Bi-Kwang Han has the potential to become the greatest fighter in the land - except that he's girl-crazy and more than a little childish. He stumbles upon Hwa-Rin, a beautiful and determined woman who... This description may be from another edition of this product.
I have up to volume 45 of this manhwa in Korean. There are some people saying that there are too many characters in this manhwa, but just wait until a few more volumes and there'll be a LOT more! LOLz ;D This Korean manhwa is a bit different than your avg. manga in which there are designated group of main characters. In this manhwa, the main characters are Han Bi Kwang and Hwa Rin; there are, of course, some other characters that reappear throughout 45 volumes. The story line and the content is has more sexual stuff but also a LOT more DEPTH than something like Naruto or Inuyasha. The story line as well as the characters are pretty complex like an epic. Han Bi-Kwang (in Korean, the "last" name comes first, so it sounds better as Han Bi-Kwang than Bi-Kwang Han) is not a simple character. Yes, he is pretty cowardly, perverted, selfish, but also witty, loyal to Hwa Rin, and extremely talented in martial arts (which is the reason why the "old man" chose him to be his student). The main construct of the storyline is the "Good" vs. "Evil". The society Han Bi-Kwang is associated with is called SaPa (in Korean, which means evil/dark society), and Hwa Rin's society is MyoungPa (which means the righteous society). The manhwa depicts how society labels people and exhibits prejudice against Bi-Kwang, just because his mentor (the "old man") is the leader of SaPa. Ironically, not everyone in the MyoungPa are righteous, but plots conspiracies under the pretext of justice. Of course, there are evil people in the SaPa; for example, Bi-Kwangs 3rd and 4th martial brothers. However, even the 3rd martial brother, who at first seems like the devil incarnate, has a history/reason of becoming bitter and violent. Despite Bi-Kwang and Hwa Rin's opposite societies, the two remain loyal to each other after quite a few ordeals. Bi-Kwang instantly falls in love with her, but Hwa Rin, who is at first in love with her martial brother, slowly feels love towards Bi Kwang and even jealousy towards another female character later in the story. The story is pretty complicated and challenges the standards of good and evil, and if one can truly set these kinds of standards. Bi-Kwang, unlike your common comic book heroes, has soooooooo~ many flaws, but when it comes down to life and death situations, he remains fiercely loyal especially for Hwa Rin. The story itself is good, but the manhwa itself is very funny! I have read all the 45 volumes more than 10x, and I still laugh my arse off when reading this! Also, the art becomes exceptionally breath-taking after a few volumes. Again, though, I recommend this manhwa for adults, not for children due to the complex story + characters and the sexual content. It even states "18+" on the back cover (although I'm not sure if they say this on the English version). All in all, this is one comic that is DEFINATELY worth reading and by far my FAVORITE!!
The Ruler of the Land
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
Editorial Review sounds like a almost love story but this 'korean mega hit manga' is mostly about the growing-up and the battle between the good and the evil. The hero is not conventional. He is irresponsible and carefree, but has a lot of potential for martial arts which is noticed by both leaders of good and evil world. They want him to be a warrior and he refuses and run away every time, which makes this funny and lighthearted. You can see the changes of hero both mentally and physically along the road and the good and the evil mix each other at the end.(It is not original though, a lot of japanese manga tell similar stories.)The fighting scenes are powerful and the relationships between characters are sometimes emotional but most of story is very comical.
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