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May 28, 2021
VINLAND SAGA is a JOURNEY
I appreciate the development that the main character Thorfin goes through throughout the series. Its different from what you would expect from a Shounen MC and the author really takes his time to show Thorfin's metamorphosis in a way that feels natural and not forced. Take all the great things that the author does with Thorfin's transformation, put it in a trash bin and we are left with Canute, the other main character of the series. The Canute in the beginning of the series is a completely different person than the one he eventually becomes but in this case, the author
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forsakes taking a gradual approach, that he took with Thorfin, which left a very bad taste in my mouth.
The first two arcs are really good, notwithstanding the Canute development, mostly due to Askeladd's presence, who instills a sense of intrigue and subtlety in the narrative that no other character manages to pull off. After the Farm arc, the story feels a bit lighter in tone, despite the continued existence of war and grief, which coincides with Thorfin's personality change but I can see a lotta people getting turned off by the antics of Sigurd's friends/henchmen. Some people that appear in the latter part of the story feel outta place compared to the prologue of Vinland Saga. What's worse is that the author tries to fit in comedy in the midst of a supposed serious battle, which might really take out the immersion for a lot of readers
Overall, I think Vinland Saga is worth a read for everyone despite some huge flaws and the characters, for the most part are really good. Don't go into it thinking that you won't find Shounen elements in the series
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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May 21, 2021
GREATNESS. Currygom is the best among webtoon writers
(No Spoilers)
Within a span of two weeks, which is the time it took me to binge it, this series has become one of the best manga/manhwa I have ever read.
For folks who may need a reference series, let me point you to Tower of God and One Piece. The aforementioned series are rich in lore, so is Kubera with the difference being that the characters in Kubera are just as great, which is typically an impossibility. Authors who lean heavily on the overall plot and world building tend to string along their characters to where the plot
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requires them to be, lending a sense of artificiality to the world. Kubera finds a way to achieve progression in plot while coinciding with character agency, which is extremely difficult to do.
Currygom, the author, has all my respect and it is a travesty that this series doesn’t get the love like a lot of other webtoons do which are not nearly in the same league in terms of writing. Let me get into some detail without spoiling
STORY
A young village girl encounters a tragedy on her 16th birthday and is rescued by a mysterious magician, which kickstarts the narrative of this fantasy epic. Unlike a lot of other manhwa out there, the MC is put through the ringer at ever turn, which is something you wouldn’t expect given the rather light tone early in the series. There are three broad classes of living beings- Gods, Suras(kinda like demons) and humans and its the interplay between these parties that makes the narrative so rich in its intricacy. The Universe itself is at stake depending on who wins out
CHARACTERS
The MC was absent for 36 chapters in a stretch at one point in the story and it felt as natural as it can be given the wealth of great characters that this series has at its disposal and how the author manages to make the readers invested in them. Of course, there were folks every week crying in the comments section because they couldn’t see the characters they were so used to seeing but the author didn’t budge for the sake of the masses and stuck to her flow of story, something which most manga/manhwa writers wouldn’t be able to do. This wouldn’t be possible without character agency at its finest
ART
Not that good initially when the author was still figuring stuff out but come the third season, the art looks really gorgeous
Potential Turnoffs
Some people have a stroke the moment they realise that their story might have time traveling. If you are one of them, let me warn you because Kubera has a lot of time related theme. We are dealing with literal Universes, for Gods’ sake. Time, gravity, dimensions, hell, paradise are all a natural consequence of the story we are dealing with
If you wanna follow the main character 24/7, you might be frustrated but you will realise that it is for the sake of the story
Kubera hasn’t ended yet and too often, long running shows meet a tragic end. Can Kubera evade the curse? I certainly hope so because the author has not shown any signs of slacking off even when we are 480 chapters deep
There a lotta references to Hindu mythology, so certain terms might be tough for Westerners to remember, but come on
Final Take
If you have the patience to read a long running series, drop everything and read Kubera right now. If you are a fan of HxH, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist, Berserk, etc., you will find a bunch of things you are gonna enjoy in this narrative
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 21, 2021
Is this the manhwa/Korean equivalent of One Punch Man?
No. Not nearly as comedic
Solo leveling falls into the same abyss that a lot of manhwa fall into. The abyss which is the MC being so overpowered that the entire story seems to revolve around them, making the side characters just a conduit through with the author wants to express what he wants his audience to feel.
The series is currently 150 chapters long and ongoing. The MC faced his hardest challenges in the first 50 chapters and has been on cruise control ever since. The villains and heroes alike are uninteresting over the long run, notwithstanding
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their decent showing in the short run
Having said all of that, I don’t mind reading power fantasy mediocre series every now and then. If you find it fun, by all means enjoy just like I do sometimes. Everyone needs a series that you can just enjoy for what it is without thinking too much about it and Solo Leveling might be that series for you as it has been for me. Just because you enjoy something doesn’t mean its actually good though
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 27, 2020
No Spoilers:
If I were an anime only, I would probably enjoy this adaptation but as somebody who has already read ahead, I realise that this adaptation has misrepresented a lot of stuff in the original material and added stuff for no good reason.
To give you some context as to the kinda stories I like, I love Berserk, Monster, FMAB, HxH, Death Note, etc., which are character oriented. Series like One Piece lose me cuz they start off pretty strong but fall off a cliff in dramatic fashion with Naruto being another example. Lets get to ToG now which for me is very similar to
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One Piece in terms of its enjoyment curve
The MC of ToG is oblivious to what’s happening around him and for valid reason but that doesn’t make him engaging in any sense. He is more of a reactor than an initiator in this segment of the story. Among the side characters, Khun stands out as the best cuz of his distrustful nature but the Webtoon handles his character way better in Season 1. The same applies to Rak, who was reduced to a meme by the anime, which also just brushed past his most significant dialog in the Webtoon. Overall, the side characters are decent
The world is definitely intriguing which raises a lot of questions by the viewers, which may be enough for some people to keep watching this series. But as a fair warning to all those who wanna jump ahead and read the Webtoon, like any long running show, ToG loses its plot after a certain point in Season 2 ( Most of Season 2 is really good except the end) and its been downhill since then. The power scaling is some of the worst in Shounen. DBZ’s is better in some sense. The series devolves into one faction fighting another faction and all of the intrigue that made the first half of ToG great is notably absent in the current portion of the Webtoon. One Piece and Naruto are two series which have had the same problem
Give it a 4 for its adaptation but season 1 of the Webtoon (which is what this anime covers) gets a solid 8
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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