The Horizon
a review by NextUniverse
a review by NextUniverse
(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)
Regardless of who you are, we have all tried to answer a question along the lines of "what is the meaning of life?" Well, there are 5 different answers for you...
- the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.
- the existence of an individual human being or animal.
- the period between the birth and death of a living thing, especially a human being.
- vitality, vigour, or energy.
- (in art) the depiction of a subject from a real model, rather than from an artist's imagination.
(Credits to Google Dictionary)
But, I am sure this wasn't enough for you, not even close. What I have failed to do was answer on a level along the lines of "why do we exist?" or "what is the point in anything if it all ends?". To which I say, "lmao, chill, just vibe doe." In all seriousness, I am no philosophical genius, so I can't really answer that for you, but in the same case, I am not actually wrong with my answer. Neither am I right. It is merely a matter of perception. It is a strange thing to think about, in which we only do it simply because we are intelligent and have the ability to reason. Should we consistently look for the answers to these, I suppose, "pointless" questions? When should we even start asking those questions? Where to begin? How to look into it?
The Horizon aims to answer the question of life we all have lingering in our minds somewhere. Does it do a good job at that? Well. To some extent, it does for sure, but there are a few problems this webtoon has that doesn't look like it is being said about from what I see with popular opinion, so I would like to insight some of those thoughts I have.
Analysing the narrative is an iffy situation. I do understand what The Horizon brought forward and for the most part, the story didn't actually matter in retrospect. That isn't to say, however, that I can no longer criticise it. Because whilst it may not matter, it still exists and I will inform those looking for something of a good narrative, saying whether or not that exists here.
Now. Ultimately, The Horizon is a message.
I say this because there is no care about writing a story, and the underlying themes that made the story irrelevant. Well, it does care. It just does so with little effort. I find myself questioning the world at hand a lot to the point where I can safely say such a world would be absurd. Not because of the catastrophic state the world is in here, it's unrealistic (obviously) but believable relative to this universe, though because of the events that happen in this catastrophic world. I question where some of these character backgrounds are from, I question why plot conveniences exist here, I question what the hell is up with these character actions. You see, if you are writing to send a message to the audience, there is ultimately no need to care about storytelling, because you should be only sending the message. Obviously, you need some characters, not always, but most use characters, developed though? Who cares? They exist only to send out a message. Look at Puparia as an example. Why do you think abstract art makes little sense? It's a form of art with some underlying message, maybe even none at all. Hell, look at Shiroi Kumo, a manga that would relate more to this. But The Horizon incited a real developed beginning-to-end story, with actual characters and developments, thus being subject to everything a story needs to make it work. So the storytelling here is so silly that it is almost ridiculous.
However, I will tell you that despite what seems to be unrealistic. The message has been sent, and it was a very good one at that. Even though everything was attached haphazardly, the main points and messages that were supposed to get across to the viewer were sent in good fashion. This is a really dark pessimistic work that looks at the value of life in the lowest of times. I would say to some extent that this may even be a 10/10 in that category. Despite calling out on how dumb the story is at times, I would be a liar to say that I didn't get what The Horizon was influencing, it was seriously dark stuff. But if only it held itself together and I would have enjoyed this more.
If I am going to talk about real stories, I should focus on the characters. They are both unnamed. Whether that was in the name of hidden meanings or laziness is something I will never know. The boy and the girl are pretty good characters, despite being slapped together to do things in whatever the story called for, they were really good. Their development was real for the most part and I have to praise it for that. Some inconsistencies in their action that make them seem dumber than they should, it makes them worse characters, but nothing vile. Other side characters, not so much better or worse. Not that they were focused on a lot, which would make sense in the route that should have been taken. There was one arc with really good side characters though, it focused more on the girl's life and gave some insight to people she has associated with. They were really good in my opinion despite not having a lot of the spotlight, like 2 or 3 of them were. Not the rest. Nothing really bad in terms of characters overall. So I thought the characters here were pretty well made to some extent.
The art is amazing, no question. You will see how the use of colour plays into bettering the scenes' moods and atmospheres. The character design and extra-terrestrial unearthly beings were drawn with such a high precision of accuracy and focus. Little fault with the detail here. I am a little conflicted as to whether I should look over the lack of attention to the background in this webtoon, I would deduct points from such an aspect, though it wasn't like it was the end of the world and some scenes were still really good. Take it into consideration, I will leave it at 100 for now though. It would have been nice to see a little more though if I understand where I am coming from.
Disregarding what was a disorderly story, this was a really good read. It is cool to see and think about what Jeong Ji-Hun thinks about human life, or maybe it wasn't them and someone else's philosophies they took. I wouldn't know. I suppose this just serves as something to look at and reflect from as an enjoyment factor, part of the reason why I see no reason to include the significance of the narrative in the final score because this is a question of whether you will enjoy this dark story and the themes it gives forward or not. I didn't do too much thinking, but The Horizon does get you thinking at times. There is nothing else The Horizon wants to give other than that, the value of life. It just would have been more enjoyable if the story was better.
TLDR Review:
Story - 40: Silly story, which is a shame because it didn't need to care that much but it did. Doesn't care too much about what goes on in the world really.
Art - 100: Amazing. Colours, detail, design. All great.
Characters - 70: Good characters, have a progression that makes sense and is quite interesting in terms of who they are, but hindered by inconsistent actions.
Enjoyment - 80: The message was sent, and it is where you can enjoy what the story is trying to say. A really good dark pessimistic outlook on life that gets you thinking.
Another revamped review. This was something I tried to get into for a while before I published my first version review. Ended up reading it in a day and initially gave it a score of 67.3, then thought to myself that I should renovate and reanalyse everything. Which leads me here.
Overall, I would recommend this for sure, you too can also read it in a day if you really want something quick to read. It was a dark story, as expected, but kinda silly with what I explained above. Though you probably won't look into the story as much as I did, but hey, I said what I had to. For an "edgy" story, this was good I suppose, though we get a lot of that don't we? The appeal in this? Maybe with how hardcore and straight to the point it was, whatever it was, it did an amazing job. I should really stop being cynical at times.
25 out of 36 users liked this review
