The Breaker

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As an avid hater of re-reading things, having read this four times fills me with an impossibly powerful sense of self-hatred.

The perfectly encapsulated, most excellently written underdog story I've ever read. But, it begins as cliché'd as humanly possible. Bullied kid trope, reaching the height of a world he's unfamiliar with. They've got incredible, hidden talent, built from their mental circumstances, and an iron, unbreakable will. Sounds awfully similar to “Hajime no Ippo”, “The Climber”, “Holyland”, but the difference is an unparalleled sense of pacing.

A kid without a footing, Shioon, tries to attain peace in his school life, while being able to protect those ... he loves. His problems spill over to his best friend, and so, the new, weird, and violent teacher, seems to be a window of opportunity. Shioon blackmails him into training him, and as the teacher tries to get rid of him, he finds this strange sense of familiarity. Both share more in common against all odds, but there's something deeper than Shioon is ready for. The story is all about movement, about the next scene, about the point of the story. If a moment doesn't add to the characters, to the point of the story, they clearly didn't put it in. Even if a scene feels like filler, it's just there to add tension.

I can't overstate how intensely fast everything here is. Not every story puts a time limit on every action the characters make. Every second is filled with trouble that stems from past actions, a legacy of pain, and suffering, that a good-hearted kid suddenly changed. Fight scenes that rival the best of the best. Characters that change, that evolve, or others that simply reinforce what they believe in. I HATE stories that stay on the same track the whole time. The decisions made by the characters should impact the world around them, and here, the characters are entirely aware that good times can never last in these circumstances. The strangest group bonds against this martial arts world, and you can feel the emotion they share, how much it changes them, and how they want to perpetuate it, only to be met with reality. Choices instantly change the narrative, choices that seem stupid at the beginning, but make sense even if they're annoying for some parts of the audience.

A wild ride, accompanied by some of the most beautiful art out there. The fights have this… impact. This sense of brutality with paneling, with how they position the characters right at the edge of frame to convey how powerful an attack was. The character expressions, the use of visual callbacks, and the way the world is built, the visuals that show true, unparalleled will against all odds. You just feel it, it's art that makes you feel something, and I still get chills thinking about the quotes, about those moments that make this series what it is.

Dialogue is perfect, characters are perfect, story is small, concise, to the point. Characters have the right amount of scenes to love them. I have to say, this is a masterpiece, without a shadow of a doubt. The next installment is a little more flawed, but I'll review after my next re-read.

10/10. I hate the audience and their slander towards the protagonist. He's the perfect character for this story, and I'll DIE on the hill.

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.