The Breaker

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Following our protagonist, we are taken through the vast world of a secret martial arts society, the Murim; where the top of the food chain are the strongest practitioners of martial arts. The general plot of this manwha seems to be linear, hero vs villain, hero pulls through in the end; yet there are many surprises. The art and character development are lacking in finesse, but are made up with strong emotion and iron-clad wills. Overall I would rate 10/10 for this based on how easily you get sucked into the story, wanting to see more of our heroes war on evil.

The short version:

If you've ever experienced any modern day asian martial arts drama, you have already experienced The Breaker. Unless you're fan of the genre, there isn't really a reason to read it.

The long version:

The Breaker is a bit weird manga-manhwa hybrid. It's made by Korean authors, it's released in Korean magazine by Korean publisher and yet it's made to be read right to left, as a regular manga would be. While I don't know what the reason for this decision was, just be check if you're reading it the correct way if you're getting confused.

The reading direction isn't the only odd, crossbreed thing ... about The Breaker though. So is the art and in a way, the story.

Most of the story is a regular one - weak protagonist gets bullied at school and a chad teacher takes him under his wings, GTO-style. Another cliché follows - the protagonist is given an insta-power up item that makes him strong for basically no reason other than the plot progression. Enemies starts popping up and fights ensue. MC also gets big angery when someone close to him is in danger.

Now this is where it gets to the weird part - even though it follows the classic setting for the zero to hero story, the role The Breaker's protagonist fulfils most of the time is... a punching bag. Against every enemy. Even after he gets strong. Even against folks much weaker than him. MC's go to strategy is to get beaten, get up, recieve more beating, get up, repeat, shock the opponent with getting up numerous times and then the fight gets resolved somehow. No joke, this is how most, if not all, fights the protagonist is part of go.

Ultimately the story just opens a bag of martial artists, throws them at the "good guys" and is like "Yo fight those, coz reasons". The conflicts are explained with the martial arts equivalent of technobabble. I've noticed that some people are writing about "amazing plot twists", so let me warn you beforehand - there are none. And by that I don't mean the the plot twists are weak or predictable. I mean that the story has nothing that could be called a plot twist.

One thing I really liked is that at one point in the story, a character acknowledges that even the strongest martial artist will die if they get shot. Which was nice until I realized this makes one of the core setting void. You see, in The Breaker, the "civilians" and the martial artist societies are separated, as mixing would result in conflict and martial artists are way too overpowered for the regular world, at least that's how it's explained to as. What isn't explained though, couldn't the police just shoot them if they start making too much ruckus?

Now, for the art - especially at the start, the illustrations of The Breaker look like shoujo artstyle trying to fit shounen story. Main characters are bishounen, the background is plain and the character frequently break into chibi forms or "typical anime reaction faces". Which, as you can imagine considering the main genres of The Breaker, disrupts the atmosphere. It breaks The Breaker.

As with the badly timed comical relief, the series also suffers from intrusive fanservice that serves no purpose. Well, yes, fanservice usually serves no purpose other than being a fanservice, but this setting is an especially bad place for it.

Luckily, the art issue gets better and as you're getting through later volumes, there are less and less missplaced "funny" faces and fanservice. The art itself also gets better and particulary in the last few volumes some very well drawn pages can be seen.

Overal, The Breaker is just a mediocre martial arts story that isn't exactly bad, but also isn't exactly good.

Have these reviewers never seen a Chinese wuxia drama? Coming up with cool martial arts moves is in so many wuxia dramas, it's really nothing special. 4/10

--- Mild spoilers ---

The disciple here is easily the most annoying protagonist I've ever seen in any manga - courage and intelligence are not mutually exclusive, and not knowing when to back off can backfire so easily if not for the copious amounts of plot armor equipped by the protagonist. Unlimited spirit = "You cannot keep me down!"? Just break his legs and move on, kid ain't Wolverine. And when people are trying to save your life, please stop ... trying to throw it away. Let's not forget how hypocritical he was when he stops his master from killing someone that offers up his life, but then proceeds to almost kill another person when his friend was threatened. I'm sure some people would defend him "He didn't know how much strength he was using", but as far as I know, a concrete smashing fist is pretty lethal when applied to a human head.

Art: Why are the women unnecessarily sexualised? That's not usually an issue to me, just another problem in a multitude of issues this manga faces. The chibi drawings are overly used, jarring, and almost seems to be screaming "Laugh now! Look, the atmosphere and tone has changed, I'm making a joke!" Fight scenes are a mess and moves are really just the same, no matter how many names you come up with - huge burst of ki or speed.

Plot: What plot? Let's conveniently forget all about the pill the disciple consumed, even though it's exceedingly rare. Everything is just a stepping stone to Goomoonryong's showdown with the alliance, and completely forgotten and irrelevant after he gets there.