In the time when Ragnarok, the fall of the gods, has been predicted to occur, Fenris Fenrir is on a desperate quest to locate the reincarnated Balder, to seek his help in changing the world, before the valkyries find him and civilization is doomed.
En oikein tiedä mitä tykkäsin tästä. Ainakin alkuun oli tosi sekavaa kuka kukin oli ja joku henkilöhahmolista olisi ollut kiva. Loppua kohden hieman parani, mutta jotenkin jäi sellainen olo, että ei ihan iskenyt vielä. Ihan ok. En pidä näistä mustavalkokuvaisista sarjakuvista kun ei oikein meinaa saada selvää mitä kuvissa tapahtuu ja kaikki henkilöhahmot samanmoisia. Voisiko selkeästi vaikka laittaa, että missä nyt ollaan. Nopea tämä oli lukea kyllä.
Happy Throwback Thursday everyone! Let’s talk about a very old manga that has graced my husband's bookshelf since our middle school days. Ragnarok, Volume 1 by Myung-Jin Lee was the first manga he ever managed to convince my mother-in-law was appropriately priced despite the book’s real lack of words in the traditional sense.
So, for a manga that’s been tucked away between multiple volumes of Black Cat and Trigun for the past almost twenty years, how is it?
Its…pretty good. I mean. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a great deal, actually. I have a real soft spot for anything shonen. But Ragnarok does have some glaring, obvious flaws which simply cannot be overlooked.
First, a little background. Ragnarok is about, well, Ragnarok in the traditional sense – the fall of the gods. The Valkyries have been dispatched by the gods to find and destroy those responsible. Meanwhile all Fenris wants is to find her long ago companion who is also freshly reincarnated. Oh and maybe change the world if they’ve got a little time to spare.
Something that will help in your reading of Ragnarok is a familiarity with Norse mythology. Many of the names and some of the lore is borrowed heavily from Norse mythology and even a passing familiarity with, say, some of the names of the gods will help you a great deal when first getting into this volume. A lot of characters are introduced pretty rapidly. Many, though not all, of these characters have some sort of descriptor of who they are or what their job is, but reading this book would have been very difficult if I’d known nothing about Norse mythology beforehand. Even some basic knowledge on how in different mythos work would be very helpful to have here.
Now, this is a shonen manga through and through. You can tell by the nearly full page render of a massive explosion on page 3. Ragnarok picks you up and drops you right into the thick of things. Then it picks you up and drops you right in thick of things with Chaos and Iris, two new characters. Then it does this again with a loveable but somewhat bumbling ‘treasure hunter’ who’s totally not a thief. Then it does it with the villains. And. Well. I’m sure you get the picture.
There is a truly asinine amount of jumping around here. Some of these characters do meet up fairly early on, so this is a bit forgivable. However, this doesn’t happen one time. It happens multiple times. The sheer volume of new characters you need to remember can be a bit overwhelming, especially since most of them do feel as if they are important characters whose plots and we will be following rather closely throughout the series.
With the switching of points of view comes a tone shift. There is a massive tone shift in scenes featuring Fenris Fenrir and the trio of Iris, Chaos, and Lidia. This is so extreme it almost felt like I was reading a separate manga. Following the trio is like reading something like, oh, Slayers maybe. It has some good fight scenes, decent plot and world building, but humor is the name of the game a good portion of the time. However, things are much darker and grittier when Fenris or any of the multiple villains or the god’s lackeys show up.
The art style is pretty good. A lot of detail is put into scenes, especially fight scenes. Backgrounds in particular have a lot included in them. This is to the manga’s benefit. The ruins Fenris walks through in the beginning really feel like the ruins of a temple. The architecture is detailed and striking without ever being the real center of attention. These beautiful spreads featuring the architecture or city landscapes are dotted throughout the manga, usually found when a character is talking or something is being explained to the audience. Characters are also well drawn and, for the most part, highly detailed. Which is very important because there are just so damned many of them.
So, how many characters are introduced?
By my count there are fourteen named characters plus the token talking animal mascot. These fifteen characters encompass our heroes, the villains, and some assorted minor characters. Having so many characters introduced in so short an amount of time can be confusing. So pay attention when reading, folks, and be prepared to jump to an entirely new set of characters ever dozen pages or so.
Despite the sometimes glaring issues, Ragnarok is still fun. There are over the top battle moves, their excessiveness softened a bit since there are literal gods in the story. Lots of things explode. And the characters are all pretty likeable. The plot is intriguing. And there are a host of unique demi-god-like beings of ever intensifying power and importance we get to see battle one other. I’d probably continue the series if I knew there would ever be more than ten volumes to the series and no conclusion.
And maybe there will be. One day. In a future far, far away.
See, Ragnarok is the original source and inspiration for Ragnarok Online, the MMORPG, and its many more modern iterations. The creator, Myung-Jin Lee, has put Ragnarok on indefinite hiatus so he can work on the games. Sad, but somewhat unavoidable, I suppose. Maybe one day the series will continue.
While I enjoyed reading Ragnarok, this is not one of the best manga I’ve picked up. It was fun and passed the time, but did have some pretty big drawbacks. If you like shonen or have played any of the Ragnarok Online games you will probably enjoy this series. If you don’t like manga with huge casts of characters or stories that jump around from place to place or character to character Ragnarok probably isn’t for you.
3/5 This one is kinda all over the place. Volume 1 bounces between 3/4 different sets of characters introducing them and a little about each one. The last chapter of this volume has them all converging on one town. Which is something you see a lot in manga and fantasy but not usually quite so quickly.
The plot is ok but other than characters names I see very little connection to Norse mythology. The action is decent but not great. I personally really enjoy the character designs but the exaggerated are likely to put many people off.
Chaos on the cover of volume 1.
Read for the Manga Squad. Manga of the Month January 2023 Runner Up. (WebToon and Manwha)
At first, I found the story extremely scrappy and silly. I didn't like the character design at all plus I didn't like any of the characters, and I just hated both the composition of the sound effects and the skimpy clothing on the female characters. I was able to tell the characters apart but the wordless fighting pictures seemed dull and unclear to me - and there were too many of them. Therefore I found the beginning of this book very annoying and unpleasant. I was just about to drop the whole series and to give it a rating "gave-up-on" since even one star seemed to be too much.
Then I started thinking that reading the whole first book would not take too much of my time but it might give me a better understanding of the story and of the characters. And I could still drop the series after that in case I wanted to do so. Ergo, I decided to give it a shot instead of just returning this and the next two books unread to the library. Now after reading the whole first book I still don't like it much but I don't absolutely hate it either. I'm hesitating between one and two stars and wondering whether to read at least one more book of the series. Probably I won't but I'm not sure yet.
Maybe I'm just too old for this even though I love Fullmetal Alchemist and Chibi Vampire...
Rereading the first two volumes, I find myself skipping lots of scenes. Weird. This is one of those mangas I was addicted before. PAST TENSE. I think it lost its appeal. Its a good thing I didn't get to buy all volumes. And i don't know, maybe I'm too harsh but the drawing style isn't that good IMO. (No offense to the mangaka and I'm not really that great artist but it just my honest opinion).
And on the plot, basing this on Norse Mythology is brilliant, although not original. When I was reading, I'd notice that the pacing is too fast. Fenrir, the reincarnated Wolf God, found Balder aka Chaos too soon. Not that I cared before and remembered. And there's lot of characters being introduced and in a blink of eye on the next page or chapter they're dead. What a waste.
Anyways, I still plan on continuing rereading the series until the last volume.
It is alright to read to past time. It isn't close to the game I know and love, but it probably isn't supposed to. It's just not the same after you played the game. However, this graphic novel is pretty average and the drawings aren't that bad. Nothing much I can really say about this book.
Felt a bit like a bunch of charaters thrown together, didn't feel that they were developed enough. And elements that was completly out of it, being norse mythology, were just left there. Feels rushed. Don't know what else to say.
I'm disappointed that it reads as a normal book and not like manga usually does (back to front). There is more than one story line going on, so it's kind of easy to get a little lost. But it's definitely a fun read with some decent insight into Norse mythology.
I love the action in this and the art style, but there are some issues.
The story has great potential, but it felt like there were plot holes as you turned the page so scenes would shift but the last scene would still be continuing, if that makes sense (probably not). Our main character Iris/Fenris is not consistent. One moment she is a bad-ass fighter the next she is gushing and not making any sense especially with how this manga opened, I would expect her to consistently be a hard ass and focused on her task of finding Baldur. Kind of like the female version of Chaos. I am not a fan of this random side plot with the thief chick. The valkyries and actual lore of the world are good, but the plot is lacking.
This would make a much better anime since it is written exactly like one.
This is a series that came out many many moons ago...but don't let that make you sleep on the series. I am always looking for manga series that I believe my (12-year-old) daughter will enjoy. This first volume is a mixed bag because of the following:
*Jumps between a lot of characters *Action is steady but because you are meeting characters for first time might be confusing *If you don't know the Norse mythology behind the characters you will miss a lot
Overall, I think there is series promise, and it is interesting. If you know what Ragnarok is (even if just in references from the Marvel cinematic movies) it will help you know exactly what is going down. Action is breakneck and drawn beautifully by Myung-Jin Lee. Definitely worth a whirl!
Opportunity missed. The artist and their collab team are great at drawing, but not so much with storyline. I found myself confused at times, and skipping sections. I liked some of the characters, however when the main character is annoying (Iris), then you have a huge problem captivating a reader to your books. I think I should warn people that this series has also been ‘discontinued’, so anyone purchasing this series of books should know there is no ending to it. It had all the ingredients, but no recipe for what it wanted to create.
Volume One Rating: 7/10 Entire Manga Series Rating: 6.5/10 Art Rating: 8/10
Olin joskus lukioaikoina ihan hulluna tähän sarjaan. Luin sen varmaan kolmesti ja surin sitä, että tarina jäi kesken. Kauheaa tajuta, etten ole enää yhtä ihastunut sarjaan. Minua ärsyttävät etenkin kaikkien naisten vaatteet. Miksi on niin, että aarteenmetsästäjä/varas Lydia on järkevämmin pukeutunut kuin Iris, Sara ja Fenris, jotka ovat mahtavia velhoja ja sotureita? Saran vaatteet ovat kauniita ja typeriä, Iriksen ja Fenriksen (etenkin Iriksen) taas rumia ja typeriä. Mutta on kyllä pakko sanoa, että sarjassa käytetty taikuus on edelleen mahtavaa!
I've had a collector's set of this manga on my shelf for years, but I really never have it a chance. After finally reading the first book, I see that I wasn't really missing anything.
We're introduced to a cast of characters, which includes a bunch of badass dudes and skimpy, ditzy women- yes, that includes a 14 year old, for some reason. Any characters that don't fit into these two archetypes are cursed with stupid name syndrome (Fenris Fenrir, really?).
I only own three of these books, and while I'll read the next two volumes, I doubt I'll be hunting down the rest.
I read this to hopefully get out of a reading slump and it was actually a nice read. It wasn’t my favorite because it was a bit confusing with the mythology (i don’t know much about norse mythology) and there was a lot of action and im more into romance mangas than action mangas but i did like the characters and it was a cool story i actually found myself wanting to read more after it ended but realistically i’m not sure if i would buy volume 2. Also shoutout to my bfs dad who gave me this book🫶🫶
The art isn't bad, but the story and how the world works makes no sense. The gods are mostly Norse, but they use yen-like currency which nuns are carrying. There are giant worms and a sort of bounty hunting system on Midgard, but it seems like only those of Norse god blood can handle it. I definitely won't be continuing this series.
This was my first time reading manga, and although it's not really my thing, I thought the story was interesting. I have a hard time being able to tell what's going on, especially in the action scenes. I will probably give more manga a try because my boys really like it, and I want to be able to recommend, or at least talk with the students at school about manga.
[EDIT 6/30/2023: Re-read with the intent of going through the next three volumes, everything I stated previously still holds true. Damn good fun.]
*Read as part of the 25 Days of Manga challenge for December 2020.*
This was another of those series I sat on during high school. And I can say that in this case, I'm glad I did. I never would have appreciated even a fraction of the effort and care that went into this, and I'm glad that I've seen various other manhwa at this point in order to be able to say that this is some of the best art I've seen in a manhwa, period.
At present, this opens at a breakneck pace and doesn't really let up until the last chapter of the volume. We're following three different perspectives initially, two of which merge, and then another perspective is also thrown in (not counting a brief scene with the Fates.) It's a bit much to follow, as all these perspectives with the exception of one are moving at incredibly fast paces, but I'm interested to see how they're all going to tie together in future volumes.
I'm not sure either who my favorite character is going to end up being. I like everyone I've seen so far, for various reasons. Hopefully I'll be able to continue with the series soon and give updates on my thoughts about it.
I know I'm doing it wrong, but I tend to skip past most of the pictures, even in a graphic novel. (Yes, I also consider most songs inserted into movies to be filler that I'd rather just fast forward through.) I get that the pictures are part of the format, but unless I really concentrate, I'll blow past them without even realizing it. The previous paragraph does, in fact, relate to this review. I almost gave this book just two stars and said "well, that's a series I'm done with," but the last chapter changed that. Up until then, my impression of the book was (1) oh, look, another page of wordless fighting pictures (reference paragraph 1) and (2) I cannot tell these characters apart!!! But in the last chapter this book showed enough promise that I'm going to (1) push my rating up that fraction of a point necessary to make the final calculation round up to 3 stars and (2) not simply return -- unread -- the next two books in the series (which I already have checked out from the library).
I was initially curious about this title because of the connection to Norse mythology. Sadly, the element of Norse mythology is tenuous (at best). Probably the best one-line description of Ragnarok is from a reviewer's quote on the back of the book: "...somewhere between OH MY GODDESS and Marvel's THOR...".
That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed it -- and I would have absolutely loved it as a teenager. It is in the typical style with great artwork and an interesting story. Swords, sorcery, and monsters... what more do you need?
A very fun read, just don't get hung up on the Norse mythology thing.
One last note: Reviewers elsewhere have pointed out that there's an abundance of "busty" females in this book. Just to be clear, there is NO nudity, but the artist does like to draw well-endowed women. I didn't think it was over-done -- especially compared to other Manga titles and main-stream comic books.
The world of Midgard is controlled by warrior gods and goddesses, but a beautiful warlock named Fenris threatens to shift power to the humans (through her cunning and excellent fighting skills). Lots of swordfighting and harnessing of special powers between skilled opponents, and a little comic relief thrown in. The first book introduces a bounty hunter named Chaos, who is no doubt the "chosen one." Predictable but fun.
This book frustrated me.There were long-hard to read names and the illustrations of people were poor.The way the author draws character's faces irritated me. There wasnt a great story line to go to and it was hard to follow.
Although one thing that was neat, was the fight scenes. They were very explicit and creative. It kept me flipping the pages. If I could only keep interested in the story itself.