The Breaker

This novel is near perfect.
From story to character design to everything.
Definitely not one of those cliche plots overflows with only cute girls, harem and interpersonal relationship based upon superfluous kindness.
Some philosophical arguments raised by the characters are thought-provoking.
The conversations between the characters contain many useful information and the elements of its mysteries are able to get our brain cells working.
Anyone who is interested in light novel with a postmodern background or mystery-lovers can certainly not miss this.

Ok, overall, to conclude the greatness of this novel, there's only one thing I need to mention......

The siblings love between Demon and the Queen. <3

One of the BEST novels I have ever read. Enough said.

I don't know, but korean manhaw's are pretty heavy in portraying the dark themes especially the bullying in the beginning. Compared to Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi the Breaker is much heavier. If you liked this manga you'll probably like Feng Shen Ji.

Anyways, i think the story line is fanstastic i give it a 9/10 (but only for the first part up until The Breaker: New Waves). Though the death of Shiho was saddening it was understandable and very well done, her death also allows the reader to sympathise for Han as he turns to evil in New Waves.

The art is good i give it 9/10 because I personally like the art style, but usually art come down to interpretation so at worst i think its an 8.

Character development is good 8/10, Shi-Woon starts out a whimp then becomes brave and somewhat strong. Even the little romance between Sosul and Shi was alright.

ALERT: The following review may contain SPOILERS.
Also, english is not my native language, so I'm really sorry if you'll find any error.

Story 8/10

The story is great. There's no other word to define that. It deals with a bullied boy, who after seeing his new english teacher beating up a couple of gangsters, decided to make him his new martial arts master, no matter if the teacher doesnt want to.
He will get rapidly involved with the "Murim", the martial arts world, that's not so kind, specially with Chun-Woo, the teacher, who's actually the "Nine arts dragon", one of the stronger, if not the strongest of them all.
The premise is really simple, but it's told in such an effective way, and becomes so much complicated... Despite all, the story is certainly the weakest part of this manwha. Do not misunderstand, it really is great, but from the beginning to the very end, it seems like a great prologue for the next part: The Breaker New Waves, although I havent read it yet. The way the manwha proceeds, the way it ends, all seems to let you think that that's not the end, that's only the beginning, and what will happen next is actually the main plot. And at the end of the manwha, I wasnt fully satisfied..

Art 10/10

Never seen such beautiful pages, such amazing splash arts... The artist is a prodigy. The fighting scenes were so good, I wanted more and more of them, they did never bore me. This is absolutely the strongest point of the manwha.

Characters 9/10

Uhm... I don't really know how to say that, but this is the first manga in which I couldn't find a single annoying character. They were all fun, even if they were depressed (like the main protagonist in the first 10/20 chapters), or weak (like Soseol), they all managed to amaze me and, like the drawings, they did never bore me.

Enjoyment 9/10

As I said, the fighting scenes were next level, but that's not the only reason why I gave 9 out of 10 to "Enjoyment". This manga was actually quite funny. The jokes or funny moments were never put in wrong places, they were actually fun and managed to break the monotony of that scene or that situation.
A character also broke the fourth wall!

"Hey calm down! We're here at the ocean and should be having fun. And the authors even made the effort to use color pages for fan service..."
"Dammit. What's with the sudden ocean thing? I understand we've been starving for color pages, but..."



Overall 9/10
I really, really, really wanted to give this manwha 10/10, but the constant prologue feeling didn't let me do so. This had the potential to become the greatest manga/manwha I've ever read, but it didnt manage to do so. I'm hoping that if the writer's purpose was really to write a prologue, "The Breaker: New Waves" will be able to meet my expectations.

Like most action manhwa this involves martial arts in some form, the story however is quite different even if it wasn't very complex. But I enjoy how consistent they were with the jargon (even if they changed the translations back and forth throughout) and the dialogue was pretty interesting.

The art was amazing, it changed drastically throughout the series and in my opinion only got better. Despite the characters looking somewhat bug like they were very attractive and the panelling was easy to take in, on top of it the action scenes were incredibly easy to follow and they even had some special 2 page panels that depict giant fight scenes.

Characters were kind of a hit and miss for me, the selling point of the protagonist was that he is incredibly naive and pure but it went a little too far trying to prove that point sometimes which sort of ruined immersion for me. The protagonists 'crush' was also unrealistically trusting in him which was also a turn off. Other than those two traits of those two characters, all the characters were likeable. I even liked the bullies because of how they were written, though I did want to punch them quite hard.

All the time I have spent reading this manhwa was worth it and I have read it over again 2 or 3 times now. I do wish Shi-yoon developed actual martial arts abilities that weren't reliant on the strength of his ki, but that was a minor displeasure.

This manhwa is pretty awesome it has a great plot with good drawings, its style of story feel almost like a Japanese manga, and like all Korean manhwa start as a long thin strip and converts to the easy to read "manga" style. This had great build-up and a very good cliff hanger finish. Spoilers from here on.

~SPOILERS~

Shioon, whom is the protagonist, a victim of consistent bullying, pushing him to the limits of his rationality and is on the verge of committing suicide. He see his teacher(Nine Arts Dragon-NAD) fighting with some bouncers in the city while walking around and begs him to teach him how to fight. He finds out that he has almost no Ki in his body and is told that he really can't do much in the state he's in. The the nurse(Shi-ho) calls him over to her house and gives him magical ball, she tells him this will help and is the key he needs actually practice this crazy martial arts his teacher know. This has the dual ability of having him perform these amazing things and uncontrollable ki. Make a long story short NAD challenges the Alliance and Shi-ho get shot to death NAD goes berserk and destroys Shioons ki center, and banishes him as his disciple. The onto New waves which is just as good. Read it, Read it now. 3-4 times it's worth it.

The Breaker ... When i first started reading this manhwa i didn't know what really to expect. Lets start with a brief description.

The Breaker is a manhwa that follows mostly 2 people, Yi Shi-Woon, a highschool boy who is very week, frail, cowardly and is under constant bullying and Han Chun Woo a recently transfered professor who is a "ladies man". In truth, Han Chun Woo is actually at the school on a mission, he is apart of the murim, a secret world of martial arts and when Yi Shi-Woon sees who Han Chun Woo really is, he asks him to be trained so that he can stand up to the studants who bullie him.

The story branchs of from this 2 characters, other characters eventually show up, all very unique and a brand new world opens up for Yi Shi-Woon.

Aside from the amasing plot that takes awhile to develop but once it starts it really gets you interested in the manhwa, the art work is fantastic. The character designs, the backgrounds, its all so well done that the manhwa kept me drooling all over it. The character themselvs as stated previously are all very unique and each have their own personalities and are very memorable.

As you can see from my fanboy'ish review, i loved reading this masterpiece, i enjoyed it so much i read all 72 chapters in one day, and on the next day i went back and read it again in 1 day, thats how much i enjoyed this manhwa.

I definatly recommend The Breaker(and its sequel wich is still ongoing atm) to anyone who likes a good story with interesting characters and huge character devolopment, great art work and epic martial arts technics.

I hope you enjoy it as much as i did, and thank you for spending the time to read this Review.

To me, The Breaker is the best action title on this site. (I got a TL;DR for each paragraph btw)

Art TL;DR - The art is damn good. The martial arts are stylish. SSStylish! If you will. It speaks for itself but it takes a few volumes to hit that 10/10 level.

Getting to the point, the main appeal of the series is the art while it does take a few volumes improve to the standard of the rest of the series. The character designs are well done because they often echo the character's personality e.g. Hyuk So Chun is a character who is for all accounts perfect as a martial artist. Both his character and appearance are simple yet refined and perfectly orthodox. The backgrounds are sparse at times but, that sparseness is sometimes used to have the focus of the panel be squarely on the action and when there is detail in the backgrounds and especially the cars the art is top notch. The choreography and panel flow really shines and is what makes the series what it is, makes the action parts feel smooth and sleek and it's very easy to follow the flow of the fight which a lot of shounen manga sometimes fail to do.


Story TL;DR - The story has more to it upon rereading but on the surface it still does a good job of facilitating the martial arts action without being needlessly convoluted.

The story seems simple enough on the first read and with its fast pace it makes it an easy read where the story doesn't take away from the action and facilitates it well. Upon rereading, especially after reading the sequel, you can really appreciate how the story sets up multiple sub plots relevant in both this series and the sequel. A lot of the things that would usually be a problem aren't because it makes sense in the context of the story. without spoiling anything, there are parts of the story where it seems like the writing has taken a shortcut and leapt forward to progress the plot but the reasoning for it makes sense when considering the context of the overarching plot and why the situation is how it is. Also the story balances focus between the subplots, MC and his teacher well to a point that the plot remains engaging, it's never too much of the same.


Characters' TL;DR - The MC develops nicely thanks to pacing and the fact that we see each turning point in his character, the teacher Chun Woo is just a solid cool guy and the supporting characters are solid albeit some are left a bit shallow.

The characters are much like the story, facilitating the story at a glance but having a good level of depth and development upon a closer look. The MC Shi-Woon is comparable to Midoriya (Boku no Hero academia) and Kenichi (History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi) being a weak ass kid who was bullied and then picked up by some of the strongest people in the world. His development is more solid however. the do-gooder aspect is still there in prime shounen fashion but, seeing where he came from emotionally one can see why he feels that way. There's a part where he says he wants to learn martial arts to protect himself and the people he cares about but unlike the aforementioned protagbags, you get the sense that it's because after experiencing that constant fear and feeling powerless to a point he'd consider doing anything to get a break, he wants to stand up for himself and be nice to everyone because he wants to distance himself from how he was and how his bullies are as much as possible. The teacher, Chun Woo, is a loose cannon but his backstory explains his reckless attitude and his soft side and it gets to a point where his story is as engaging, if not more than, Shi-Woon. Supporting cast is good too but this is long as is.

Wrapping this long ass review up, I gave it a 10 because the art in its entirety is top notch and the writing goes along to fit with it making it feel like a complete package. The art is the stand out aspect of the series but the story and characters are still good, in fact I give the writing even more credit for being good without drawing focus away from the main appeal of the series. Shoutout to Kengan Asura tho

There's no need me writing this as is evident to the continuous list of reviews with rated 10 but with free time comes great.. no, not great but a responsibility to write a review from a not so imaginative, opinionated person who dreams to be a writer.

The Breaker is a series that broke from the overrated fighting solo hero, school life routine that is rampant on many comic I've observed. I've read the first 3 chapters or so and I knew I would waste my time for a couple of hours to finish the volumes available, in which, with luck was already completed.

You know the story. A teen in school. Weak and socially awkward, bullied. And here, with a drum beat, the master, feared and infamous to many great artist, not the one with paint brushes. The kid asks the teacher, literally as this master was a teacher at the time, to teach him kick ass. Typical story? Not. Read the other articles here. They have said it eloquently. But since this is a review and I have to detail the awesomeness, and justify my 8 rating, here goes... boom, wa paahhh. then girls go ahhhhh.. ohh he's so awesome! then hero goes as long as good exists, evil never prevails... I will save you ... ugh. noooo. I will never give up yo! (scratch the yo)...

And that is why it's a manga worth watching (I mean reading, man. sheesh, really). Hope I convinced you, if you're still not at this point, which is quite impossible considering this so majestically written piece of shit.. ah. I mean art.

Following our protagonist, we are taken through the vast world of a secret martial arts society, the Murim; where the top of the food chain are the strongest practitioners of martial arts. The general plot of this manwha seems to be linear, hero vs villain, hero pulls through in the end; yet there are many surprises. The art and character development are lacking in finesse, but are made up with strong emotion and iron-clad wills. Overall I would rate 10/10 for this based on how easily you get sucked into the story, wanting to see more of our heroes war on evil.

Story 8: The Breaker's narrative has a unique approach to its structure by creating a very linear story that progresses in an almost circular fashion. What I mean by that is that each new 'arch' follows a similar pattern, with the same beats and plot details, but each one furthers a very clear linear pathway toward the conclusion. Unlike stories like the big three this story is very clearly bringing us to a conclusion and each loop is simply a means to make us care about the world and characters in order to make that conclusion feel more impactful. And in that regard, this story shines, it has a solid set of likeable characters that gain depth as you progress and are mostly well developed. Its hallmark however is the story's message on bullying and peer abuse. I have never seen a story handle this issue in a more relatable and realistic fashion. The writer and artist clearly were holding nothing back in their depictions, and did not hold anything back when expressing how horrific these kinds of situations can become. Now, while it is unpleasant to think about, it is important to discuss and the creators should be commemorated for being willing to have that in this manwha.


Art 6: The art for the most part is quite fair, with character designs that stylish and unique, set pieces that are nice to look at, and shading that sets the tone for each panel. However, when in motion the results are iffy, some of the fights just really don't look very good and are hard to keep up with. The blur style they use doesn't really portray the motion the characters are taking and often just looks disjointed and bizzare, like each movement is breaking both time and space for the sake of plot. Granted, this is generally only an issue in the early part of the series, and is far less noticeable later on.

Character 8: the characters as mentioned before are generally well developed and mostly turn into interesting figures within the narrative, with one exception. The bully is just the bully, he has no other characteristics and has no redemptive qualities. This is a bit of a shame, but is understandable given the clear zero tolerance message being expressed here. Still I feel it is a bit of missed opportunity to make a deeper message on the circular nature of abuse and bullying and it could have really elevated the story to a higher level.

Enjoyment 8: this series has three key details that make it stand out and keep it entertaining: a surprisingly unique and well developed lore, a solid character line up that works well together, and a strong moral message that doesn't sugar coat important and serious concerns. The manwha may not be a masterpiece, but it is a damn good read that holds well to scrutiny.

Overall 8: If you are looking for a solid martial arts tale, featuring an underdog rising story that expresses strong moral arguments in a very relatable way while not holding back in explaining the serious nature of bullying and child violence, then you will enjoy this series.