The Breaker: New Waves

So I was surprised when I went to my manga reading site to find that this manga, sequel to one of the my favorite manga's ever, had a 'Completed' tag. As a loyal fan that read the weekly release I feel a sense of duty to review the sequel, having already done the first entry. (*DISCLAIMER*I HIGHLY recommend that you read the prequel 'The Breaker' to have all the necessary knowledge going into this one.) The short version: (+)The majority of the characters are well done. (+)Story leads in well with the prequel. (+)Fight scenes are the best of they're kind. (+)Arts gives great emotion weights when it's needed. (-)The MCdoesn't change. At all. (-)The story does drag in parts. (-)Those without prior knowledge of the series will have many questions. THE GOOD: Being a 200 and bit chapter manga about martial arts, you are going to need many good things to present to the reader to keep the coming back every week for your story. That said, there are two things that The Breaker: New Waves has in spades, a good art style and good action segments. One of the things that this manga never failed on for me was to show the reader just how emotional these characters were in the situation they were in, when they're joking around with each other outside of the actual fighting, you can tell. When someone important to the characters in question has been killed in front of their eyes, you see that impactful shock, and when the sadness hits soon after the amount of tears and snot running down their face Just shows you how much they cared for that person, but the moment that I enjoy the most when it comes to the art is when you see someone, normally the MC, get really angry, you get that same feeling from the picture that you would if you happened to piss off someone like Gilgamesh or Guts for example, and the Black Origin Threshold is still as terrifying as when I first saw it. The action is one of the key stones in any fighting, second only to the story, because the story lends tension to the actual fight scenes so you're even more invested in it, failing that the fights still need to be good, even if they only serve as spectacle. I'm glad to say that the fights in this manga are similar to a firework show, they're built over a couple of chapters and then when the moment finally comes you are gifted with a very satisfying, and occasionally frightening BOOM. Some of the fights do go for more chapter that other's, but fights in martial arts manga are like games, you spend a lot of time on the smaller fights to make sure you're ready for hen the boss finally comes around to destroy you, they pace the fights in a similar manner. The story continues more or less straight from where The Breaker left off, with only a couple months worth of time skipped and for the ones that jumped straight in after reading the prequel, you settle back into the whole world and feeling that the first entry gave you within a couple pages, this is why myself and everyone else recommends reading the prequel because if you start with this one you're going to have plenty of question that won't be answered anytime soon like, "What's a ki center? Who the nine arts dragon? the fucks a Murim? What's the S.U.C?" But when you've properly enter the Breaker world, you will feel right at home with everything going on. THE BAD: Now let me get off that the characters, for the most part, are not bad, there's just some that kneel-cap the rest of the group. The MC for example, after having his ki center smashed, and after all the shit he has seen, is still persisting with his "I shall save everyone and make everyone love each-other." view on the martial arts world, granted is working so far, but after close to 300 chapters of following this guy around across two mangas, his outlook hasn't once changed. In my mind he has become a static character, like in a lot of shounens, his opinion never, ever changes, no matter how much he sees, or how much he losses he sticks to that belief. I know it's for the whole purpose of showing the other characters how determined he is, but we've already seen that, it was called The Breaker, just be a bit more dynamic dude please. Also he apparently has some sort of shield protecting his romantic virginity because, like with the prequel, he doesn't become romantically involved with any of the chicks, granted there is one that he will PROBABLY get with, but until I see that I'm sticking to my guns. Another thing with the characters is that, from memory, some of them straight drop off the map, they don't appear later in the manga, they just *poof* into smoke, like one of the MC's old bullies joins up with the 'bad' guys and they fight once then *poof* that character disappears. Other guy that had a SWEET pair of gauntlets had about three or so scuffles with the MC then I never saw him again for the remaining 60 chapters. The story also tended to drag a bit, but I thinks that's more to do with the fact I had to wait a week for the next 20 pages of story to happen, but read one after the other with no interruptions, it only got the point where I thought, "Come on let's make something happen." Then lo and behold the next page made something happen. Still I felt the story did slow down in places. THE VERDICT: The Breaker: New Waves is a solid sequel to it's predecessor and I look forward to the third entry. While I started to loose faith in the MC as a character and a few characters turned into magicians on me, the rest of the cast, fight scenes, story and art all scored high enough in my charts to keep me coming back for more every week. After reading The Breaker I highly recommend that you move straight on to this one. Go. Fly, FLY MY PRETTIES!! Goodbye my brethren, see you in the next one.

I'll keep this short and simple. The premise of the story is amusing, very unique and enjoyable. It surpassed my expectations, at first it was really annoying how Shi-Woon (MC) was defenseless, naive and weak; I thought it would be Tokyo Ghoul-esque battles all over again. However, Geuk-jin brings back focus on Shi-Woon again with him being somewhat competent in the series. The art was satisfactory for the most part. While detailed and attractive to the eye, the only problem is that it's monochromatic. I haven't read much manhwa, but the ones I've been exposed to have been poly-chromatic. Doesn't hurt the manhwa itself but theartistic potential was deterred, I feel. Jin-Hwan, great job. The characters themselves are fine, and that's what saved the manhwa for the most part. Except the character development was kind of poor, it always appeared to me that Shi-Woon had extreme bipolar tendencies, not sure what to make of that if it was intentionally written in the script by Geuk-jin. It introduced many countless new characters that are mediocre, most of them stayed the same through out the manhwa. I won't forgive the lack of Goomoonryong in the first part of the manhwa though. What the actual fuck? Geuk-jin seemingly deleted the single most interesting character in the series for around 120 chapters in favour of "character development" by the end of the manhwa, which if I may reiterate, is virtually non-existent. It stretches to the bipolar MC that gets his ass smashed every other chapter of the first half and it's agonizing. The lack of a sequel is self-evident of the mistakes of the authors. While flawed, I thoroughly enjoyed this during my teenage years, so the sentiment is high. But none have been portrayed in this review, I hope.

I really wanted to like this one... The Breaker: New Waves is the sequel to The Breaker launched in 2010, the same year the latter ended. I'll be blunt: it under-delivers. It's bad. There isn't much I feel for it next to apathy. Majority of its ups stem from my appreciation for the first breaker; the very same appreciation I got robbed of when finishing New Waves. It does deserve a few compliments. Thou slow, the beginning and its premise are good. Once you step into Murim you are part of Murim, simple as that. It's also a throwback to one seemingly insignificant, but in hindsight veryconsequential moment in the first part, which is great. Next to that we have the entire cast of the first, alongside many new faces. The art is still really good. There are some interesting arcs and hard-hitting moments... That's probably as far as my praise goes. First off, why are we introducing so many new characters? You have already formed this huge repertoire by the end of the first part which it could barely handle. New Waves is twice as long as the first; shouldn't we focus on fleshing out the already existing ones? The answer is: no. In fact, it's worse: all of the already established cast you've grown accustomed to will get side-lined in favour of the new one. Of course, the new cast is not horrible; there is Ji-Nie, Elder Kwon, Ji-Gun, Sera, Cool guy, Ghost Hands Divine Healer... So, the manhwa focuses on them? It does... As long as they are in the spotlight. Things happen only around Shi-Woon; the moment they move away from him (which they inevitably will) they turn into immobile chess pieces so that others can get into rotation. Having so many characters alongside this abysmal treatment of their makes the pacing devolve into some weird flavour-of-the-month structure which makes me numb to any enjoyment I could foster. But let's forgive that too. So, you put them to the side? Fine. That leaves most of the resources dedicated to the cast under the spotlight. I have to ask then: why aren't they doing anything? The villains stand there as bedrock waiting to be penetrated, continuously reminding you why they are standing there in the first place. Allies are no better: they appear when necessary and obey what they have been told. Although, they do one thing consistently: talk. Oh, and do they talk a lot. It makes reading New Waves a chore. By the end, barely will any character get enough time, let alone will that time be used well. Oh, and every relevant female character will devolve into the "I secretly find the protagonist cute" type who's only job is to commentate on the situation and praise the protagonist's "might and resolve", while being castrated of any characteristics that made them interesting, let alone value to the overarching story (by the end it feels like the only purpose they serve is to be on the cover). Of course, Shi-Woon doesn't feel anything towards them; he doesn't even notice it, so we can't even call those characters love-interests. Which brings us to Shi-Woon. Shi-Woon is as bland as it gets. He doesn't change. You may argue he does, but you know you'd be lying. He only gets accustomed to the circumstances and pushes on in his ways; his beliefs and philosophy stay the same. He always fights for the same reasons, he does everything he generally does, his aims and motivations are never challenged... He is constantly rewarded for being himself and nothing pushes him in any new direction. In the review of the first Breaker, I listed it as his charm, so where is the issue? The issue is that there is nothing to be put against him as contrast in this supposedly vicious world, that now all of a sudden seems to value this vanilla good boy. It genuinely grinds my nerves. That is not restricted only to his character. In the first part he is a talented novice with a few good moves but is ultimately reckless and will get beaten by anyone capable of dodging or countering. By the end of New Waves, he... He is the same, but now he is winning. He learns a whole of two new moves which, although cool, are barely used. Rest of his development is the work of lazy Deus Ex Machina. His fighting style is bound to mindless fist-flailing until he magically sees an opening and lands a blow. Even thou there are multiple "breakthroughs" in his training, there is legitimately no change. Some of the weakest character progression I've ever been a witness to, if I can even call it a progression. Power scaling in this world is already very loose and context based, so you can imagine how having someone like Shi-Woon always winning completely annihilates any concept of strength hierarchy. I have no idea if there is any plausible explanation for him not ending up in a body bag when he, with a broken ki centre, decides to take on those stronger than he ever was in his prime. That happens multiple times, by the way. There are no stakes and risks. Consequences don't matter, being in actual danger is a myth. Some characters get the short end of the stick, but even then, it's because they wanted to sacrifice themselves. The entire motive of Shi-Woon persisting through his sheer will and lack of any fear to hold him back now feels like some of the shittiest protagonist privilege one could come across. The entire story is simply a mess. There is no sense of direction. The twists are cheap. Bizarre moments which gave the first Breaker charm now don't land. Characters are done both dirty and poorly. And, of course, all of the previously mentioned has copious amounts of empty talk to go along with. It's a bad movie that tries to pull the audience's attention with basic shock value. However, my main gripe with New Waves is its length. This is a 20-volume read. That's 200 chapters. Now, I agree; manga knows to be numerous times longer. But there are so many works you could have read instead of this which are not only shorter but offer more entertainment and sentimental value than this. Length should be justified, and New Waves does not have any reason to be this long considering its contents. And here I am, having written over 1000 words of critique concerning this title. Do you think I am glad about that? Know I am not. I will always enjoy a good read, and I wanted to like this work as much as the first, if not more. I remember how eager I was to hop onto reading it. There are foundations of something that could be great, there are occasional strong moments, there are lovable characters, there is potential... And yet I can't help but view this read as a waste of time. As I've noted in the previous review, the first Breaker has the same issues as the second, but the second has way more time for those issues to grow noxious and without that novelty and dynamic of the first to prevent it. I can't even look back on the original without seeing those glaring flaws. Who knows, maybe you will enjoy New Waves. I know I didn't. I doubt I will read The Breaker: Eternal Force, which at the time of writing this review is very much young. Maybe in the future if I ever stumble upon it being finished. Even then, I will think heavily whether I am willing to put up with estimated 400 chapters of mediocrity when these 200 have already proven difficult. Thank you for reading up to this point. I wish you all the very best. Kind regards.

Hello this is my first review so please give me pointers because this review will probably be trash. Story 10/10 Where do I begin nothing I say can do this masterpiece justice. This manga or manhwa is the pinnacle of story telling I don't want to spoil anything but let me tell you this much this story is a thrill ride from start to finish and I just could not get enough of it. Art 10/10 The art in this manhwa was stunning. It is the first time that from just looking at the art I could tell how the characters felt without looking at their facial expressions.The way the art flowed made it feel like I was watching an anime rather than reading a manhwa. It was beautiful and stunning but also chilling and shocking at the same time. Never before have I loved looking at the art of a manhwa or manga as much as i did with this one. Character 9/10 The characters in this manhwa were for the most part perfect but some of the supporting characters could use a bit more explanation. Enjoyment 10/10 I enjoyed reading this more than anything else that I have ever read and that includes many every book I have ever read. This manhwa was enjoyable on all levels and when I had finished it I felt like I was missing a part of my life. Overall 10/10 This manhwa was perfection in all senses of the word. It is a must read for any fan of manga. I recommend this to anyone who is looking for something to do.