The Breaker

Yi "Shioon" Shi-Woon's everyday life at Nine Dragons High School—which consists of beatings from fellow student Ho Chang and his gang—is far from ideal. But one day, a mysterious man named Han Chun Woo spots one of these beatings and instead of offering support, brands Shioon a coward for refusing to fight back, adding insult to injury. To Shioon's surprise, he finds out that Chun Woo is the new substitute English teacher at his school.

Tired of the daily abuse, Shioon decides to enroll at a martial arts academy to learn how to defend himself. On the way there, he stumbles upon Chun Woo in a predicament—cornered in an alley by a group of angry men! Provoked, Chun Woo suddenly dispatches them using martial arts techniques, which Shioon covertly records. Later, he uses this recording to blackmail Chun Woo into teaching him to defend himself. Reluctantly, Chun Woo agrees, and Shioon is soon thrust into the world of martial arts, known as Murim. However, Shioon is naive and unaware of his master's shady past and the unseen underbelly of society. How will Chun Woo manage to teach Shioon and help him survive in the world of Murim?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit
Background

The Breaker has been published in English by Ablaze as 2-in-1 omnibus volumes since June 30, 2021; in Polish by Yumegari from February 2013 to January 2015.

Edit

Related Entries

More characters
Characters

Yi, Shi-Woon

Main

Han, Chun-Woo

Main

Lee, Shi-Ho

Main

Kwon, Jae-Kyu

Supporting

Hyuk, So-Chun

Supporting

Kangsung

Supporting

Sae-hie

Supporting

Seonu, So-Seol

Supporting

Unwol

Supporting

Lee, Gyoo-Bum

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 24, 2023

bergars

Recommended

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.

Open

Gift

Nov 16, 2019

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

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.

Open

Gift

Mar 28, 2025

Elios69

Not Recommended

If you want a good plot , lovable characters like you care about them then this is not for you.

It sometimes tells you about backstory which dont carry any impact its like you dont even need to know it. And most of the times it just shows the support characters chatting and plotting which is rlly stretched out and it also dont have any feel like impact its just there.

The mc obviously gets stronger which is cool but what after that.

It slowly shifts to being supernatural and it just feels so not realistic that its tough to care about the fights.

Obviously if a ...

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Good Unadapted Manga Part 9

by Akazukin619

50 Entries · 16 Restacks

Manhwa Madness

by ManicPixieTerror

30 Entries · 29 Restacks

Manhwa available in English Print

by little_shiz17

50 Entries · 4 Restacks

More recommendations
Recommendations

View All

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: The Breaker Chapter 41 Discussion horcrvx - Nov 15, 2009	22 replies	by Dragosama »» Nov 16, 2023 6:41 PM
Poll: The Breaker Chapter 72 Discussion Khalid - Oct 9, 2010	46 replies	by yveltalkyogre »» Nov 20, 2022 5:25 AM
Should I Continue? Sagepool - Nov 15, 2022	1 replies	by removed-user »» Nov 15, 2022 3:39 PM
This needs anime ItzYaBoiSatan - Nov 16, 2017	16 replies	by Ayako_Rose »» May 3, 2022 5:49 PM
Poll: The Breaker Chapter 68 Discussion smokes - Sep 10, 2010	8 replies	by A_Shinoda »» Apr 20, 2022 2:50 PM

The Breaker
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Related Entries

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

More characters
Characters

Reviews

Interest Stacks

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

The Breaker Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

EditSynopsis

EditBackground

Related Entries

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

More charactersCharacters

Reviews

Interest Stacks

More recommendations Recommendations

More newsRecent News

More discussionsRecent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

The Breaker
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

More characters
Characters

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion