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A review by mikathereviewer
Tower Dungeon 1 by Tsutomu Nihei
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.*
The Review
Monsters. Dungeon Tower. Dragon Tower. Mages. Sounds all cool, right?
This read was very chaotic. It's only the first volume still so it isn't supposed to be extremely adventurous and mind-blowing yet, but that doesn't mean that the first volume shouldn't hook a reader. Since I wanted to read this manga, especially after I received a free chapter preview from Kodansha I decided to take the opportunity to read now the full first volume of that manga. I wouldn't say it was a waste, but I would also not say it was the best start in a series.
I want to start with the positive aspects. Even though the art style wasn't something I would call stunning or incredible beautiful, I saw how it worked good together with the drawings of the monsters and the tower building. The monsters looked eerie enough for a dungeon manga, not too excessive and also not too little than to look more innocent than evil.
Lastly, even though I have lots of aspects to complain about below, I still think that this manga has great potential, after all it's just the first volume of what could be hundreds. Maybe it was meant to be a bit slow on the battles and faster on walking the tower up.
From the beginning to the middle part, almost nothing really happened plot-wise. The reader just finds out that Yuva (who is a Master Bird-Feeder and a farmer) is send from his village to fight monsters in the dragon tower since the saying goes ‘When the Dragon Tower descends, doom follows’. Many others, not just Yuva, try to defeat Dracomorph (king of the dragon tower) to rescue Princess Ignelia.
The other characters are as followed:
Minsabelle (captain)
Lieutenant Rudeum (royal guard)
Calix
Eriquo (archer)
Lilicen (fire mage)
Fanro
Bazen
As you can see I don't have behind all of them something in brackets to elaborate what their power/abilities are as they weren't revealed (which is unusual for an adventurous battle manga). The tower has many different 'levels', which get more difficult to beat the higher one goes up. Only issue: Most moments are just skipped and the only real fight is kept pretty short. So far my impression is that the manga tries to be epic, have strong battles, but never really shows them. The monsters all looked cool, but we only saw one big fight (a couple of pages, but I still think pretty short) and one small fight that was only on two pages. Most pages just show the atmosphere while they walk around in the dungeon. I don't want to complain that the surroundings are boring and I just want to see the fights against the monsters. It's just that at some point it can get disappointing when one expects a great fight and it never arrives.
Here are all monsters who appeared in this volume (only one is shown for more than just two pages):
• Door guardian, speaking in a different language to tell them to leave before he attacks
• Crossbowman
• Giant slime (mucus monster)
That's it. No more. All other monsters are just being told to leave them alone before they see the characters and attack, but it's never explained what they really are.
Character-wise was this volume also not that awesome. I know we still need to get to know them all, I can't expect to get some deep stuff already after just reading one volume, but I feel like I know none of them at all. The main character seems stereotypical — Slay the dragon and marry the princess type of protagonist. That one girl that always hits him but actually really cares for him is stereotypical. I don't know, they all just don't feel special or anything to make me say: ‘I want to continue reading as I really like the personality of x character'. They have no personality.
As already mentioned above, since it's only the first volume there is still room to improve and maybe the first volume only wanted to show how great the artist can draw dungeons and the tower layout, but that doesn't mean that the other volumes will be bad too. I haven't found anything that was that much of an issue to completely drop it as I know I'm the wrong audience for it. The only thing I truly hope is that this manga will not become like all the other dungeon manga, but something greater, more unique. Something that I can look forward to.
Final thoughts
Thanks a lot to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the advanced reader copy of Tower Dungeon 1 by Tsutomu Nihei!
Started the book: 20. July 2025
Finished the book: 20. July 2025
Wrote the review: 20. July 2025
The Review
Monsters. Dungeon Tower. Dragon Tower. Mages. Sounds all cool, right?
This read was very chaotic. It's only the first volume still so it isn't supposed to be extremely adventurous and mind-blowing yet, but that doesn't mean that the first volume shouldn't hook a reader. Since I wanted to read this manga, especially after I received a free chapter preview from Kodansha I decided to take the opportunity to read now the full first volume of that manga. I wouldn't say it was a waste, but I would also not say it was the best start in a series.
I want to start with the positive aspects. Even though the art style wasn't something I would call stunning or incredible beautiful, I saw how it worked good together with the drawings of the monsters and the tower building. The monsters looked eerie enough for a dungeon manga, not too excessive and also not too little than to look more innocent than evil.
Lastly, even though I have lots of aspects to complain about below, I still think that this manga has great potential, after all it's just the first volume of what could be hundreds. Maybe it was meant to be a bit slow on the battles and faster on walking the tower up.
From the beginning to the middle part, almost nothing really happened plot-wise. The reader just finds out that Yuva (who is a Master Bird-Feeder and a farmer) is send from his village to fight monsters in the dragon tower since the saying goes ‘When the Dragon Tower descends, doom follows’. Many others, not just Yuva, try to defeat Dracomorph (king of the dragon tower) to rescue Princess Ignelia.
The other characters are as followed:
Minsabelle (captain)
Lieutenant Rudeum (royal guard)
Calix
Eriquo (archer)
Lilicen (fire mage)
Fanro
Bazen
As you can see I don't have behind all of them something in brackets to elaborate what their power/abilities are as they weren't revealed (which is unusual for an adventurous battle manga). The tower has many different 'levels', which get more difficult to beat the higher one goes up. Only issue: Most moments are just skipped and the only real fight is kept pretty short. So far my impression is that the manga tries to be epic, have strong battles, but never really shows them. The monsters all looked cool, but we only saw one big fight (a couple of pages, but I still think pretty short) and one small fight that was only on two pages. Most pages just show the atmosphere while they walk around in the dungeon. I don't want to complain that the surroundings are boring and I just want to see the fights against the monsters. It's just that at some point it can get disappointing when one expects a great fight and it never arrives.
Here are all monsters who appeared in this volume (only one is shown for more than just two pages):
• Door guardian, speaking in a different language to tell them to leave before he attacks
• Crossbowman
• Giant slime (mucus monster)
That's it. No more. All other monsters are just being told to leave them alone before they see the characters and attack, but it's never explained what they really are.
Character-wise was this volume also not that awesome. I know we still need to get to know them all, I can't expect to get some deep stuff already after just reading one volume, but I feel like I know none of them at all. The main character seems stereotypical — Slay the dragon and marry the princess type of protagonist. That one girl that always hits him but actually really cares for him is stereotypical. I don't know, they all just don't feel special or anything to make me say: ‘I want to continue reading as I really like the personality of x character'. They have no personality.
As already mentioned above, since it's only the first volume there is still room to improve and maybe the first volume only wanted to show how great the artist can draw dungeons and the tower layout, but that doesn't mean that the other volumes will be bad too. I haven't found anything that was that much of an issue to completely drop it as I know I'm the wrong audience for it. The only thing I truly hope is that this manga will not become like all the other dungeon manga, but something greater, more unique. Something that I can look forward to.
Final thoughts
Thanks a lot to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the advanced reader copy of Tower Dungeon 1 by Tsutomu Nihei!
Started the book: 20. July 2025
Finished the book: 20. July 2025
Wrote the review: 20. July 2025