A Double Review: My Two Favorite Regression Manhwas by Ian

          Throughout the school year, most of my blog posts have been reviews of books I’ve read. Although, I haven’t really talked about any manhwa (basically South Korean graphic novels). Since this is also my last blog post, I decided I should do a return to form of sorts and talk about a regression manhwa I’ve be enjoying recently. But first, what is a regression manhwa?

          Regression manhwa are extremely popular in South Korea and there are as many of them as pieces of plastic in the ocean; way too many. The main crux of regression manhwa stories is in the name: regression. Usually, the story starts with a character that has gone through all sorts of hardships, along with having tons of regrets, dying and getting the chance to turn back time to relive their life. This premise in and of itself may sound pretty interesting, but unfortunately, to continue the comparison from earlier: most of these manhwa are garbage. Most fall into the trap of becoming boring, edgy power fantasies all about revenge with bland characters clearly built for any reader to be able to project onto them. However, there are a few stories that manage to balance these elements and craft a pretty interesting story.

          The story I mainly wanted to cover is known as “Geomsulmyeongga Mangnaeadeul” or “Swordmaster’s Youngest Son” and is fairly popular for regression manhwa. This manhwa has a fair number of tropes found in this genre, but uses them in interesting enough ways that it doesn’t get boring. Now, this manhwa begins with a chain of events all good manhwa do: main character gets bullied by their family, main character is then exiled from said family for a lack of talent, main character later killed by, you guessed it, their family for some nondescript reason, and finally, main character regresses to when they were a child to fix all their mistakes. Oh, along with the part where the main character makes a deal with an ancient god that unlocks their sealed talent they actually had all along!

From that short synopsis, you can probably tell the general premise is a bit melodramatic and kinda leans into wish fulfillment a little too much. But once this story gets off the ground, its world building is pretty interesting and it’s fun to watch how the now overpowered main character deals with his abusive siblings. This manhwa also has some okay humor and running gags that normally at least put a smile on my face (if the over the top premise wasn't doing that already). The part I like the most is, of course, the world building. “Swordmaster’s Youngest Son” primarily takes place in a world with a rigid structure of magic/swordsmanship/spirit that is divided into clear cut ranks. However most only ever advance in one area because spirit powers have to come directly from gods, so very few ever get them. Next, magic/swordsmanship are divided between two powerful families (the one focused on swordsmanship is the main character’s family) and their territories. These families have a treaty preventing the other one from learning their respective powers. The main character is where this seemingly rigid and boring power system is given a more interesting spin because the main character possesses and uses all three powers. This unique usage of power lets the main character become far more powerful (in his first life he discovered his talent as a mage). This world also has lots of mythical creatures and interesting lore between them. All in all, “Swordmaster’s Youngest Son” is a bit cliche and over dramatic but also interesting and a worthwhile read.

Now, before this blog gets too long, I wanted to mention my all time favorite regression manhwa; “SSS-Class Revival Hunter.” I love this manhwa so much because of what it does a little later in the story. There is a huge amount of really cool world building and intricacy to the way the world works. The basic premise is a guy entered a tower with 100 floors that all need to be cleared and basically gets the ability to steal the skills from people that kill him, which seems useless until, by a stroke of luck, a guy with an ability to turn back time by one day when he dies, kills him. Now, this guy was a horrible person, so he abused his ability and made the tower a worse place. But the main character decides to got back to before the guy got the skill to kill him and basically ascend the tower in a better way. This is technically for revenge, but ends soon enough that it doesn’t consume the narrative. After that, the main character starts going up the floors of the tower which gets to some of my favorite world building in literature.

All in all, regression manhwa are some of my favorite stories as I really love the ways they can do their world building and the intriguing themes they can present. Finally, I just want to say thank you for reading my final blog post and the final post on this blog. These blogs have been really fun for me to both write and read all year and I hope this was a good send off for this blog!