In my quest to read every single manga ever created ever, I rarely drift off to the world of Manhwa. While I don’t refuse to read it, and have checked a couple of works here and there, I’m still very unfamiliar with this medium that has been growing so much in the last couple of years.

So when I was recently suggested The Horizon I thought “Why not?”. It’s not the first time I heard the title, a decent number of my friends had talked highly of it, so the curiosity was already there. I jumped into it with a vague idea of what it might be and some quite high expectations, maybe too high, it seems.

That isn’t to say that The Horizon isn’t a good story, far from it, it’s quite good, but I do think it also falls short in places, and both sides have to do with its main appeal: The dark world our characters are in, and how it consumes them.

The world of The Horizon simply doesn’t grip me as much as it should, it’s too dark. Bad things always happen, constantly, all the time, without stop, in the name of a war that is there, but also not. Everything is kept quite vague, which is a card very often used in stories like these, but I think it’s TOO vague here. I think the best example is The Man in The Suit arc, where we are introduced to a city where only one man exists, killing everything in the name of peace. The character itself and the concept is interesting, but it leaves you wondering who he is, how he got there and how he manages to do it.
Plus, is this a war or not? The character seems to make more sense in a Post-Apocalyptic world… and so do a lot of other things and elements. The characters travel far and far and far, through empty blocks of land with no people to be seen. But when the story needs it, it turns out there’s hundreds of people right there shooting and bombing each other.
I don’t think it makes sense, and it rips me away from its world.
And perhaps I’m not supposed to think too much about it, because once I turn off that aspect and look at the characters and events as they are, I do understand and appreciate what the writer is trying to do.

Two children faced with the worst of circumstances who keep challenging their love for… love. The main character is constantly wondering if it’s even worth it to try to cling to what’s left of his humanity. I think this is best represented in the first major story arc, the Strange Man.

These two children are stuck with a deranged man, but one that has regressed mentally to the level of a baby, bringing with it all the innocence… and danger that would come from a baby inside an adult’s body. The boy is then extremely wary of the man, and even after night after night where the man shows that he only wants company and doesn’t plan to hurt anyone, he still doesn’t seem to trust or like him. Until one day he does, he caves in, he tries to have empathy towards the man, and… well, I’m not going to say what happens, but it doesn’t end well. The empathy does NOT reward the boy, not it really does in any part of this manga, really. He reaches the final stretch of the manga with arguably even less than he started.
It’s easy to misplace the message of the manga as that, then. That love, empathy, humanity… they don’t have a place here, as the world is dark, spiteful and painful. That nothing good ever lasts, and that misery will always win. I don’t like that. I don’t think that’s the case, the world CAN be beautiful, even if it always isn’t.

Thankfully, that IS the message of The Horizon, one that only shows itself towards the very end. I won’t spoil much, but it’s in the final two chapters that we see the rewards, that we see the love paying off. So that’s the message. Being a good person, working to be a good, nice person won’t always reward you, bad things will happen, but as long as you don’t lose yourself, the good will reach you too.

The story is also helped by some GORGEOUS art, and panelling. Overall, it’s simple. It’s supposed to be read vertically, with panels organised that way, which is a change of pace to me, but I’m pleased with how The Horizon goes about it. I love how the mangaka (manhwaka?) uses panel repetition so flawlessly, to show a slow descent into madness, or to linger in specific moments for long enough to make you uncomfortable, nervous, to make you a wreck. I love when stories can do that, and this one definitely can at times.
I also love the usage of colour. It’s very sparing, but it makes it special. To make the blood stand out, or to emphasise the darkness of the world, or the despair of the characters… or, to use the reverse to show moments of hope and beauty. It’s really amazing.
If I have to pick a favourite chapter then, I have to go with the one that showcased my favourite part of this story, it’s hope, and that is the second to last. Not only that, but the final half of that chapter is so beautifully drawn that I can’t not love it.

The events in that last arc still suffer from the same problem I mentioned at the start… its existence doesn’t seem to make sense within the concept of a world at war, but even with that said… again… I still think the good outweighs the bad, so while it didn’t reach the HIGH expectations set by my friends, it’s still a story I recommend reading, and ended up giving it a solid 8 out of 10.