For background the original ran from 2007-2010, and Breaker: New Waves (part 2) ran from 2010-2015. Both were in the classic black and white manga format. I honestly didn’t think it would ever come back, but it did - in 2022 in a webtoon format (link).
I had the time this weekend, so I re-read the last bunch of chapters from both part 1 and part 2 to jog my memory and binged the 50-odd chapters officially released in English. The webtoon format is obviously great for reading on mobile, and the colour artwork is fine (and sometimes great). But the artist sometimes throws in a black and white panel that makes me long for the old art style (e.g., Chapter 54).
At the moment, I wouldn’t say it’s reached the heights of the previous parts (my expectations are maybe too high), but the nostalgia is driving me along and I’ve still been enjoying it. Just curious if anyone has tried it, either fresh or someone who read the previous parts.
I wonder if they required some time to kind of set the scene for the murim world, since it’s on a new platform so they can’t assume that all readers read the earlier parts. I didn’t mind the earlier chapters, though, because it was like a repeat of Shiwoon meeting Nine Arts Dragon at his school, so kind of fun.
Are you reading the scanlated chapters or the webtoons ones? I’m just sticking with webtoon, so I’m in the middle of Kang Sung’s fight
(spoiler)
with Nine Arts Dragon in the prison
I’m sure the story will pick up a bit more, as they always do.
The one thing I loved about Breaker before was that it was always grounded in a kind of physical realism, while other fighting mangas get carried away with their power scaling and the fights all spiral into flying about in the air shooting beams of light at each other. That’s the one thing I would hate to happen in this one, and I feel like the black and white drawings helped the fights to feel grittier. The colour is here to stay, though, so might as well try to enjoy it.