Castle
a review by DeliberateIlliterate
a review by DeliberateIlliterate
First things first...
The story follows Amur Tigro, a Korean killer of exceptional skill who had spent a number of years working for Iskra, a Russian organization, his goal throughout the story is to take revenge upon Castle. The story of this production sounds like a simple revenge plot, but it's done quite well, while there are parts that are quite predictable, they still remain entertaining, the politics are intriguing, and some events are heart-wrenching, I've gotten 'hit in the feels' a couple of times while reading this one.
The story doesn't scale indefinitely as it does in some other series, the protagonist, fortunately enough, does not end up fighting God or attaining God-like powers, the plot is very grounded, with each injury sustained affecting future battles, giving everything a lovely sense of realism that just gives it that much more tension.
Overall: The story does end up predictable at times, and definitely has its fair share of worn-out tropes, but it still delivers when it needs to, and it is gripping enough that you want to keep reading whenever you can.
The characters in this show are a mixed bag for me, some are quite likeable and interesting, with backstories and motivations that make you root for them no matter what their goals are. However, other characters are just a walking trope, they exist merely to push the plot forward and have no development or really much value besides the original task that the author intended for them to do.
Still, the characters that are written well make you get attached way too easily, every fight I would find myself hoping that my favourite ones make it out alive or relatively unscathed, but the underworld is not that forgiving, unfortunately.
The main character, Amur Tigro, is a little flat as a character, while I like him quite a bit, he's your typical Manhwa protagonist with all the physical traits that come with that description: He is a tall, fair-skinned, dark-haired individual with a neutral/cool expression, he has a level head, exceptional strength, and a cunning that leaves his foes speechless for the most part. I feel like I've described 500 protagonists with that one description, and it fits Amur Tigro without a shadow of a doubt, something that did bother me quite a bit, but despite that, he's still likeable and I was cheering for him throughout the season.
One thing that I disliked about this Manhwa, however, was that the large cast combined with the name dumps made it very difficult to keep track of who's who, specially at the middle parts of the series when you had dozens of villains introduced in a handful of chapters. Of course, part of that is because I'm not familiar with Korean names, but still, the large amount of characters combined with how infrequent some appearances are made it difficult to remember if the person being talked about was villain or foe, janitor or CEO.
The art in this Manhwa has definitely left an impression on me, it's beautifully-drawn, with haunting expressions for characters in desperate situations, and a uniqueness to every character's design, some are a little out-of-whack, some are genuinely well-designed, and most fall in the above-average zone.
If you enjoy watching muscular men beat the ever-living hell out of one another, stab one another, and shoot one another in style while pursuing revenge, glory, or wealth, this is definitely something you need to check out, the violence is just beautiful.
The fights are what takes the cake, however. The action choreography is impressive, some moves were exciting and had me leaning into my screen as I read, you can almost animate it in your head with how well all the moves flow into one another, some fighters are excessively flashy, some keep their movements to a minimum, some are rookies who throw wide punches, and some are...gorillas. Each type of fighter is drawn in a way that really draws out their style and allows you to peer into what it would be like to see someone of that personality and physique in a desperate fight for survival.
Overall, amazing art despite a few rare occurrences of silly faces and/or eyes, enjoyable and sometimes worthy of memorial screenshots.
Castle is, to me, one of the best Manhwa produced, I've yet to read one better, and considering my readings thus far, I doubt I'll find a better one any time soon. I highly recommend this one to anyone who wants to read something filled to the brim with violence, struggle, and despair, it is such a quality read for what it is, don't waste too much time and simply get to it.
8.5 out of 9 users liked this review
