Bi-Kwang Han has the potential to become the greatest fighter in the land - except that he's girl-crazy and more than a little childish. He stumbles upon Hwa-Rin, a beautiful and determined woman who - disguised as a man - is desperately searching for her grandfather, a man who happens to be the best fighter of the Establishment School. Hwa-Rin carries with her the Sword of the Flowers, a treasure of the land that is believed to be the key to finding the man she seeks - her grandfather. Bi-Kwang and Hwa-Rin's chance encounter soon proves to be providence, as together they search for Hwa-Rin's grandfather and struggle to keep the Sword of the Flowers from the hands of Sang Pil "Gold Cobra" Jin and his men...
At first this series is very promising as a wuxia manhwa, but then after 20+ volumes, I found this series has standard formulaic plots for wuxia, with a Gary Stu main character.
Genre: comedy, action, adventure, martial arts, gender bender, ecchi (slightly related to adult contents), seinen (typically for young men readers).
It's perfect as an adventure comic. My current most favorite, perhaps of all the time.
What is more interesting than a meeting of a womanizer guy who has no martial art skill and a heroine who disguises as a male warrior in the world full of intrigue. And this is just a start. Destiny draws Han Bi Kwang and Dam Hwa Rin together. They never really be apart each other ever since.
Bi Kwang initially described as a student of the black renowned figure. He refused to learn martial arts but seducing girls instead. Only after he met Hwa Rin, who he thought first to be a sissy boy but later on it appeared as an attractive girl, he manages himself step by step to grow up and learn martial art on his own way. Their journey is mostly about to find Hwa Rin's grandfather who is a big-name of white world. Their different roots undeniably makes the journey harder. In between, they meet a lot of famous figures from black and white worlds and fight against most of them.
What makes this Korean manga so special are: 1. Han Bi Kwang. His comical character is the center and also the strength of this comic. Women hunter - even after with Hwa Rin, stubborn, strong will, no martial arts but very good at copying opponent's movement as well as a fast runner. He also has a mysterious background. 2. Quarreling with Hwa Rin which is mostly hilarious. I never skip even a page because I don't want to miss these scenes. The plot improves their relationship gradually.
What I don't like (but these will never cut down my stars) are: 1. More and more figures come. It is actually normal for long running series. However, I guess this one has too much that I can't recall any of them when they meet again in the next volumes. 2. It's an ongoing series. 3. It has a very little improvement regarding the plot. 4. Waste of space. So many fight scenes that takes only half an hour to read a volume after waiting for 2 months.
No matter what, I enjoy waiting for the next volumes and not in a rush to know the end.
Hwa-Rin must masquerade as a male fighter in order to find her grandfather who disappeared many years ago. During her search, she runs into Bi-Kwang, an immature and girl crazy fighter with a lot of talent who knows her grandfather’s location. Dressed up as a man, Hwa-Rin pretends to introduce him to her “sister,”who is really herself, in exchange for the information. Much to her dismay, he falls in love with the “sister” and refuses to share any information until he marries her! Together the two run into several skirmishes, mostly thanks to Bi-Kwang’s attitude and the rival gang trying to hunt him down. There’s even a little bit of romance when Bi-Kwang can’t figure out why he’s attracted to his new male friend (aka Hwa-Rin)!
Sometimes the plot is a little bit erratic, but no more so than most other mangas/manhwas; teens accustomed to the “over the top” plotlines of mangas/manhwas will be able to follow the story pretty well. It’s a little bit hard to believe Bi-Kwang can’t figure out that his new male friend is really a female, especially after he sees her breasts! Drawings of Hwa-Rin are overly sexualized, probably to highlight her gender, but other than a brief scene where Bi-Kwang views her breasts while trying to help heal her wounds, there aren’t any sex scenes making this a pretty clean manhwa.
The illustrations help move the plot along, but the Korean sound effects and some of the text remain in Korean, more so than in many other manhwas. The inclusion of the Korean writing might be distracting for some readers.
The Ruler of the Land is appropriate for middle school and older due to the sexualized drawings.
There wasn't a single good thing about this book. It is sexist and transphobic. The lack of consent is played off for laughs. The art style and story line are nothing new.
Also, theoretically this turns into a love triangle between the guy who literally only sees women as sex objects and the woman who dresses like a man because it is not socially acceptable for women to know martial arts. I get that horny guy thinks the sword master's "sister" is the hottest person he has ever seen. But why on earth does the sword master fall for this guy? She sees how he treats women; and he doesn't treat her much better know that he thinks she is a hermaphrodite.
The premise of the book doesn't even make sense. Early on horny guy gets his butt kick by several women who did not want anything to go with his groping. If women can know martial arts, why is it socially unacceptable for them to use swords?
بدابة المانها خفيفة وكوميدية، في البداية أفتكرت أنها هيكون محتواها دموي وقاتم زي kingdom و Vagabond لكن إلي الآن..الكثير من " المسخرة".. نتمني الأحداث تبقي أسرع من كده وأشد قاتمة في المجلدات القادمة. ، ملاحظة 1 : الأسماء صعبة لدرجة أني بعدي عليها كده وبقرأ المقطع الأول منها ملاحظة 2: دي أول مانغا أمتلكها في حياتي.. أول مجلدين بس .. قراءة المانغا ورقيًا تجربة مختلفة تمامًا عن المواقع الاونلاين
Shounen finally has something refreshing. Hard to put a finger on what's really unique about it from other formula prone shounen that makes you keep wanting more chapters.