i think manga with its slow release times, pedophiliic tendencies, and wimpy loser mc epidemic has major issues too. i do think manhwa has the best mixture of quality and release time if you can build your trope tolerance. i'd rather have a lot of 6/10 comics that release a chapter weekly (manhwa) than a few 8/10s (manga) that release a chapter every two months. i think a lot of manga don't even have enough sample size (# of chapters) for one to make a judgment about quality in the first place.

and they say lloyd is evil, even with that purehearted smile at the end

Barbarian Quest is extreme and homoerotic, but The Marquess's Youngest Son has the most unreadable BL-like art I've seen, mixed with a MC who leans into it as a shota.

the heart tongue thing seems pretty out of place, but i don't think it's actually gay at any point. i do see the yaoi art style later, especially, but i don't think it's that distracting.

It's pretty good, but there are several multi-chapter sequences of the side characters doing some low-stakes nonsense, particularly in season 2 and early season 3. The minor characters are well-developed, so that's not the problem--it's that the pace drags completely when there are five consecutive chapters of very minor characters engaging in a mock battle. MC in this is good in the same way every regressor/reincarnator trying to build up a school is -- he beats up his students but really cares about them. There are times where there isn't enough of MC training and getting stronger. It's mostly a finding a legendary medicine ball or absorption technique kind of getting stronger plot rather than one where he actually trains or does things that should improve his power. It's good at points where MC is at the center or with his students and boring at others when the plot is bound up in purely low-stakes minor character stuff. 7.5-8/10 -- not "peak" but pretty good overall.

I dropped this after like 50 chapters because I was annoyed by how he has literally every single secret identity, from Sherlock Holmes to Van Helsing to Mahatma Gandhi. Can someone who's read all chapters tell me if it cools it with the countless secret identities stuff?

It starts from cliches but becomes really unique with plot directions that are actually creative and don't exist in any other manhwa. Even I didn't like every bit of it, the novelty of its plot and characters is worth reading. More character-driven than action/power level driven.

Absolutely braindead power scaling

yeah no planning at all in this story. it's clear writer had no end goal and kept making it up as he went.

I just wish MC had a different character design. It looks like artist just draws a short-haired shota and then adds longer hair in the back to give him long hair. Not a fan of mullets in murim.

This is good only for the fact that the male lead is characterized as a normal person. Every present-day romance manga is infected with the disease that makes every male main character a shrimpy shota loser afraid of women.

This is a manhwa that, with its art, tropes, and plot, feels like something out of 2017. The amount of online discourse about this story and its characters also makes it feel complete. Can't believe it's still coming out in 2025

It's fine but has some of the worst art you'll see in a supposedly action comic.

Are Cheonma from the start of The Return of Mount Hua Sect and MC here the same character, i.e. the Demon Cult leader? Is this a Korean/Chinese staple character? Anyway, this is really good

Art is a weakness, but MC has a funny goal that gives a slightly different take on the murim regression trope. If you like murim, it's very readable. If you're tired of the usual murim-isms, this isn't gonna change your mind.

This story does way more than the average action comic to take his OP-ness seriously. He is legitimately a genius within the world of the story (i.e. well-integrated into murim) rather than being a genius through reincarnator knowledge or something outside the world he lives in. OP MCs lessen the drama in basically every such story and this isn't any different (like you say). MC isn't annoying; he doesn't use his OP-ness to face-slap mobs, show off for his ego, etc. He is committed to taking the negative of his OP-ness seriously so he can survive. This is good by the standards of OP MC stories.

Boring. There are a handful of great murim reincarnation/regression stories and this is not one of the them.

Guy criticizing this for being childish is wrong. It's not teaching you abstruse philosophical principles, true, but it's definitely not more childish than the average action manhwa. Literally every single VR manhwa is far more childish than this. Honestly, far above average in terms of action manhwa maturity.

>>reincarnates to futuristic magic world that simultaneously has convenience stores and 18th century european nobility.
>>to get his revenge, he plays a VR game.

there's no way these things can coexist and not be garbage.

i literally cannot fathom the appeal of this to any audience, japanese or otherwise. oldschool manga romance had a normal looking guy with no traits as the insert, but for some reason now it has to be a 10 year old looking wimp who can't tie his own shoes or talk to a woman. how doesn't it feel condescending to the average japanese reader to have the insert be the most pathetic loser of all time as if the mangaka and industry is directly saying that's who the reader is