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A review by tsukinohana
The King's Beast, Vol. 1 by Rei Tōma
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.
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.