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Mar 9, 2025
I very rarely write reviews, but this manga is way underrated and I was surprised to see absolutely no reviews on MAL, so I guess I'll be the first. This manhwa is so good - a great blend of hurt/comfort and fun moments. I honestly didn't expect to love this as much as I ended up - I came into this manhwa with super low expectations, just picking it up as another way to procrastinate, but I ended up hooked. Admittedly, the beginning of this, while not bad, isn’t particularly good and was low-key kind of boring, and I guess most people drop it here,
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but both the art and the story get so much better (there's almost definitely an art style change after season 2? I think). I actually wasn't a huge fan of the initial art style, and the story itself I also found a little cringe and typical at first but it gets a lot better. My initial rating was admittedly 6.5, then as I kept reading, 8, and after chapter 125 I bumped it up to 9, which is a score I’ve only given to 3 other manhwa to date.
I’ll say the main draw of this is the characters, and the fact that the author isn't afraid to explore hyunwoo's trauma and insecurities.
I’m terrible at names, so it took me a while to learn who’s who, but then that’s almost always the case. The fact that I recognize the side characters by name as well as by design (which is usually all I remember about side characters) is a testament to their relevance. The author does a pretty good job of fleshing out the side characters in addition to Hyunwoo, and I really love the character dynamics. The group is really wholesome and fun, and you can really feel that they care about each other - we get Joohan (the leader) being protective over the group, and Yoojoon (best friend) noticing when something’s wrong with Hyunwoo (re: the roller coaster) and stepping up to help him. The character dynamics are honestly so much fun, they really feel like a group of friends, constantly (lovingly) annoying and teasing each other. Annoyed hyunwoo is the best hyunwoo lol
Also Hyunwoo really is so pretty (this cover doesn’t do it justice at all!) if only I could attach pictures to reviews…
But what I really liked about this is that the author didn’t just brush aside Hyunwoo’s trauma from both the accident in the original life, and the plane ride. Too often MCs seem to be wholly unphased despite remembering their death in explicit detail, when normal people would be very much traumatized by such an experience. I love how we explore Hyunwoo’s insecurities and flaws - it was a nice touch that he’s actually shy when out of his comfort zone, which we don’t realize at first because he’s in his element as an idol, and that he’s uncomfortable in large crowds because of the way people reacted to his injury in the past.
The manhwa does a great job of showing us his flaws and insecurities subtly without making it over done (the panel compositions are sooo good) - we get little hints here and there even as early as chapter 15, and it only comes out in full once we’re already attached to hyunwoo. Bonus points for slipping in little details here and there about the original timeline (rather than dumping it all at once) - things like how Yoojoon and him drifted apart then, how Chronos hadn’t been as successful - which makes the current timeline all the sweeter.
It’s hard to get more specific without getting into spoilers, but if anyone Is still with me after that long, rambly review, I definitely recommend checking it out! especially if you like idol manhwa - I've read quite a few - debut & die, monochrome rumor, second life millionaire, comeback as the youngest member to name a few - and this is easily my favorite, though debut and die comes close. Ahh can't wait for the next chapter to come out >< 100/10 would recommend
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 7, 2024
I wasn't expecting much honestly, but it's surprisingly fun. Not as smooth as King's Avatar, but if you enjoyed that, you'd probably enjoy this too. The 3d cgi of the game's world bothers me a little, since I'm definitely more of a fan of 2D animation than 3D, but it's enjoyable enough anyway. admittedly the animation quality itself might not be as good as some others in the 8 tier, but I had a lot of fun watching, so it deserved higher than 7
Premise is that the MC is a college P.E. teacher who really love martial arts, super dedicated and passionate, but he struggles
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getting others interested in it in the current day and age. one of his initial students gets him into the game, binding him as a mage - and then he proceeds to do martial arts instead. shenanigans happen. ye xiu-brand chaos ensues.
The characters are fairly fun - the interactions between the Elite Guild, as well as the MC and his ducklings/students are fairly amusing. I gotta say, Sword Ghost (jian gui) is probs my fave character - he's so cute and his va did *such* a good job.
fair warning - the sub translations can be kind of iffy at times - most of the time, they do get the point across, albeit some nuances might be lost if you don't understand Chinese, but at some points they don't make that much sense, so keep that in mind
All in all, this is a pretty decent donghua to binge, but don't really expect too-complex plot like bungou or the like
update: just realized the original novel was also written by butterfly blue, which definitely explains why I kept getting king's avatar vibes
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 14, 2022
The art is actually quite lovely - Li Qiang and Lian Shiying especially. The fight scenes are nice, and the characters are quite badass. There's an element of mystery and political intrigue, which is nice. Finding out Li Qiang's backstory, and seeing his character develop is actually fairly interesting. A good blend of humor and more serious elements. The problem I have with this is that it has a large roster of characters, but doesn't do the best job at convincing us to care about them. The show is fun to watch -- mostly for the character designs -- but they don't do the best
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job of investing us in the storyline and plot. With maybe the exception of Li Qiang and the childhood friend, Memory of Chang'an, the characters aren't fleshed out enough to be interesting. Also, Li Qiang almost seems kind of OOC in the second season, especially when compared to the first - and it's nice that he's opening up a bit, but the rest of his changes, the oft-patented jealousy especially, don't really feel natural; the lying, especially, is kind of cringy. I got second-hand embarassment watching it. Compared to better Chinese anime like qzgs and mdzs, Memory of Chang'an is fairly mediocre. However, if you're just looking for something to pass time and/or some pretty characters, Memory of Chang'an has that. All in all, not the worst show out there.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 15, 2021
Death Note might be an older anime, but it's absolutely great. It has a very unique and interesting premise, especially in the sense that we're watching it from the perspective of a protagonist that isn't exactly good. Plus, unlike a lot of the more popular anime--Naruto, One Piece, or Fairy Tail, for example--Death Note has no filler, and it doesn't drag things out either. In part, that might be because Death Note is shorter than the anime I listed, at only 37 episodes, but what that means is that it doesn't feel dragged out for impossibly long like some other animes are; I was surprised
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by how much plot can happen in a single episode. That said, I'm not a big fan of the drawing style, although the way that sound is used in Death Note is very well done. Case in point, Episode 25. Absolutely my favorite episode.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Nov 2, 2019
To start off, I want to say this: I love Fairy Tail. It was the second anime I'd ever watched (after Naruto), and what really drew me into anime. The art is lovely, and the animation remains pretty good throughout. The backstory arcs--Galuna, Phantom Lord, and Tower of Heaven--were really engaging and interesting. It wasn't really until after the timeskip that things started going kind of funky, although the dragon part of the Grand Magic Games was pretty cool too.
That said, I'm not blind to its faults.
First off, Juvia. Or, more specifically Gruvia, which the show hints *pretty* heavily at. I know this might offend
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the Gruvia fans out there, but this ship ... no, just no. Juvia is crazy stalker-fangirl, who tries to feed Gray love potions and has various Gray-themed items (like that body pillow)--in all honesty, anyone who thinks that this is a healthy relationship seriously has some issues. In the real world, Juvia's behavior would probably be grounds for a restraining order. It's sad that "fangirl" is really Juvia's defining characterization, because the few times she isn't fangirling or acting like some obsessive stalker, she seems like she would've made an interesting character.
Second--plot. In the later arcs especially, the plot seems to just boil down to: 1) Fairy Tail fails to defeat enemy. 2) NAKAMA, friendship, Yay! 3) Defeats enemy. 4) Rinse and Repeat. The story plot just really isn't interesting, unfortunately, because the Fairy Tail world has so much potential.
Third, powers. The characters really don't have consistent powers. This especially can be seen in Erza's case--her magic makes absolutely no sense, and follows none of the other guidelines for magic. If you think about it, she's not really very magical at all--most of the "magic" attacks come from her armor. And yet she defeats here strongest magical opponents with nothing but a sword? Also, where does she even get her armor from? Following requip magic's logic, they must be items stored in her requip dimension. But if they're items, she must've gotten them from somewhere, and it's hard to believe that she managed to find that many rare and powerful armors--or the fact that no one else is using or used them. Plus, every single time her armor breaks or is damaged, we see it later, perfectly fine and in mint condition. Which, what? Does she have an auto-repair for magic items or something? As if that isn't bad enough, the show continuously just throws out more armors for Erza whenever she needs a powerup, without showing how she even got that armor, or indeed why she never used it before in dire situations. Like, that random armor she equipped to defeat Minerva with in the GMG. Another instance of inconsistent powers is the whole second-origin thing. It was definitely a cop-out, but what's worse is that it doesn't make sense. We see that Laxus, Gajeel, and the rest of the GMG crew (outside of Natsu's group, of course) didn't unlock their second origin, yet they still seemed to be on par with Team Natsu after the three months of training. So does that mean that unlocking your second origin is only worth three months of training? Plus, Erza's was apparently unlocked the whole time, so she didn't get the miraculous boost Natsu and co got, yet she didn't seem any weaker than her opponents, who'd been training for seven years. Which means that she is on par with post-second origin Natsu and co, which would mean that she had the magic power of Fairy Tail AFTER the time skip even in the early arcs. And yet Natsu was able to defeat opponents she couldn't. So, again, inconsistent strength.
...This review is way longer than I meant for it to be. Oops. Still, despite all its flaws, I do recommend Fairy Tail, especially the first couple arcs.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 1, 2019
I honestly don't understand why SAO, and thus Alicization by extension, gets such flak. Sure, the parts in the real world are kind of boring, and the second half feels a bit rushed, but all in all, I thought it was pretty good. Especially the first cour--I really loved the introduction of Kirito to Eugeo and the Underworld. I just wished the Swordcraft Academy part was more in-depth, but oh well. Still, I think Alicization was definitely the best out of all the SAO arcs, and the graphics and art were lovely. The only thing that's not really clear is just WHAT happened to Eugeo's
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memories of Kirito, or even what that whole situation with them being childhood friends, then Eugeo not remembering, then Eugeo referencing it, was all about. I'm guessing it'll all be explained in the remaining two cours of Alicization, though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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