Yongbi the Invincible

So I have survived this tiring week, made worse by me trying to finish reading Yongbi. Worth it though.

Between Ruler of the Land, and Yongbi the Invincible, I've got my 武侠 covered :D
Side note: through a translator's note in this series, I've finally figured out the "murim" is 武侠 and "gangho" is 江湖, everything makes sooooo much more sense now.

I feel the entire arc in the Muhae valley is to show off the art.

Anyways there's not much to say about this series since 武侠 series really only go one way and that is perfectly alright with me. Yongbi has a really good cast of characters, with some side characters being really well developed. A recent surprise was a bit of the past that's between Yongbi and Hong Yemon, I did not expect any romance as part of this series, but damn I ship those two to the end of the world now.

One more item of note is two quotations, which is also surprisingly since no specific lines of dialog has stood out to me before in manga/anime. First is by the grand general when he's overwatching the final battle between Yongbi when he commanded the Black Lancers and the Horsemen tribe's prince, and I paraphrase:

It's a shame that these two must perish in this nameless battle that won't even be recorded in the annals of history. Sometimes the fate of heros who are not born in the right age is more wretched than the fate of ordinary men. 

Side note 2: there really is no fast way to skim fast chapters of manga online to find a specific page.

Second quotation is the dialog between Yongbi and Yul Mu Gi where he consoles the little merchant:

Yongbi is usually not this cool, but he kills its when he is. 

This review summarizes nicely how Yongbi usually is:

Yongbi is a great hero for this sort of work, because he is a character who behaves a lot like Lupin does. He doesn’t try to be a role mode or a moralist person, and is constantly seeking new forms of roguish entertainment.

which is pretty much the archetype of a 武侠 main character.


This dialog also highlights what I think to be the theme of the story which is how to find redemption without regretting your past choices. We shall see if this plays out to be true, the scanlations are 11/23 volumes, this is going to be a slow and excruciating wait (but when is it not?).