Saif Shakir - Blade of Heaven

 Summary:

Blade of Heaven, written by Yong-Su Hwang and illustrated by Kyung-Il Yang, was a manga about a boy named Soma who was blamed for stealing the sword of heaven. For a long time, heaven, hell, and the mortal world have been fighting in a war. These three worlds are all connected to each other, and if the demons of hell get control of heaven, then both heaven and the mortal world will face severe consequences. The main reason why these worlds are fighting against each other is because of three extremely powerful swords. Out of the three, the Blade of Heaven was the most important sword because of its ability to demolish the enemy whilst not damaging the sword. This sword was in possession of the King of Heaven, but it was stolen, and Soma was the only person to blame. Soma was depicted as a character who is extremely energetic, and quite confident. Physically, he appears to be somewhere in his teens, and is small but muscular. Throughout the story, he is portrayed as the main character who is a professional swordsman, constantly bragging about his skill level. This led the King of Heaven to jump to a conclusion that Soma was the culprit to the missing sword. However, Soma convinces the King that he did not steal the sword, but he is still punished. His punishment is to go to the mortal world with the company of the Princess of Heaven and General Winter. The Princess of Heaven is shown as a side character who is extremely soft, but is still quite talented. On the other hand, General Winter is shown as a character who is rough and cruel, but still acts like a chaperone throughout Soma's journey. On Soma's journey around the mortal world, he shows off his swordsman skills, and defeats every demon which comes in his way with the help of the Princess. In the end, the readers finds out that Soma actually did take the sword, and the Princess saw him do it. However, they both decide not tell anybody and keep it a secret.

Review:

Overall, I enjoyed this author's depiction of the characters in this manga, and I found the plot to be interesting. Throughout this story, Soma is presented as fearless and is willing to take anybody as his opponent. This makes interactions with his enemies more interesting as it quickly escalates the situation which keeps the reader engrossed in the book. Another aspect of this book that I found interesting was the art design. Unlike the past mangas I have read, this one contained multiple fighting scenes which had extremely detailed panels. During the scenes when Soma was fighting demons, the artwork made it extremely easy to visualize their surroundings and the scenario the main character caught himself in. Even though this was one of my favorite mangas, I felt like the plot moved too fast, and there was not much background to the characters. For example, there was a character named fat ninja who would randomly appear and then just disappear. This would leave me confused because that character seemed important for one scene, but for some reason the author got rid of the character. When reading, I like to know a little about the characters’ backstories, but this manga failed to provide that knowledge. I would definitely recommend this manga to people who are interested in fast-paced plots, and characters who have unique personalities.

Rating:

In the end, I would rate this book a 7.5 out of 10 only because of its unclear characters, but I was intrigued by the characters’ personalities and the intricate art style.