THE LEGEND OF MAIAN

Yes one more sword and sorcery manhwa,why is this genre so popular in Korea?They have much more titles of this kind than Japan or other country.Is this necessarily a bad thing?No.Cause this is one of my favorite genres I’m very happy with this kind of manhwa/manga,and even more if this one is made by manhwa máster Im Dal Young author of Unbalance x2,Kurokami,Freezing and other popular works.Also it’s very common for a work of this kind have a title starting with “Legend”,it’s almost a clichê of that genre.The manga seens like a genderflip version of Bastard!! And Rebirth(the Lee Kang Woo manhwa,unrelated to the Im Dal Young work of similar name),it starts the same way,but with a weak boy releasing a powerful sorceress that people trought was trying to take over the world many years ago,sealed by his own ancestor.It ends that Felicia now have to kiss the boy that released her everytime she has to use madra(the manhwa term for magic)becoming dependent of Felix the boy.Of course there’s the empire of Pennsylvania(yes it’s that name) trying to take over the world here,it suddently learned new spells lost long ago and developing new ones with the power of dark gods.At first the two main characters don’t like each other,but like in other Im Dal Young works they become closer and closer after some dificulties together.Felicia is wanting to reassemble her old followers,the 11 Regis Knights.There’s an arc for each of them 4 times,they don’t assemble all,it happens something that Felix is taken far and they seen to be dissapehered so Felix will have to assemble a new party for his adventures.

Story 7

The story is nothing new,and the plot don’t make many surprises,you will always have na idea of what’s going to happen but that doen’t means that it doen’t hook you in.The author tries to show a backgtound for almost every character,like na almost volume long flashback about Uraeshi Soun and an important development to Lyna Mia Delta just a bit after she enters the story.Felix also becomes less useless and dependent of Felicia in more recent volumes both psicollogically and as a fighter.The reason of the war of Felicia and Maian the Brave 1000 years ago is explained,but not the reason for Pennsylvania is wanting to take over the world or why Diha Sion sided with them,at least not very deeply.At least the story passes well with not many unnecesairy arcs and chapters,they have always a good pace between them,and don’t make you bored.There isn’t too much fight or too many unnecessary dialogue.And it doesn’t take many volumes to small personality changes in the characters in each of them.Most of the enemies until now(with the exception of Diha Sion)were mooks and not even close for a treat,they were stomped real fast by Felicia and the Regis Knights,but it’s still intersting how they overpower them.

Art 9

The art in Legend of Maian is simple and well made,with not too many details.Things like the beasts,castles,summons,spells and landscape are very well made.Felicia and Lyna have the same body,they have diferent faces,hair and eyes.Seens like Im Dal Young prefer buxom ladies,even if he didn’t draws any of his series.Expect more women like that to show up it’s his author apeheal.Some spells are amazing,even if just a pillar of lightning it’s very well made,nuclear explosions,a ray of light falling from the sky,a giant phoenix,a minotaur and fire elemental summons.Art was more poligonal and squared at first but after some chapters things start to become more round.Another thing drawed well is the character clothes,or the lack of them for some characters or the Ma Jin clothes and scarf,or Maian the Brave’s armor for example.I don’t seen any blatant errors in the manhwa art if ever was one it wasn’t important.There isn’t that much fluidity of moviment in the work,but they aren’t static also.Scenary is rarelly missing or unseen like let’s say Togashi’s manga who most of the times don’t have even movement lines.Poses aren’t reused unlike mangaka that can’t do more than a few poses.

Character 7

Characters have distinct personalities from each other and they stay true to themselves besides the developments doesn’t uncaracterizating them.Most main character evolve their peronalities during the manga,with rare excepitions like Ma Jin who is too quiet,or Anna Maize that just flatters Felicia and don’t have a background besides she was a Regis Knight in the past.All of them futfill archetypes ans stereotypes of this kind of manga but it’s still well played on them and they aren’t bidimensional.What I don’t like is the lack of explanation about of Diha Sion change of character,even knowing it will probally explained later,volume 10 was unsuficient for knowing more about him and al lhe said was clichê and undeveloped Im Dal Young can do much better twists than that.Most character development is about Felix and Felicia’s relationship,and he seens a loser in beginning just to it be more convincing when he slowly becomes an badass on par with Maian the Brave this is shown on later volumes.He becomes more corageous and self-dependent as time passes,but still is inexperienced and can’t use his abilities well.Uraeshi Soun is the one who had the biggest change in just the tournament arc,and he had the biggest flashback,and also had an 180 degree change.

Enjoyment 9

The enjoyment is very preasent,they aren’t much boring chapters and they end soon.The battles are one sided but the action don’t decepcionate you.If you are a fan of Sword and Sorcery you will already feel at home from the beginning of the story and indentificate the tropes of the genre.It’s not hard to undertand the script,no big problem in it.The feel in it is a fun and is a relaxed reading for a Im Dal Young work.He really know how do diferent types of works.

Overall 8

Overall it’s a very good series,it’s not Im Dal Young best work it’s far from worse either.It’s like an more serious Slayers with less comedy parts and more focus on the main plot.It’s an averlage work but it’s still more enjoyable than oher work of the same type.The biggest problem is the lack of development and objectives of the antagonists that takes away points from the story.And it need magic fights like that of Negima that manga have the best fights one title of this genre can have so comparing it Maian isn’t that fair.Maian also has good action too,but the result of the fights is always obvious.It have a great variety of spells even if many of them are other element version of already existing spells.It’s a good manga to fans of medieval fantasy,RPG books and videogames,LOTR or other things like that.

The main premise of the story is that Felicia Rand Philistine intends to return to her former glory after being released from her seal after 1000 years. She was sealed by the main character's ancestor who was regarded as a hero for doing so. However, she is unable to draw out her full power without receiving a kiss from Felix Maian. So whether Felix likes it or not he is going to be dragged around by Felicia. The story is actually a lot better than I make it sound. This is not just another "hero story" or rom-com. There are people planning to use Felicia, there is a war brewing, and then Felicia has plans of her own. So there is a lot of depth to the story.

The art is done by Jeong, Soo Cheol but it still looks similar to the art you see in Freezing, Onihime VS and most other Im Dal Young manhwas. The backgrounds are all well drawn as are all the characters and monsters. The ecchi consists mostly of revealing clothes and over-sized breasts. It isn't just random panty shots like a lot of ecchi stuff out there.

Felicia Rand Philistine is selfish, cruel and a very powerful Zewst(sorceress). She doesn't like being told what to do and she doesn't like it when people don't do as she says. She often forgets that her power is sealed and continues to act as if she is strong. So she can be funny as well as badass.
Felix Maian doesn't start out as the most likable character. He wholeheartedly dislikes having to be with Felicia. While his opposition to his situation can come off as funny, sometimes I think it can be just as annoying. He is 18 and very immature. I know that will turn off a few readers but his character is set up to mature throughout the story so I think it is just a temporary annoyance.

Action scenes consist of mostly magic, or madra as it's called in the story, and not as much of sword fighting. I would say that adventure is the major tag for this storyline, it is very much like you are following an RPG. There is going to be a lot of action but with so much going on in the story it wouldn't surprise me if we go quite a few chapters at a time without a fight. Romance isn't listed as a tag for this but I think it is fairly obvious that something is going to develop. I mean, he has to kiss her to release her power. This is probably my second favorite Im Dal Young Manhwa, UxU is my favorite. You can tell after just a few chapters that this is going to develop into an amazing story.

SO THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN A WARNING AT THE END! THERE IS NO SPOILER BUT I FEEL COMPELLED TO WARN FUTURE READERS ABOUT THIS MANIWA.

So I started this one on a whim and was instantly pulled in. However, I will say had I done my due diligence on this work before I started reading it I probably never would have started to begin with.

As far as the story goes I haven't been able to see much better. This is definitely a great work as far as the story goes. It has depth, humor, sorrow and is pretty much the whole package.

The artwork is second to none. I love how clean everything is no matter what is being shown on the page.

Character development is also second to none. I love how the characters in the story evolve and grow as the story progresses.

Is this enjoyable? Yes it was, until I got to chapter 75 that is.

So why am I saying such great things about this Maniwa and end up giving it a poor overall rating of 3. Well here comes the warning!

THE WORK IS INCOMPLETE TO A DEGREE THAT IT IS AN ABSOLUTE TRAVESTY! Some time about 4 year ago the author, Dal Young Im if I'm not mistaken, walked away from this story and never returned. Apparently this was around the same time that he started working on the FREEZING series. So he basically lost interest in this series and started another one and NEVER finished this one. I ABSOLUTELY HATE THIS!

As far as I can tell, the story itself seems to be about 2/3 to 3/4 complete. There may have been more but at this point it's anybody's guess. Unfortunately like I said earlier if I had done my due diligence and seen that the author had a bad habit about leaving his works half finished then I would never have read this one.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS! I WANT TO SEE THE END! AND UNFORTUNATELY AFTER 4 LONG YEARS I DOUBT THERE IS ANY POSSIBILITY THAT THIS WILL EVER HAPPEN. SOME PEOPLE THINK THAT AFTER THE "FREEZING" SERIES IS COMPLETED HE WILL COME BACK TO THIS WORK. BUT AFTER A 4 YEAR HIATUS I JUST DON'T SEE THAT HAPPENING.

SO HERE IS MY WARNING. IF YOU ARE LIKE ME AND CAN NOT STAND TO START A STORY AND BE ABLE FINISH IT THEN THIS MANIWA IS NOT FOR YOU. IF YOU DON'T CARE ANYTHING ABOUT THAT TYPE OF STUFF THEN FEEL FREE TO ENJOY THIS STORY, RIGHT UP UNTIL YOU HIT THE INVISIBLE WALL WAITING FOR YOU AT CHAPTER 75!

**SPOILER ALERT**
So I did do some messing around on the internet and managed to find out how the light novel ended and I have to say WTF! It ended terribly! The bastard author obviously wanted to make sure he would never have to do anything else related to this title so he gave it a scorch the world type ending. Just pisses me off to see a work with so much entertainment potential get flushed down the crapper with a nuke the world and kill everyone ending. I will never read anything by this author again because this appears to be a habit of his. What a waste of a good story and great characters. Wow! Wow!

Once, I read Chrono Trigger, which I had on my top 1 for a long time. And then The Legend of Maian just kicked it to the second place.

The Legend of Maian is a refreshing turn to the shounen category. It's story is extremely well planned in the long term. I just love the fact that you can see how the hero evolves, but still keeps failing on many occasions, not the "always win"-additude which Naruto, for example, has. The drama part plays an important role as well, but the author doesn't keep things as granted as the reader. I, as a huge manga fan, was blown when there were some SERIOUS plot twists. Also, after a big event, which could have ended the series, the author already had a flawless reason to contiune the series.

The plot starts a bit slow, but it hastens quite fast, to the extent where you just run with the flow. Prepaire to see the characters aging and their natures change through the series! This sure is an evolving Manhwa.

This has brought me to tears and given me the chills of awesomeness. I was literally on fire when I read this manhwa. This was the first occasion I decided to give up on my sleep hours to read this. 3h sleep, school and to home only to realize there were only 10ch more

If you're into reading a manga you like A LOT, I suggest you to wait a year or two, as Maian gets released only on volumes which are published about 2-4 times a year. On the other hand, if you want something to look for, pick this. Now. Not next hour or "sometime", but NOW.

This a quick review, because I tend to get emotional and add spoilers to scenes I dislike.

The premise was pretty good, and I was anticipating a very good climax, but then something happened a little past midway of the story. For that reason, I gave it an average rating and dropped it.

The male MC was useless for about 95%, he had his good points, but he was mostly all talk and no action. The best characters of the series was Felicia Rand, and her companions where not that bad, either. I dropped it because of the characters, and seemed like the story knew who I liked and disliked and wanted me to drop the series.

what makes this manga so unique , is that it takes your usual "Hero " story and turns it on its head.

Its fresh , funny , well written and developed , with all the right amount of romance, action , adventure , echiness , fantasy and just plain fun .

Its written by the same guy who did Freezing , but in a lot of ways ,I rate even higher!

So yeah , this is worth a read for sure!

*IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS, STOP READING NOW.*

This manga has a medieval setting that is actually set in the future after our current world. The main characters are Felix Maian, Felicia with a long name, 4 out of 11 regis knights, etc. The story is a rather fun adventure type of story that has many events going on... the pace of the story is pretty well controlled, nothing drags out too long or is too short... except the first part's ending I guess... I don't know about others but for me the character developments were good, and when I got to the first part's ending I had a little heart break moment. You get to learn your main characters rather well, especially Felix and Felicia... The story may be a little cliche at times, but who cares? How many new idea can you get after reading thousands of manga series?

The second part that is currently in development is also good... but not exactly to my liking... simply because I was rather fond of Felicia as a character and I kinda raged when Felicia fell during the first part's ending and that f@ggoty Diha Sion won through cheapshots... then we find out that our main character in the story, Felix, gets NTRed by Felicia cause she lost her memory and got controlled by Diha. That was my main problem with the ending of part 1 and the start of part 2. It was pretty heartbreaking and now I'm just waiting for Diha to die lol. Other than that, Felix is kinda turning into a rude little blastard, something to do with his devilshu blood (?) no idea wtf went on there since part 2 is 5 years after Felicia and the 4 Regis Knights fell. But hopefully it'll work out okay in the end... It's a little similar to Kurohime except you rage more in this manga because how can Felicia just randomly lose to Diha !@#1@#FNTR!@##!