Kingdom of the Winds 1

I like the idea of this series. A gigantic epic that fantasies-up Korean history. The downside is that I know nothing about Korean history, but Netcomics helps you out with some pretty detailed character explanations, a map, and several pages of supplementary material in the back of the volume. I like that a lot.

I didn’t realize until I bought this volume that it was drawn by the same person who did “The Starry Night,” which was probably my least favorite of the Manhwa Novella Collection volumes. I really didn’t like the art in that volume, and some of the very… well, Mitsuru Adachi-looking character designs carry over into this series, but this is much more epically drawn. I appreciate a lot of the sequences without actually liking the art that much, which is fine by me. Some of the character designs are initially a little confusing to tell apart at first as well, but she actually does a really good job of drawing the four or five main characters in really different ways.

The story was hard to follow. I don’t really want to say anything bad about it, because I also kind of liked it, but it was hard for me to figure out what was going on with the magical beings sometimes. By the end of the volume, I found that I could gloss over those parts for right now and still figure out what was going on for the most part, though. I like the plot so far, and I’m hoping the pace kind of slows and… well, more time is spent in flashbacks, explaining the deaths of all these family members that happened before the first volume started.  Really, the most important and intense part of the plot so far is that the story seems to mostly be about a crazy patriarch who seems to be fond of killing his own children. A modern Saturn, if you will.

The fantasy elements are confined to a couple characters who seem to be able to communicate with… spirits, or animal spirits of some kind. It’s not exactly clear to me if others can see them, or are supposed to see them, but I think they can. Only the main character and his sister can engage them and talk to them, and fight with them, it seems. This comes up a few times, but past the magical creatures, there’s also the spirits of dead family members that protect non-magical family members, which is pretty awesome.

It sets itself up to be a really deep, engaging story, and I’m willing to wait to see how it goes for a few more volumes. But again, I really want to like it. I’m not sure exactly why, but I do. I think most people might find this confusing, but if it gets itself straightened out and going, it could really be something amazing.