Reviews

The King's Beast, Vol. 1 by Rei Tōma

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helterskelliter's review against another edition

4.0

Rangetsu is on a mission — to avenge her twin brother’s death.

Born as ajin, who are beasts treated as second-class citizens, Rangetsu and her twin brother Sogetsu did not have much to look forward to. But when Sogetsu discovers he dad magical inclinations, he finds himself being selected as a beast-servant for the fourth prince, Prince Tenyou. Unfortunately, what seems like a great opportunity becomes a tragedy when he is murdered. The death is attributed to the Prince and cast off as nothing more than a servant’s death. This is not acceptable to Rangetsu who decides she is going to forsake being a woman and become a beast servant — become Prince Tenyou’s beast servant — and discover what happened to her brother.

This is shaping up to be a romantic thriller with plenty of political intrigue and mystery. Definitely recommend~

chelseaj91's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense

3.0

maidinnah's review

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emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

cfields98's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

randomly_kait's review against another edition

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4.0

I'm curious to see where this goes. I was hoping for a little bit more action of some sort to happen, but it seems like it's going to be a slow build. Which is fine.

tsukinohana's review against another edition

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This volume was all over the place trying to set up plot and characters in a way that feels very inexperienced, which is odd since Rei Toma has quite a few manga already. It's trying to be in-media res, but then has to play a lot of catch up to get you to understand every character's motivation; then it whips out its action to try to worldbuild, but it all happens so fast that it makes no sense in terms of human being actions and such. Perhaps if I had read Dawn of the Arcana this would be perfect, but as the stand-alone series it's supposed to be, it's just giving whiplash.

The art is very gorgeous and detailed; the backgrounds are simply stunning. I love the main character's design-the Ajin's ears are very appealing. The imperial China clothes and hairstyles add a lot to the character designs, too-because despite the gorgeous art, characters (apart from the protagonist) are somehow bland.

An epilogue to The Water Dragon's Bride is included at the end. Why, I will never understand, since it relies on you having read 11 volumes of that series to know what's going on and understand the callbacks.

All this said, though, I'm definitely continuing this series.

bethanycrowepowell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

While I have some reservations about the essential worldbuilding, this was a fast paced manga with a compelling central problem.

I do like that the love interest is actually a cinnamon roll... After finishing available volumes of the series so far, I went back to read Dawn of the Arcana and discovered that was a connected series.

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