[Thanks to Viz and Edelweiss for a copy of this manga in exchange for an unbiased review.]
This surprised me in a good way. I wasn’t expecting much, but I do like to branch out from my usual romance genre to read new things once in a while and this drew me in super fast.
Being based on a historical record makes some of the wilder swings go down more easily and even the ‘ugly-good’ artwork grew on me after a while. It’s violent, but a lot tamer than, say, Battle Royale.
The series smartly starts with a micro focus on two war orphans, Xin and Piao, before slowly expanding out to follow the travails of an entire kingdom (with clear intent to blow that out even further to encompass all of China itself).
Rather than being broken by their circumstances, Xin and Piao train hard and work towards a future where their skill with a blade earns them the riches they can only dream about.
When that chance comes, however, it breaks them apart and then traces its way back to the king himself and a civil war that rages behind the scenes. It is terribly compelling and I appreciated how it picked up steam as it went.
Whether down to its historical basis or not, the writing here is good. Xin is a strong hero, even if he is believably childish at the outset. There were at least three times where either the main plot or a character’s reaction genuinely shocked me, which felt really satisfying.
Yes, you have to accept that a young teenager can go toe to toe with a trained assassin using nothing but determination and guts, but you have to realize you’re reading a manga and that comes with the territory.
Now, the elephant in the room here is that if you get invested in this at all, you’re staring down a series that is already over seventy volumes. You One Piece types will be fine, but I know that my attention span would never last.
Which I’m almost sad about - even knowing this won’t be an ongoing for me, I am sorely tempted to read the next volume because I am kind of intrigued to see where things are going plus the next assassin battle seems interesting (the first one is all skill, the second is all skill and dead weird).
If you like a good story with some interesting characters and lots of intrigue going on (there are at least two violent betrayals this volume and we’re not out of the starting blocks), well, you could do worse. My not reading it is down to having too much on my plate, not lack of interest.
4 stars - not my usual cup of tea, certainly, but I was very satisfied with the action and flavour of this particular blend, not to kill the metaphor. Recommended if it sounds remotely appealing.