Duke Pendragon
Ugh, I've checked out a few of this author's other works and none of them so far have been for me. I like the art and the premise of most of this author's stories, but the execution always feels off for me. Here we have an overpowered dude who reincarnates, with girls instantly salivating over him and it feels mediocre rather than the "epicly cool" it's obviously aiming for. Well, it feels too try hard for me anyway. All the women do seem to be useless for anything other then admiring and fawning over protag-man. I don't necessarily want some strong warrior woman up in her, just... I dunno, for all the women not to immediately fall in love after MC treats them contemptuously. Also for them not to be incredibly annoying baggage too. That would be nice. The women characters could be nice baggage instead.
Standard of Reincarnation
A one armed swordsman from the branch of an important family struggles with the main family's successor until he is eventually locked up in prison and dies. He reincarnates in the body of a young boy 500 years in the future. At first it's ok, but later some revelations happen than had me rolling my eyes, especially in regards to the "arch demon" and all the weird politics. The politics while apparently somehow important are nebulous and poorly established. Rather than making me want to find out more, it made me drop this. Also MC was almost 30 when he died, but he reacts and loses his cool like a child a lot in this story, which bother's me cause he was an extremely experienced swordsman before he died. As is usual in these stories everyone's got beef with MC because they think him weak, but it's very annoying that they continue to do so when he's done the work to get to the stages he needs to. To get into the weird school thing he had to beat a demon, and yet the school's dean acts like he's not done the work and is weak and worthless. As if the head of the family would allow him to enroll at school without having proven himself. In fact, the story made it seem that MC could try killing the demon at any time and as a result of that he'd be then sent to school. So I dunno how it was supposed to make sense for the dean to be so prejudiced. It makes him look like an idiot who can't reason simple things out on his own. The art is alright, relies a lot on light show stuff, but ok. Now the translation is weird at times. You can make sense of most sentences easily but the names of things can be quite stupid. Like the heavenly exoskeleton. Does the translator not know humans don't have those? Did they think MC is a beetle? Or a lobster? If this heavenly body shit is about storing mana in your bones then it's just heavenly skeleton, 'cause you know, MC and all the humans in the story have their bones inside, and not outside like most insects do. >_> Just cause you think it sounds cool doesn't mean it's right. And this is either the fault of a translator or the author. My money's on the translator not knowing the difference between bugs and people.
Chronicles Of The Martial God
The strongest martial artist in the world, gets sealed away by some immortals for... reasons. I think he may have done a bad? It's very vaguely explained. The guy stays sealed for 1000 years and then our story actually starts when he's already out and comes across a little girl about to starve to death. He eventually decides to raise her as his own and goes about trying to build a life where that is possible. It starts pretty good and interesting. You don't really know where it's all going but the dynamic with the daughter is cute. However it's a bit odd. Supporting characters get introduced, but they aren't really properly fleshed out and some (like the poor magistrate) kind of get shunted right out of the plot, despite still kind of being there. It's really odd. It also feels like the story is fighting against it's own set up? Like the kid starts school, someone raises concerns about schools having bullies or whatever, and then it's just promptly abandoned. We also have the "training subordinates to get stronger" and that too is abruptly abandoned. At one point I seriously thought I missed a chapter or some pages were missing. I went to other sites to check. The plot segues from what I thought was going to be character development for a member of the supporting cast to something connected to MC's past and it gives you whiplash. There are attempts at world building, but why would I want to know that at the expense of getting character development?? A shadowy organization is introduced later on in the story. They are vaguely threatening, but not really because they aren't a threat to MC, merely to people he knows but aren't under his protection. Because of this it's hard to get invested or care about what is clearly meant to be looming threat. I can see what the author's trying to do with the found family and not losing sight of what you already have themes, but it's not executed all that well. The people that end up joining MC's family are interesting when first introduced and you wonder what will happen next and are excited for how they'll grow, and then they're just there. Stagnant with no development in their relationships to one another. Everyone immediately loves the daughter, this is fine for the most part but she gets no chance to be an actual person. She's a therapy dog at best. There's been opportunities to do something with her, like that thing about making friends at school. Unfortunately it was just skipped over, even though there was set up! The classroom was depicted as kind of cold, and not wanting to accept her. Presumably the author didn't want to focus on that, but then, why bother with the set up? Why bother sending the kid to school? What's the motivation here? Was it there just to be a PSA on how education is important? It has no affect on the plot or on the little girl herself. She seems happy to go and excitedly tells MC about the stuff she learned on her first day, but it's never brought up again. And then later on we see she has friends. Apparently it was all fine despite the difficulties it was implied the girl would have to overcome. ?????? Thanks for not having any stupid one note bullies??? I guess??? Another character catches MC's eye as he sees himself in this other person. He sees a deep hatred in this other person's eyes, so he tells him to get rid of that hatred as it'll fuck with his growth as a martial artist of something, and the other character just goes "ok". What is this hatred? What's it directed at? How does it relate to his drive to become the best? I don't know. It's not brought up again. He presumably stops hating I guess, because he's honestly just a mellow dude who doesn't talk much. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ The story and characterization isn't executed that well, so I ended up dropping the story.
Battle Through The Heavens
Couldn't really get into it. Didn't really like the art.
Chronicles of the Demon Faction
The best assassin is killed trying to cut ties with his organization and leave for a peaceful life. It's an epic fight but he dies and then reincarnates into the body of a diciple of the demonic cult. I dunno. I got to chapter 9 and decided this isn't for me. Our MC is easily flustered, everything shows on his face and he talks to himself out loud so that anyone vaguely within earshot can hear him being confused by his surroundings as well as insulting the demon lord. Truly he is the best assassin in the world! A guy who doesn't know how to shut the fuck up, control his expressions or body language and rather than blending in is a master of being extremely awkward and decidedly standing out. I don't know why this is so highly rated when the story managed to destroy all of MCs credibility not only as an extremely experienced assassin, but also literally the best assassin. MC seems to be at least in his 30s and yet upon reincarnation he acts like he's 18. The first few chapter give the impression of story packed with martial arts action, tragedy and a quest for freedom. Then suddenly it changes into a comedy manga with a protagonist who comes off more as a naive high schooler than a seasoned assassin. Thanks I hate it, and have tonal whiplash.
Youngest Son of the NamGung Clan
Guy who has no talent tries his best, but is eventually irreparably damaged and then kicked out of his clan. Heartbroken, the man drinks the last of his money away and while aimlessly wondering, drunk, alone and homeless he's accosted and killed by some bandit. MC them travels back in time and starts his life again, vowing to not even try this time, and do his bets to escape his terrible family. I was really rooting for MC to succeed in escaping his clan, but it seems the story is another one of those where MC stays in the abusive environment that absolutely traumatized him before and still earn the acceptance of the very people he was trying to escape. I don't understand why it's so hard for him to just leave, but it's annoying and in the end I dropped this, cause fuck it. He's also another weird MC who just talks to himself in public and somehow no-one pays attention to his ramblings. Honestly if he truly wanted to be left alone and be trash, all he'd have to do is fake being insane or something. I usually like these kinds of stories, but the important factor is that MC is always on board, but here he isn't, and it feels extremely icky that he has to stay with his abusers despite clearly wanting to get the fuck away and not wanting to be involved. For crying out loud, he literally says hiss real family are the maids and nanny's that raised him. Author also does nothing with that, none of the maids have any sort of character and barely get screen time. MC doesn't confide in them, nor does he have any emotional scenes with them. I didn't get far, but the art seemed fine and so did the translation.
Revenge of the Iron-Blooded Sword Hound
Warning: gore A loyal and long serving soldier is betrayed by his lord of a father, who has him executed on trumped up charges. The soldier dies but also goes back in time to when he was a baby and has his life to relive. He decides he's going to get revenge on the man who neglected him, used him and ultimately killed him. He does so by getting stronger but also continuing to serve his father, playing the long game I guess. So far the only changes to his previous life are his strength and his own feelings towards his father. He doesn't really do anything that different except adapt to the changes his increased strength bring. His father suddenly loves him for being a strong genius, but MC continues to think to himself about revenge and shit. The plot is pretty paint by numbers, there's no attempt at character development, rather MC seems to stay unchanged so far, the other characters seem to like him, but it's clear MC has no interest in forming any sort of genuine relationships, though he does act like the good and loyal son for his father. The character interactions are kind of boring to me. Now, the revenge, which is the driving force of the plot also starts to lose it's appeal after a bit, because the author doesn't communicate MC's future steps and plan with regards to *how* he's going to take revenge on his father. You just see him meander from one thing to another, and mostly he seems to go along with it for reasons, but we don't find out why or how any of it will help. Most of the stuff he does is not only to increase his strength but also to please his father, and honestly my question would be why? And how is this different? MC instead is just made to remind the audience that he still hates his dad, and still wants bad things for him. I lost interest because of that. Another thing that really doesn't help with the story is the frankly badly delivered exposition. Several times in the story MC will go "ah yes, this thing", conveying that he knows the thing, and then, regardless of this assertion, another character will still exposit the thing to him in detail. They do it all the time and it's so strange! Why are they telling MC shit he already knows?? Especially when he acts like he knows in front of these people? It's not a good look when you end up skipping half the dialogue because you're not interested in the world building info. MC already knows everything, and directly thinks he's not interested in politics or anything that's happening around him, just his own goals. So why would the audience be interested when MC himself doesn't care? The information doesn't help, and it changes nothing for MC or the story. For these reasons I find this quite boring, and can't really recommend it, which is a shame. The art is VERY good. Nothing looks bad or awkward, characters look good from all the angles as do the backgrounds and animals. It's rare for an artist to be good at both animals and people, but here we are. I'm sad the story and plot couldn't match up to the greatness of the art. The panels flow, and there's not a time where I'm confused as to what is happening in story with the art. The translation seems fine and consistent for the most part, though I also didn't make it that far, so I wouldn't be able to confirm it's going to keep being that way.
What kind of rubbish are you cultivating?
Ok, this appears to be a gag-manhwa, so very much not my scene. Instantly dropped. An orphan is adopted by a super naive sadist master who basically torments him physically for training and tries to motivate his student with offers to breastfeed him despite the fact that, that isn't within the capabilities of a man. At least in this story. So basically now that student is pretty much an adult, the master is also sexually harassing him too, though I guess he doesn't mean it that way. Anyway, it's a comedy story where you're definitely not supposed to take anything seriously although, I have no idea why the main couple have to be an old man who raised the his lover from a baby. That's just ick. Why??? Author why did you make it like that???? Why couldn't he have met him in adulthood??? Why did he need to be a baby first???? Author???? Hello?!
Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun
The art is very pretty, but censors kisses in a terribly distracting way. What's the point making this a comic if the art isn't allowed to illustrate? There's better ways then giant ass word balloons obstructing both their heads. Also the story is annoying. I thought we'd get dude who went back in time training to be stronger, making use of acquired knowledge from the future and slowly uncovering mysteries + misunderstandings. Instead Mc's an idiot who makes no use of future knowledge or cultivation techniques or anything. He's s childish and whiny! Basically reverts back to being a child with no self awareness. His abusive master is abusive, and rather then turning away from him much earlier than he did in his previous life mc just tries to "tease" him and is constantly worrying about him, but without resolving any misunderstandings from the past life. Like at least when wei wuxian came back, he knew his shit and didn't act like a fucking teenager even if he was in the body of one. MC here died as the strongest cultivator at least 10 years or more in the future, but the story shows none of that future knowledge or maturity. It's such a shallow story that apparently wants to be kind of light hearted and comedic, but also wanting to be tragic and taken seriously. It fails at both, which makes me not care. I thought mc would do something interesting with his new life, but there's nothing there. Ugh... absolutely hate "the victim falling in love with their abuser" trope, it's shitty and for how longs it's been a staple of bl stories, it's also been done to death. So uninteresting. I haven't read the novel, but this hasn't given me any reason to go try reading that either. Ugh. Hard pass, don't understand why this is popular, or why this cliche of a plot remains so goddamn popular in bl stories. Don't waste your time on this there's better ways to spend your time. Like watching paint dry.
The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years