into any other series. And, honestly, after the first season, I believed that the series had potential. Having been introduced to some of the best characters in the series (Kubera, Gandharva, Shess, etc.), the story was starting to take shape... until Currygom decided to give them close to 0 screentime during the whole of season 2 ... and focus on the characters that I couldn't give less shits about.

Plot-wise, there are so many plot holes in this story that it gave me trypophobia. There is no consistent narrative and there are so many main characters that the story keeps on going on tangents, and, even now (360 chapters into the series), I am unaware of what the plot is. There is no clear indication of where the series is going.

The art is ok for a webtoon. Seen better, but also seen worse. Nothing too epic tho.

Character-wise, some characters I genuinely liked, as I mentioned before. Too bad Currygom doesn't give them any screen time. Had any of the characters I mentioned before got more screen time, the series would have improved drastically. Also, some characters have no character development. One certain character repeated the same thing eight times and still has had minimal development.

Oh yeah, some characters just change their personality out of nowhere. One chapter they'll be crying and saying they're sorry and the next chapter they're beheading people and dabbing on the haters like nothing happened.

Enjoyment: it's ok. There was one point in season 2 when I genuinely felt like the story was going great: a lot of the good characters were getting screen time; the main characters were developing nicely and the story was moving along at a decent pace. Too bad Currygom decided to mess that up to.

Overall, I think Kubera is a series that had a lot of potential but squandered it. To be fair to the author, season 3 is looking like a major improvement. Currygom seems to have addressed the lack of screen time for the good characters, the lack of character development and the jumbled story. If this carries on, I see myself bumping up the series to a 7, nothing more however. Despite the improvements, I don't think the series is worth investing time into. There are way better series out there that you can read instead.

TL;DR: Good characters not getting enough screen time, little character development, jumbled plot without end goal, but season 3 is a major improvement. Overall, not worth investing time into.

Very good and mysterious story that takes a little while to build into. It gets extremely good once it gets going and that part of the story got me absolutely hooked, to the point where I couldn't stop reading. Then as if out of nowhere, the writing starts getting extremely sloppy using many MacGuffins and plot points start becoming extremely rushed and or repetitive. It almost feels like they stopped writing a story and started just making new chapters just to keep the story going this of course led to story contradictions that seemed to pop up constantly in the later chapters. The story got ... so contradictory and time wonky that I couldn't keep reading it anymore.