Aug 30, 2021
*I have been procrastinating from writing a review for Biao Ren for way too long. Today, I finally get to do it.
As the previous reviewer mentioned, so far Biao Ren feels more like a prologue. Even while reading the manhua, I don't know what the story is really about, which direction it is going for. One of the bloggers I follow describes Biao Ren as "a nerve-wracking action [soon-to-be] donghua that brought the chaotic historical era of the Sui dynasty to our plate this year. It revolves around assassins, man-eating demons, and a whole conspiracy where people’s emotions go haywire and the turmoil of war
...
is everywhere." Now that we get the general idea of the story (not really though), let's move on to the actual review.
Biao Ren reminds me of Vagabond, and probably will suffer the same fate that it will never finish. However, I think it is definitely worthy of your time (I mean I read it ~2 years ago, and yet, I still remember some of the scenes).
Story: Starts off pretty solid, but as the story progresses, it gets messier and more confused partly due to my lack of understanding of the history of the Sui dynasty. Well actually, it's more like the mangaka expects us to know everything related to that timeline before reading the manhua. The story involves politics and conflicts between multiple groups of the time, so it's really hard to follow. The second issue is that the number of characters keeps growing. And many of the characters share similar names, so I got lost easily (despite having been reading several Chinese web novels which made me quite confident initially).
Art: Just amazing! Though the drawings do feel quite rough at first (I mean you can literally see the erased/semi-transparent sketches which probably means that the mangaka does not have enough time to polish the drawings), but the attention to detail is commendable. Some of the latest chapters, however, are not as messy but also not as detailed. There are scenes where the mangaka uses ink brush, and I am a SUCKER for ink brush, so that's definitely a plus.
Characters: I love all the characters' designs. Other than that, the characters themselves are just slightly interesting, not enough for me to feel emotionally invested.
In general, the series has its strengths and flaws. But I think that the flaws may overwhelm the strengths as its serialization continues. Why would anyone want to keep reading if they don't even understand the story? I also feel like even the mangaka is having a difficult time coming up with the story, hence his slow updates. Anyway, I recommend this manhua for anyone who tries to get into the manhua world and take this series as evidence to retort those who said that manhua art is trash.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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