Sun-Ken Rock

I at first didn't understand why people disliked Sun Ken Rock after finishing the manga. But now seeing so, I can understand why.

The first time I encountered Sun Ken Rock was a screenshot. Astonished by the beauty of the art, I rushed to read the first chapter, and I was disappointed. I expected the manga to be serious story, rather than just a gag. I dropped it thinking it was not worth it. But seeing how lot of people appreciated Tae-soo Park,, and still fantasized by Boichi's art, I thought of just giving it a try, and I regretted dropping it.

It felt quite a while to start appreciating Sun Ken Rock as I just thought of treating it like a comedy action packed manga. The ecchi fan services were really annoying to me as well. But when I reached to the Casino arc, that was when I started falling in love with Sun Ken Rock.

What I saw about the Casino arc was like a test for Ken when he had to face each of his weaknesses in order to be able to understand as to "what makes someone a true boss". How he even influenced those around him was what made me fall in love with Ken's character. That was when I felt the whole story was not about a group trying to strive for power, but a story about Ken and his personal growth from a child to a man.

The Idols arc is where quite a lot found it pointless and I could see why, but I found it quite a beauty when it was over. It was an arc that completely changed Ken.

The only reason why I loved the entire story of Sun Ken Rock was because of Ken's character development and influence. He becomes someone that is cool, wise and admirable; and you can see it based on how he influences the people he encounters with. But the development is beautiful, yet sad at the same time, and that's what I really liked about it.

The whole journey was filled with ups and downs (fan services were kinda annoying), and how the build up to the finale was what got me hooked and excited. But something happened and it was quite surprising.

This is where people disliked it, but I myself felt it may have been an opportunity that could lead to something else which may have been interesting. It could have been resolved, but it failed to do so when events that occur after it where all just rushed so fast, it felt like crap.

When I first read this manga I fell in love with it, however, the story gets trashy by the end that it will forever damage this manga for me.

Ken is a Japanese man who chases his crush to South Korea. Ken falls into a gang and becomes their boss while his crush has become a police officer.

The story was good, it was filled with interesting characters and made this story somewhat believable. The downside of this story was the ending as it comes out of nowhere and not in a good way. It makes Ken seem like an unbelievable idiot that will do anything for his woman even when she does the unthinkable.

There is a lot of comedy that pushes this manga close to being over the top. However, Boichi is able to avoid this with stellar scenes that take your mind off of the gag-like comedy.

The art was some of the best I have ever seen in any manga. It would be hard for any other artist to duplicate this artwork. The character designs were well done, the man looked hard and the women looked sexy. Boichi is a very talented artist who needs to work on the way he ends his works.

I am not sure why this has such a high rating, so I want to give a warning to like-minded readers – don’t bother with Sun-Ken Rock, if you’re looking for a good story. The only thing this manga has going for it is art, and the writing is extremely cringeworthy.

You’ve read the synopsis? And now add “and then they dance”, because that’s what happens when the main character joins mafia, cause dancing is great, right? They dance for 7 panels on two pages. This is also a gag manga somehow, and what’s the worst is that it’s not humor added to a good plot, but gags replacing some important plotpoints and warping motivations.

You think you’ll see the hero rise to the top from the slums, building his muscle and personality? Forget it, he becomes the boss by chance, just because a teen loser is so awesome, I guess (he is a NEET loser at that moment allright). You think you’ll see how his love trains to become a cop? Nah, she is just there and oh-so-hot in her uniform.

Yeah, there’re some ideas, that wouldn’t be out of place in a serious criminal drama, like comparing a state to a gang or the stand for you subordinates and they’ll stand for you thing, but the poor overall quality of writing drowns what little good there is. Yeah, there’re potentially interesting topics - politics, nationality, revenge, forgiveness, etc. – but they are treated with all the grace of a story, written by a 12-14 year old boy. The moral dilemma of being a part of the underworld is replaced by the idea of following one’s heart and nakamas – the shounen motivation set A. The main hero fights for his friends and justice and somehow gains property. There’s also a tendency to include trivia and ethnographic info in the form of direct exposition, like, for example, in one of the early chapters the protagonist punishes MMO-money speculators and reads them a lecture on Korean gaming industry, because this is a manga about gang warfare, I suppose.

I honestly wanted to read more of the story to feel more secure about condemning it, but it’s physiologically painful (I probed in the later chapters, the same effect).

The art is good, as I’ve mentioned. For it and only for it this manga gets a 4.

The emphasis is on showing the badass characters’ designs, and the author can draw bodies (especially male) magnificently. But the art also jerks uncomfortably between amazing panels with characters looking like older people from a better story and chibies or cartoon exaggeration. I must also add, that design-wise the main character seem to be the best thing there is, so you kind of saw it all on the cover. Maybe the protagonists’s right-hand man is somewhere close with his gothic-flawored prettiness (no wonder, since he is rivalish), but flipping through the additional couple of dozens of chapters doesn’t reveal other characters, that are comparably memorable.

There’re nice scenery shots, sometimes even cinematographic.

The manga has severe problem with female characters however. And no, I don’t try to push the femi angle here, I understand what the genre demands, but creepy is creepy. The female cast is drawn with exaggeratedly “pretty” features and a particular kind of beauty in mind (seems legit Korean, btw - see, I give praise where it’s due), which results in lush bodies and baby faces with pouty lips and eyes straight off a gray alien. They also all look very similar. For me alien girls broke additional straws of immersion. The level of sexualization is total, a normal shot for a heroine being a close-up of her butt in sexy lingerie. Boichi sure loves drawing ass, so you see female characters’ panties as often as their faces. The girls act kind of strange personality-wise too (“I train my body, because someday it may please someone” – …well, ok). Sex, rape and weird sexual stuff happen in abundance.

And then there is action. Action in bad context doesn’t work for me, and battle logic here allows shounen power-ups, like being able to fight with broken arms, because of trueness to one’s heart, indignation or wish to save someone, but, I guess, the often spectacular fighting may still be a plus for some readers. Here my judgement is neutral, yet I honestly think that you can get more engaging fights in a number of better series.

All in all I do not recommend Sun-Ken Rock. I don’t want to start a flame war or diminish tastes, but I honesty was let down by this manga as I rarely have been before in this medium.

I grant that it may work for some readers, it can be used as a source of powerful panels and, probably, as a gold mine for ass-shots, if this particular shape suits your fetish, maybe, and I am very unsure here, as a source on some info on Korea – but I hardly see this manga holding water as a proper story in the eyes of an older, more experienced reader. If you look for a good criminal drama, a good story or a proper seinen, don’t be fooled by the good art, avoid!

Sun-Ken Rock is a wonderful Manga in many ways. Fantastic art, characters, fighting, and was an amazing ride. I would have gladly given this manga a 10/10 and been able to recommend it to anyone looking for a mature story... before I got to the ending. The ending is so butchered and appalling that it almost completely ruins the whole ride and story. The primary characters abruptly change so fast that the whiplash is so strong it could likely take a persons head clean off. Please just stop reading this after completing issue 164 and imagine the end that this story so clearly wanted.

Ever wanted to be a gang leader? Well, Ken Kitano never wanted to become one, but meh... he did. Let teh comedy ensue.

Enter the world of Sun-ken rock. An awesome manga written and illustrated by Boichi. If you are familiar with his other works such as Hotel or Ultimate space chef Caesar, then you know what kind of art to expect. But Sun-ken rock deviates from Boichi's usual sci-fi and delves into the world of THE MAFIA!

Pros:
-Great story.
-Outstanding art.
-Just plain ol' hilarious jokes.
-Great cast of characters.
-Fairly realistic (Fairly...).
-Very very nice... fanservice.

Cons:
-At times, it feels like the story is moving way too slow.
-Frustration... Ken Kitano's niceness might frustrate some peeps.
-A few ecchi scenes here and there just feel out of place and ruin a chapters feel.

Story: 7/10
Ken's a japanese delinquent. The kind that looks all rough and badass and gets into fights... but is actually real soft and squishy on the inside. Watch as he gets dragged into becoming a gang leader, saves prostitutes, beats up baddies, inspires some to join him, take over casinos, ya know... the USUAL gang related stuff. It all escalates at a steady pace (except for a few chapters when things slow down... a lot...) and it remains entertaining through out.

Art: 9/10
FRIGGIN' AWESUM! Characters look great, their expressions clear, their movements fluid and their muscles... are huge... chiseled outta rock rather than drawn on paper.
Backgrounds are fantastic. The attention to detail definitely adds to the feel of each and every page.
And the ecchi scenes... the fanservice... *nosebleed*
They are great, and not so over used that you get too many boob n' ass shots in the middle of a serious fight (unless that's how dem baddies wanna fight ~wink wink~)

Characters: 8/10
Our main characters are pretty darn good. Ken Kitano, being the cliche nice-guy who kicks ass, plays his role perfectly. His buddies all have different personalities and despite them being almost "cliche" they come out as "originals" with their different motivations and attitudes. Oh, and the bad guys aren't the usual "IM BAD SO I DO BAD THINGS!" but actually come packing a reason! Some of them have a real legitimate REASON for being bad! HOLY CRAP! One bad thing is that some decide to join the good side... never really sits well with me, but ya know what? Boichi weaved in their roles pretty darn well that it ain't so bad.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I enjoyed this manga way way too much. You will laugh A FRIGGIN' LOT! You will get turned on and you will get sad, but most of all YOU WILL LAUGH A LOT! There are a number of Laugh out Loud moments and almost all of them WILL make you laugh. You'll find yourself cheering Ken and his gang over and over cause you will get sorta "attached" to them. They're just a fun group of people.

Overall: 8/10
READ THIS MANGA! It is very good. Boichi does a marvelous job here. It's a great laid-back-but-serious manga. After a boring day of work, look forward to reading a chapter or two. They will brighten up your day with a joke or two. It's just great!

The following is a more detailed review. Don't bother reading if you don't want a giant wall of text full of my opinions.

Genre tags! Lets take a look at em':
Action, comedy, seinen and ecchi. All check. But i personally feel that "Martial arts" should be added. The basis of this manga effectively boils down to Ken beating up bad guys with punches and kicks. Yes the Action tag satisfies the need to inform the reader that there is fighting, but i feel that another tag should be added to define the form of fighting. Ya know, if you got fighting mechas add "action and mecha" but if you got mechas and falling in love add "Romance and mecha". Oh and comedy tag should probably be applied a few more times to really tell the reader that there are some great jokes here.

Story:
As i mentioned already, the story is pretty good. HOWEVER, i did not rate it higher than 7 because it starts bordering the "Eh? err... if you say so..." side as things escalate. Remember how i said this manga is "Fairly" realistic? Well, that is because there are a few turns the story takes that require a bit of imagination on the readers part to pass of as realistic. But since the manga does not deviate from what it is, the score won't go lower than 7. It's still very good.

Art:
I really can't say much here. It's just so good! It's awesome! I personally LOVED a certain page that involved ketchup, mayonnaise, a barbeque, a boar and an eating competition. DEM CURVES! DEM CURVES!!!

A special little addition i feel that should be mentioned is Boichi's inclusion of how hard he has worked on the manga. He talks about his travels to take lots of different pictures to use as references. I feel that it is a great touch as it gives us, the readers, insight as to how a mangaka goes about working on their art. It's a real treat to see the pictures he takes and comparing them to what he draws. A wonderful aspect of the manga that most certainly should not be over looked.

Characters:
I already described Ken with enough detail to cover everything but not spoil anything. His buddies are all pretty much introduced from the first volume and as the story continues, everyone but Ken actually undergo some pretty serious character development. What about Ken you ask? Well he does indeed undergo a good chunk of character development but you see, his character is already defined from the get-go. He acts as the foundation upon which the others grow and mature. To be honest, having the main protagonist undergo the "least" actual character development (as in their personality, etc etc and not their position in society) was a ballsy move that really paid off. We get this wonderful balance between the cast of characters. No single individual within this fictional world overshadows another so greatly that their existence (for as long as they are relevant and play a major role in the story) becomes this tertiary obstacle that simply gets stepped on and ignored. Oh and this manga has one of my top 5 favorite female characters sooo... i am kinda biased here :D

Final thoughts:
This should certainly be on your to-read list. It should be up their with other great works that you would want to read. It's great. I would recommend this to anyone who likes Gangs/Mafia, Martial arts, comedy and (to a certain extent) ecchi. Now stop reading this and go read Sun-Ken Rock!

I hope you found this review helpful or at least enjoyable.

To preface this review— Sun-Ken Rock is a story illustrated and written by Boichi(the pen-name of Mujik Park). It is the story of Kitano Ken, a former schoolyard delinquent in Japan who fell in love with Yumin. However, he was rejected when he confessed to his crush due to the fact she was /Korean/ and had to return to her homeland. Thus, he was left heartbroken but came up with an idea: 'I could meet Yumin again if I became a police officer too—!'.

That is the basic summary of how Sun-Ken Rock starts. Obviously, spoiler free there but from now on: AMANY SPOILERS AHEAD!

Without further ado- The Story, 7/10, 'It was good enough.'

Sun-Ken Rock begins with the titular protagonist, Ken, living a shut-in life at a goshiwon(live-in study house usually for students), eating other's kimchi and the free rice. His life begins to oil up its gears and turn forward as he meets Yumin who had become an official police officer and felt the first taste of Korea's underworld. There he meets a gang who wishes to recruit him as an underling after having seen how much power laid beneath that tracksuit. Wanting no part of the gang underworld of Korea, he rejected the idea at first however was convinced by... a SALARY.

Come on, Ken. Really? This story has it's fair share of ridiculous points to hamfist the story forward which pulls some points from its score however, the story begins to slowly reveal what will reel you in. Park Tae-soo the former leader of the gang, now pulls Ken, leader of the new 'Sun-Ken Rock' gang, into amassing power through recruitment and good ol' mountain training. However, Ken has sights on the dirty parts of his new job. The unfair treatment of poor and women made him find his purpose within his new job... Rid Korea of it all. Tae-soo had predicted this, the pretty boy smartass he was, and described Ken as a 'Sun'. Rising over the darkness and overpowering all that stood before him.

The story lacks many things; a sense of cohesiveness at the beginning, and genuine reasoning at points, however, shines in the sense that its themes can be utterly moving. The ending is not something I want to touch on entirely but I understand his reasons and it deducts quite a bit from the story. The arcs are okay at being separate and connected at times. Ban-Phuong's showdown with the Sun-Ken Rock gang was great and showcased what made the story not terrible. Instead of super intense mook battles, all of them went down surprisingly easy due to the fact Sun-Ken Rock was the antithesis of what they were. Those who gave up and gave in to a higher power to be used and those who fought against that higher power and became one themselves.

Sun-Ken Rock... well, /rocks/ at showcasing contrast of ideologies, Ban-Phuong vs. Sun-Ken Rock being the biggest example. That's why the story is 'good enough'. It's not the best, but Boichi does as he does and excels at the next thing down the list:

The Art, 10/10, 'Stunning.'

Stunning. That is one of the best words I can use to describe Sun-Ken Rock's art. Most panels have a very nice crisp background, made through amany pictures taken just for this project(upwards of 1,000 per arc). The characters too are very nice, switching between chibi-esque but appealing caricatures of characters and the very detailed and stunning full body shots, busts, and all of it. Even when not focusing on combat, which is an ENTIRELY different beast, smiles are genuine/real/, anger is furious, sadness is palpable.

Movements of character's souls from a powerful moment is entirely realized through Boichi's intensely detailed style. This is one thing I know is the pinnacle of everything Boichi does as the artist of Sun-Ken Rock. I don't need much to explain this but: the combat is ridiculous. It's unbelievable, it's like a kick to your face. The shading adds another layer of power to characters as they fight. Minor characters and /especially/ major characters get this treatment, as most panels keep a cohesive design to everyone.

Character design is usually appealing, and sometimes fairly comical, but all nice to look at, especially the women. His handle on male physique is insane but female is just a nice touch, although not as great as the former, having very same-y looking characters at points. Though main females do get distinct looks.

Overall, character design is top notch, leading into some of their traits as people:

Characters, 7/10, 'Powerful— but sometimes not.'

Sun-Ken Rock has its main cast of Ken, Tae-soo, Pickaxe, Marin, Do-Heun, Kae-Lyn, and Benito as well as its other major character; Yumin. Kitano Ken has to balance his life as the leader of his gang, and the one with Yumin, who believes he works in a video game company. This is a very interesting plot however is only brought up when Yumin is together with Ken. While it provides some hilarity, it is never really touched upon until the last moment, where her reaction was fairly weak. However Sun-Ken Rock still has very good character interaction, whether it's Ken's blind and unyielding trust to the 'shady idiot' Park Tae-soo, or Pickaxe wanting to take Ken's place as the leader to get laid or something. They all grow slowly through the story, though Benito's character development is hasty and partially off screen.

Over all, characters are fun and interesting, some powerful in terms of emotions and themes, and some less so. The final sub category though connects to all of these sum parts:

My Enjoyment, 10/10, 'It's bloody the GREATEST COOOL.'

Sun-Ken Rock had many flaws, some more distinct than others but over all Boichi's Sun-Ken Rock is amazing. It's a story that's very memorable and while it isn't an Anohana, nor is it a Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan, it's unfair to compare this to them. This is a story about a man who rose and fell like a Sun, sinking back down to rise once more at a later date. Some moments truly hit me, like Ban-Phuong, the sad man who only wanted to live freely but was crushed and twisted by unfortunate circumstances. You would think the ending would have bummed me out, but it focuses on one of the biggest themes that permeated the entire story: forgiveness. To those who dislike the ending, I understand but 'Forgiveness is not always /Good/.' It was not a good decision maybe, but it was his. It was his stubbornness that brought him there and he will keep on keeping on doing what Kitano Ken has always done.

And so, we come to the last part of this review.

The Overall Score, 10/10, 'It is not the sum of its parts.'

Not at all. Sun-Ken Rock is not the sum of its parts. It has bad parts, it has its terrible ending, it has its whacky and barely cohesive story, but it has its immense enjoyment through how characters grow and interact and Boichi's ridiculously good art. This will probably be the shortest part of this review due to how much I've detailed in the others.

The point is, for this score of 10/10, Boichi's story is still good, even with how it ended. While I can admit this is unbelievably not an objective review, it is one that I believe from the bottom of my heart. Deeply moving characters, intrigue, and of course the crazy cool gang warfare?

It is /great/. I thank Boichi, and you, who read through this review. My first of probably not many, but it's one that I wanted to write, since this series is very important to me.

Well my writing sucks so bare with me. I'll say it flat out this is my favorite manga out of everything i have read, and here is why this manga is funny has great fights its kinda tragic as well it has comedy and some romance and ugh its kind of hard to put how great this manga is in words by itself so just give it a try it will get u hooked on a couple of chapters making you want more and more.

Summary of review: Art is amazing. Characters are bland and 1 not. Near the ending the characters make uncharacteristic decisions which are then poorly explained. Aside from the last 2 arcs the manga itself is a fun read if your can turn your brain off. Action is alright.

Story 4 - Decent: Starts off pretty fun but as time goes on it slowly starts to fall off. Arcs don't really feel like they're connected and instead they feel like stand alone stories. The final arc is also pretty whack. There is no overall goal that any character really wants to accomplish. The ending lacks any emotional reward that a regular ending should have. Since there isn't any foreshadowing it makes no sense why certain situations are occurring or why certain characters make random 180 degree personality decision especially in the final arc. Sometimes a character will make a random uncharacteristic decision and they just roll with it for an arc and then retcon it all by giving some half assed explanation even though there was no evidence of that actually happening.

Art 9 - Great: The art is fucking fire. Holy fuck just google Sun-Ken-Rock or Dr. Stone and you'll see what I mean. Its so fucking good holy shit

Characters 4 - Decent: The characters are serviceable until the second half of the story. That's when they start making unexplained uncharacteristic decisions with no explanation or hit of malice. Which is all then retconned with a half assed explanation and flashbacks which don't really explain much.

Enjoyment 7 - Good: It's quite an enjoyable fighting gang manga but unfortunately it falls off in the last 2 arcs. But if you can turn your brain off and just enjoy it for what it is then you'll probably like it.

spoiler warning L O L


I think overall the series was really good. I loved the korea japan cross over and found the story to be quite refreshing from the typical gang manga. if I were to rate the story it was great up until the final arc. The authors story line went to shit at that point. he started killing off people left and right and left major characters storylines completely open and unanswered like the graves at the end.. I also don't understand why they felt the need to add a major betrayal like 5 chapters before the end... so rushed. Him giving her all the companies and money in the end made me mad. she literally did nothing but hurt him, she betrayed him and indirectly was the reason many of his close friends died. she was selfish as fuck

Amazing graphics. Great story line.
This manga will make you laugh and it will make you cry. You will always be on the edge, anticipating to see what's going to happen next and craving for more.

The issue about SKR is that we are not receiving what we were specting after the first volume, and I mean, in a bad way.

I was looking for a deep plot, after the first volume, I was excited, but then I realized that it was more like "ecchi harem, shonen plot" its seinen just because it contains nudity and violence, but the relationship between characters is fully out of the shonen estereotype manual.

When I started reading SKR, I was fully interested in the plot, in the ideology of the characters, the drawing is outstanding. but the history...

The plot begins really interesting, but when the history is about to get some well achievements in subject of hyping the reader, they use to break the tension and ruin the epic moment that could have been, by adding chibi comedy, that almost always feels totally out of place. instead of remember that the main character gets involved into some mafia gang in an epic way, you end recalling that they started dancing and acting like it was not a big deal, and yes, they turn into chibies in order to dance, this situation happens over and over when the plot turns dark.

SKR abuse of morbidity, and situations like a girl about to be raped, and then it make it seems like, it was not a big deal. all the characters have the same personality, females and males.

Its like a fusion of Tenjou tenge because of the action (but not as epic), and prison school for the ecchi comedy (but no as funny).

**Might contain some spoilers, but I have tried to be discreet about it!**

Even though this series is not completed yet, I felt that writing a review for this w̶a̶s̶t̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ manhwa was necessary when I noticed the ratings in the 8-10 spectrum (!!?). Don't let the art fool you; this is a shallow, unoriginal, tasteless mess.

☆ Here goes ☆

STORY:
Ken follows his high school crush Yumin from Japan to Korea (wut) where she starts working as a police officer. Ken on the other hand becomes a gang-boss and as the story progresses he works himself through the gritty world of organized crime, while staying childishly infatuated with Yumin.

The outset of the story isn't that bad. It's simple and could have acted a solid foundation for a pretty exciting story. It fails miserably when it comes to execution though, and because of the non-existent depth in character portrayal the story falls completely flat.

The story is quick-paced and consists of different extremely repetitive arcs. 1 Ken acs silly (insert jokes and ecchi). 2 A generic Yumin clone gets raped and/or beaten. 3 Ken gets angry and gathers the gang. 4 Fight commences. Even the fights get boring (!!) with predictable turns during the 'mini boss-fights' before the 'final boss'. These arcs and fights are so predictable that they even had me (a hardened shounen enthusiast) bored and unfocused.

Because the story is so quick-paced it also feels as if most of it happens behind the scenes or not at all. There are big jumps and the impact of the exploits of Ken and his gang is not felt to the degree that it should. I presume that this is because the focus is on Ken and his path towards sex with Yumin rather than the actual gang-related plot. Even so, it's like you keep expecting the real story to start or get intense, but it never happens and everything stays incredibly shallow even up to date.

The amount of large themes introduced as potential main story points but then not explored enough are many. For example the concept of the state, the history of South Korea, immigration and xenophobia just to name a few. It's a bit sad that that these interesting themes were pushed aside to make space for naked women.

☆ 5 out of 10 ☆

ART:
The art is beautiful. Really, the environments and the (male) characters are drawn in great detail and variety. The fight-scenes are well drawn and the facial expressions and movement of the characters are great. The extra chapters where Boichi explains the inspiration behind certain elements are interesting and can be felt afterwards in the sceneries and portrayal of Korea.

The women however, only appear is two varieties: Yumin clones and childlike Kae-Lyn clones that give you pedophile vibes. Neither is very well drawn with strange poses and weird proportions/anatomy. They are often drawn in the same poses with no body variety at all. There is also no shading in their faces to show any difference between the characters' features (whereas the male characters have this).

As good as the art may be at times it still feels like trash in a nice package. Even so, standalone the art deserves an 8 for the male character portrayal, fights, facial expressions and sceneries.

☆ 8 out of 10 ☆

CHARACTERS:
Ken had my expectations up because he had inherited Shou from Akumetsu's eyebrows lol.
No but I thought he would be more interesting then he was at least. He's basically as cliché as cliché protagonists get; the humble kind man who gets badass and strong in serious situation. You supposedly think he gets some character development a bit into the story but he then reverts back to his original self with no explanations, so that's that.

The saddest character in the series is the female 'lead' Yumin. She has no personality to speak of. I think there is meant to be some tension regarding the protagonist struggle to hide his identity from her, but she's so bleak that you sometimes forget her existence. She is basically a blank canvas for the author to express his sad sexual fantasies and uniform kink (much like the entire series).

Aside from becoming more manly, almost any form of character development is a transparent attempt to fool the reader into thinking that this series is actually capable of plot twists. (rest assure, it isn't)

Even at the supposed emotional climax of the story, it still feels as if you hardly know or care about the characters at all.

☆ 3 out of 10 ☆

ENJOYMENT:
I may be harsh but it's hard to enjoy something when its main purpose entails creating different scenarios in which to draw women being abused sexually is as many ways possible, annnd good 'ol brawl. Especially when you're only there for one of the two (hint: it's the last one), and that one is executed poorly.

Even any slightly successful joke gets unfunny when you're reminded of the sexism. This series has women coerced into sex (perpetrator is later forgiven), rape as torture, fathers wanting to rape their own daughters, under aged women getting raped and much much more. Not even addressing the fight-scenes ruined by the ridiculous nudity, it objectifies the female characters to the point where it's annoying even if you're normally ok with ecchi.

It's basically so incredibly sexist that the escapism value disappears completely. There is no dignity for any female character in this story. None at all. Not even through the art quality.

☆ 3 out of 10 ☆

OVERALL:
Read it because - The art is great, it has interesting facts about South Korea and its culture/history, lots of fights, a funny Italian character and Ken's eyebrows.

Don't read it because - The shallow story, nonexistent character development, shitty female characters (also sometimes badly drawn), annoying amount of ecchi, sexism, anticlimax, boring fights and repetitiveness.

If this series was a hentai I wouldn't have bothered with this review, but the fact that it tries not to be is what makes it so bad.

☆ 4 out of 10 ☆

This story has a simple enough plot , it´s about a guy that confesses to the girl he likes ,and after kinda getting rejected learns that she is going to Korea to become a cop.
He goes after her and by accident becomes a gang member.

Story:3

It´s actually embarassing how bad the overall story is , character motivations change out of nowhere and it´s overall just made so that Boichi can flex his 10/10 art ,If you want to read a good manga with a very strong story this isn´t it.

The characters in here are mediocre , there is 0 development and they stay has simple stereotypical tropes. And i don´t even want to talk about how the female are portrayed here , because it´s appaling.

This is a good read if you just want to turn off your brain and look at amazing art.

Overall, Sun-Ken Rock , is just an aesthetically beautiful manga with 0 substance.

Sun Ken Rock is about a Japanese man named Ken. Ken's love interest Yumin moves to Korea to become a police officer, and Ken follows her to impress her with success. In a ridiculously short time he becomes the leader of one of the largest criminal organizations in the world, with a shitload of some of the most insane plot twists and over the top martial art fights I have ever seen in a manga in between. Make no mistake that this is predominantly an action manga, but by no means does that mean the characters were left out of the loop. Ken is like a magnet, he has an almost supernatural aura of main character righteousness that he seemingly indoctrinates people into good morale by beating the shit out of them. Rather than this being deus ex however, its a plot device that is observed by other characters in the story. It also doesn't hurt that Ken is an extremely likeable character. He does not always win, and he does not always lose, he is not arrogant, but he respects himself and his gang and will beat the shit out of other gangs that challenge its pride of the street. As time goes on and his gang becomes more and more of an influence in Korea, Ken's character starts to change rather drastically as well. It's cool to read is the bottom line here.

Plot is good. Plot is bretty very good. I liked the plot, which is basically divided into "arcs," that involve a specific plot device or character or event with Ken and the others. There aren't very many of these arcs, maybe like 4, but the length is perfectly sufficient to tell the story at hand and the overall tale of the Sun Ken Rock team. No arc is irrelevant etc. and none drags on for longer than it needs too. Theres depth to the story which has alot to do with the background of Korea, which the manga presents to you both directly and indirectly. Very frequently the manga will show the long term influences of the Vietnam and Korean Wars, as well as the slow collapse of morale in the populace of Korea. It's definitely not paper thin and will make you think which is ALWAYS GOOD IN A MANGA or any media for that matter. It's a deconstruction of society and this theme is heavily present through the entire manga, not thrown in one chapter for sillyness.

Action is CRAZY insane. If their was a 1-5 scale of how realistic fights were in manga, with 1 being Hajimme no Ippo and 5 being some energy technique battle stuff, Sun Ken Rock would be 2. But that does not stop the fights from being brutal and over the top, in fact it exemplifies it because there is no blatant superhumaning (save for one scene with the Vietnam Satan but it was so cool it doesn't matter.) Ken and his gang use an unidentified mix of martial arts to kick everyones ass to varying degrees of success, but its always awesome to read. NEVER BORING. Art is fantastic of course as well, make no mistake that although the mangaka is not particularly famous, he can really fucking draw (don't judge the art by the picture I show you, judge his art as you read it all) it also improves throughout the manga. So basically the action scenes are very dramatic, awesome great super cool, there is a very high chnace you will think so too.

There is comedy in the manga as well, its used frequently in the beginning as well as in between main arcs. It will usually come in the form of one panel of some sillyness or fanservice (which is also over the top but by no means does it dominate the whole manga), or an entire chapter about Don Huang's Sushi Adventure. Never really got on my nerves in the slightest which may be an indicator that it flows well with the dramatic moments. Not out of place and random basically.

In conclusion I feel as if I have barely said anything about this manga that makes it stand out, an action with plot ok theres half of manga right there. But make no mistake that this entire manga is standing out, its so ridiculous and so awesome its an unbelivable that it isn't top of the charts, you will certainly see what I mean.
This is NOT a manga where you have to read 15 chapters for things to start moving. Read one chapter and I am sure you will be sold, specifically 25 pages in or so to said chapter. It's super cool shit, fantastic super awesome, great good.

You got to be crazy not to enjoy Sun-Ken Rock or a child or even just a parent who doesn't like explicit things. This is by far in my top five of my favorite mangas and only the purest of eyes should be able to read Sun-Ken Rock if it was up to me,but luckily for you its not the story was magnificent I had to have read every single chapter in a 2 day span of time because of my infatuation with the plot. The art was so focused and centered but still so different that I was happy to use some styles even in my own drawings. Seinen will always be my favorite though and I will always hold the upmost biased opinion about every Seinen manga but trust me if this was truly bad I wouldn't even waste my time reading it in the first place. If you're looking for a great read and ran out of interesting manga you gotta read this for sure.

Sincerely,
KichtheKid

Story: a man that like a woman...it's seems cliche, but no, to change of country it's no joke, and he did this.
the force and effort of Ken to be stronger is insane, as shown in your trainings, his hands are bruised with calluses and lots of blood.
a man call Ken for get in a gang of mafia, Ken acept it
Ken turned the leader, and your gang stay so BADASS that I would wish entry

art: i don't need to say, it's simply amazing, each trace, each detail, impossible to have someone who doesn't like the fine art, it is pleasing to the eyes XD

Character: they are very interesting, even the main antagonists, who give a lot of work to Ken

Overall: this manga has passed a message for me: we must fight for what we want, even if we fall, we must get up again and again, until we die.
seems exaggerated, but who keeps us from achieving our dreams are ourselves
I hope that this message pass for everybody that will read Sun-ken Rock

Sun-Ken rock has one of the best mafia/underworld/gangster based story line in any those genres manga nowadays. The story is fast paced from the start. The ART of this manga is probably something you will rarely get to see . The characters are quite uniquely made but Ken is just too freaking kind for a guy who beats the shit out of other gang members . The art during the action sequences plus the art of the many landscapes that are shown are too epic.
Random ecchi scenes and the fanservice are quite not needed , they just end up demoting the emotional scenes
An example of awesome art:
mangahere.co/manga/sun_ken_rock/v03/c015/10.html

Story: 8/10
Protagonist starts out at ground zero in a foreign country and gradually builds his way to the top. You know that feeling when you're playing pokemon and you level up or evolve a pokemon? That's the feeling I get when I finish reading each volume because after each arc they just keep adding onto the gang empire as a whole, getting 1 step closer to their ultimate goal.

Art: 9/10
Amazing, art-style is beautiful and the author of Sun-Ken Rock takes the time to explain how he drew each page at the end of a chapter. Really dedicated author, more manga creators should do this.

Character: 9/10
Characters are pretty cliché, protagonist is the typical innocent guy who has the alter-ego of a badass when he's fighting. Side characters are pretty original and keep the story going, I feel a connection to the gang when they're together. The gang as a whole is like the straw hat pirates from One Piece, they have each other's backs.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Probably one of the most funny manga ive ever read, the humor is over the top and exaggerated. Very similar to Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro Chan. I think ima read the beginning volumes just to get a good laugh after finishing writing this lmao

Overall: 9/10
Worth the read, just go try it out. Only thing I can say is bad is that the same theme in the story becomes boring. Another thing is the ecchi, why put provocative/nude shit? I can go watch a porno if I want to see naked chicks.