The Sword of Emperor

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This is a rather refreshing Korean manhwa. The story is good, it kept living up to or exceeding my expectations all the way through the manhwa. Its only weakness is that it often skips from one scene to another a little too quickly, so the reader has to fill in some blanks on their own. I sometimes got a little confused, wondering how the character got from there to here in zero panels.

The art is great. Not too many characters look like each other, they're fairly proportional, the women have nice curves, most characters look their age and the ones who don't have done it ... on purpose in the story. If i were to complain about something, it would be the main character's rather unmanly face, but he's supposed to have the type of looks that attract girls, so it's not all that bad.

Most of the characters have a pretty simple design, apart from their looks. Their personalities aren't too interesting, many seem to have no hidden sides at all, and don't really betray the first impression they give. Luckily, the main character more than makes up for it by being one of the haughtiest martial artists i've seen in eastern comics who can also live up to it. And his followers turn out to be extremely entertaining despite their simplicity. Or maybe because of it.

All in all i want to say that this was one of the best korean manhwas i ever read, it made me laugh in pretty much every chapter, the fights were many enough and all kinds of awesome. But it only gets an 8 from me, because in the end it didn't end. I enjoyed it until the very last chapter, which promised me a continuation that never came because the publishing company went bankrupt, and thus gave me yet another reason to learn korean (so I can read the novels).

But at least there was no rushed disappointing end to this, so it gets a higher score from me than it that were the case. It continued to deliver pure entertainment until the sadly premature end, which gives me reason to recommend it despite the sudden cutoff.

I'll just put right out of the bat, The sword of the emperor got cancelled, just till chapter 44 and after further search on the net, I've learned the light novel, where the mahnwa is adapted, is currently being translated. Here is the link if you want to continue where it left off, http://novel-updates.eu/category/sword-of-the-emperor/ .

There is an odd feeling when a popular manga, suddenly got discontinued. But at least, we have an option.

Of note, recently known to myself, the publisher of this is the same as in Id, another popular mahnwa that got discontinued. Apparently, the publisher went bankrupt.

With the same motivation as ... in the sword of emperor, I scowered the net for options and discovered a page, published by the author of Id, it said that he plans to continue the super duper popular mahnwa, Id.

Now, onto the review.

Just by the votes and rating, there is no doubt, this is a popular mahnwa but it doesn't mean there weren't a few snags here and there of the story, art, and writing. I don't know about the others but I certainly felt it obvious. The start was great, and I got curious all of a sudden, then at the later part, more precisely, the last quarter of the series, it felt it got less interesting, due to the paragraph-like dialogues with a complete explanation of the aura and whatnot, less conflict to be found since the hero got stronger, little threat is found in the story, and I felt it is all over the place, the focus to the hero is still there but was lessened as people after people get introduced.


== Story ==

The ex-emperor, after the betrayal to his majesty's person, leaves his faithful subjects and undergo a perilous journey to a world that is unknown to a man in isolation just recently. He discovers his subjects, the people, the villages, the values, the cruelty, friendship, and a path he most unlikely did not expect for himself.

Around 30% of the series, it was boring, to tell you simply. There were a lot of "he is more powerful if the aura goes to this and transfer to that because the level of that can become ... " and goes on and on. Some may like this kind of writing, certainly, I didn't.

It was discontinued so there is really no ending, and one of my favorite writer once said, if a story has no ending, it really is not a story, it's just a wreck. Well, that's suppose to be the gist of what he said. That is why it is frustrating when the series does not end.

== Art ==

I can't tell, sometimes, which is which. the faces and eyes, and nose, and mouth are very similar and only what they wear, their clothes, swords, techniques is my mark on which I recognize them. Just sometimes. The background and style of the series, later on got better. The dark and gray, more pronounced, and less abstract, the images in the background.


== Character ==

I'll just be describing the hero since every story from the start of the series, with effort, centers around him, preventing other characters to be memorable, another thing I didn't like.

after his uncle's help to make him be an ex-emperor, he comes to learns the world and learn a new goal, skills, friends, new adventure. He was a meek, goody-two-shoes of a kid. A young untested leader before he was betrayed. After that, he is still good, but was changed. Personally speaking. He became more like a village kid. More troublesome and decisive to the things he like. there are two things that made this change as you will discover for the early part. He is more serious, really. But when in serious dilemma or encounter or situation, suddenly make this drastic change, making happy faces and making jokes for no reason whatsoever. He is like a schezo. There were no consistency to his character, and this goes to the other sub characters in the series. I am to believe this is bad writing. Schezo characters.

== Enjoyment ==

I realize there are a lot of criticism on the writing and art. But really, the one thing that got me hooked is the story. It was interesting though overdone, in a general view, when a kid of high blood, becomes someone great, but what is expected. Since it is popular, I'd guess many feels the same.

burp!

The story is nice but a cliché,
yet somehow gripping the art is crappy,
the characters are cool and are well placed within the story making the story quit amusing and funny at times .
i would have liked to read more of it but it was discontinued which is Just
sad
thing i loved about the story were the "chunma and the monk " who were inside the MC's head
the thing i hated was the MC himself, but it was partly because of the story as it skips a lot
maybe because i read it in English thing kept on changing