Si-Woon is a high school kid being picked on by bullies. If only he had a martial arts master who could mentor him in how to fight back. Oh wait, he totally does: his new substitute English teacher, Chun-Woo Han! But what’s a martial arts master doing moonlighting as a teacher…?
The Breaker is my first Korean manga (or “manhwa”) and it wasn’t bad! The best thing about this book, besides moments of fun and entertainment, was how writer Jeon Geuk-Jin and artist Park Jin-Hwan managed to produce a realistic story of high school bullying without it getting too heavy or depressing, ingeniously balancing it out with light-hearted martial arts fantasy and comedy.
Like in Japanese manga, Park utilises exaggerated cartoon expressions to sell the comedy effectively and some of the scenes were genuinely amusing, like how Si-Woon unintentionally keeps cock-blocking Han’s efforts to get into the hot teacher’s pants. Comedy and martial arts do mix well, as seen in the world-famous Dragon Ball series, and the creators pull off both successfully here too.
Where this book fell short for me was how underwritten the premise was. We get an idea of why Han is in hiding but why make him a teacher instead of putting him in a safe house somewhere? Why did he do what he did to need to go into hiding? Who are the people he’s connected with? What’s going on between the various factions - why did they create the situation that led to that final battle? I get that he’s a martial arts master but how is he able to literally leap an entire building in one jump - being a martial arts master doesn’t make him Superman! Or does he have superpowers?
The underwriting hurts the story at key moments. Like we don’t understand the importance of what Han did to the guy he battles at the end, so the conflict has less dramatic significance - we’re told, not shown, why it’s a big deal and it rings hollow. Concepts like “qi” should’ve been explained - here it’s used to dismiss why Si-Woon isn’t athletic and why Han is vulnerable. But without understanding what “qi” is then it’s essentially a contrived stand-in that means “because plot”.
I’m not saying the creators need to tip their hand completely right from the start but some information to the reader would’ve made this a much better book. I mean, shouldn’t we at least know what the title of this series means - who or what is “The Breaker”?? This omnibus collects the first two books and, at nearly 400 pages, there shouldn’t be this many basic questions like this hanging about.
Some parts of the story go from underwriting to plain bad writing. Like the new school nurse Si-Ho Lee - who is this character?! She just shows up, clearly knows Han well, and is sorta involved in whatever he’s involved in, but we don’t know anything about her. Her characterisation is so bad as to be porn-level: she’s a babe who likes to get naked for no reason!
Then there are Si-Woon’s bullies who literally fight in class and talk shit to the teacher - does that really happen in South Korea? Are there no teachers who exercise authority over students and would suspend/expel students who behave this insanely? I understand eastern culture is different from western but I can’t believe we’re that different in this regard.
Park’s art style is excellent with a fine range - he can equally draw comedy and intense fight scenes adeptly - though there’s a bit too much gratuitous objectifying of girls that made me feel creepy while reading this. The Breaker is so clearly a boy’s manga but still that doesn’t mean it has to lean into the worst aspects of that genre.
I had a lot of issues with the story - I haven’t gone into specifics in order to avoid spoilers but there is too much narrative convenience here for my blood - but I still enjoyed this omnibus of the first two books in the series enough to want to stick with it. Both main characters are likeable in different ways: Si-Woon for being a good kid faced with hardship, who does the right thing even at great personal suffering, and Han for being quite similar to his sci-fi namesake, Han Solo: a shameless ladies’ man who’s selfish but, deep down, has a heart of gold. And I found the scenes to be more interesting than not - they could be more substantial but, as they are, they’re engaging enough.
Most impressive is how the creators deal with the real issue of bullying. Sure, Han could easily take out Si-Woon’s bullies but he doesn’t and I really liked that Si-Woon has to stand up to them himself - it’s a fine lesson for anyone to see, but especially younger readers who may be experiencing similar problems. The creators may take the easy way out in other scenes but in this part of the story, arguably the most important part of it, they don’t and that’s definitely laudable.
A surprisingly pleasant mix of comedy, intense fantasy martial arts and harsh slice-of-life, The Breaker Omnibus Volume 1 is a decent start to this series - hopefully we’ll have at least one or two answers to some of the questions posed above instead of rushing into the next big storyline in upcoming volumes.
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