Noblesse: Season 1, Set by Son Jae Ho – ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Recommended: yep
For an unexpectedly funny tale woven with darkness and ethics, for wonderfully complex characters who grow and change your heart
Summary:
He awakens. For 820 years he has slumbered with no knowledge of mankind’s advancements and scientific achievments. The land which he once knew has become an unfamiliar place with new technologies, attitudes, and lifestyles. Cadis Etrama Di Raizel (Rai), while seeking to familiarize himself with this era, somehow locates a loyal servant of his, Frankenstein, who is currently the principal of a South Korean high school. Rai decides that this high school would be the perfect place to help him learn about the new world. He enrolls, and suddenly becomes the friend of Shinwoo, an immature teenager who is also a master martial artist. But this new world is no safer than the old, and the dignified, bewildered, technologically illiterate Rai finds himself caught up in adventures both ridiculous and dangerous.
Thoughts:
The bandaid on his nose has got to go. Sorry – just had to get that out! It’s been driving me crazy! Though with that out of the way, I can focus on everything that I liked, which was pretty much everything else.
This was recommended to me as one of the most popular WebToon reads, so I figured I’d jump in and see what the fuss was about. I definitely enjoyed this, though it was missing the full dramatic pull I needed to give it five stars and binge read several hundred episodes. I did not expect it to be so funny, especially not in such a purely funny way. If anything, I would have expected grim dark humor. Instead, I got this perfectly sweet contrast to the depths of darkness that it pulls you into.
The art style is quite detailed, and is familiar to anyone who’s read this kind of story before. Angular lines and subtle style changes dictate the mood of the moment in the scene. There are some minor grammatical translation issues, but nothing that hinders understanding. The writing itself is overall quite good, teasing elements just before exposing them that keeps you on your toes. The characters are the true winning feature here, and there must have been a thorough process in mapping them out before the story was ever truly begun. Some of the characters remain a bit flat, but the depth you see in others far outweighs that and brings true joy to the read.
My Book Joy 