Manga: Tales of Demons and Gods

[Sidnne]

http://www.mangapanda.com/tales-of-demons-and-gods

I just found this manga yesterday and read through all the chapters. Chapter 14 just released today.

At first, It looked like a blatant Naruto rip-off, but while it does share similarities, it is it's own story.

It's about a guy who is a powerful spirit master or something, and he dies but returns to life in the past as his 13 year old self, but retains all the knowledge from his past life.

The chapters are short, but I've enjoyed the story so far.

[Death BOO Z]

wow, 1st chapter in, it looks like a naruto fanfic with recolored art from naruto.

and pretty weird first chapter in terms of story telling...

I'll probably read the rest, but not right now.

[Sidnne]

wow, 1st chapter in, it looks like a naruto fanfic with recolored art from naruto.

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I read the first chapter. The art is very similar to Naruto, and even with the teacher turning into a fox demon thing. But the story diverts heavily from anything resembling Naruto after the first chapter.

It's nice to see a story where the main character is the smart one.

[Death BOO Z]

there's something 'broken' about it...
the text is always too long to be actual speech and the face expressions are 'off', as if they were first drawn without knowing what the mood of the scene will be.
the characters look like super chibified versions of characters from fighting games (think: little fighters 2).

the first chapters are just info-dumps on the reader, families, ranks, fighters vs mages, test, colors of energy, money problems, history, regulations. and not a single 'action' beat in the first chapters.
it feels like a novelization of some MMORPG rather than an actual story.


I don't consider pseudo naruto smart (what's his name? ni lye?), he knowledgeable, but he's cheating from the future self. he's a 'fix-er sue', of a new original story. that's pretty low. at least other writers have the decency to mask the wish fulfillment part of the story for a few volumes.


after reading all (15) chapters, it's still a mess of lousy story telling. so I'm going to keep reading it, and hope some sort of plot appears.

[shinta|hikari]

I think this is adapted from a Chinese novel, so the weaknesses already stated are expected.

[Sidnne]

I think this is adapted from a Chinese novel, so the weaknesses already stated are expected.

Yeah, it's definitely Chinese. That much should be obvious from the names. It seems like it is originally Chinese, then perhaps translated to Japanese, then translated to English.

I'm more than willing to forgive choppy translation as long as I can still follow the story, which has been the case here so far.

[shinta|hikari]

Not sure about the comic, but I was referring specifically to the source material, which was a text novel.

The weaknesses I am referring to are more inherent to the genre of Xianxia, not Chinese fiction in general or anything related to translation.

[Death BOO Z]

this might be the most boring training arc I've read.

it's nearly 20 chapters in and there still wasn't a 'action' beat.

[Death BOO Z]

duck!!!!
chapter 22 & 21
could have been a chance to make me like the guy. have him hit a wall that he still can't beat and give the audience a short-term relate-able goal for us to root for.

@shinta : can you expend on how this messed up (or 'unorthodox' ) style is inherent to Xianxia?

[shinta|hikari]

I don't actually know since I've never read one. I'm just around the noveltranslations subreddit enough to actually start getting the jokes about the genre.

[Death BOO Z]

nice to see some basic economics going on...
buy cheap, spread rumors (and inside information) to maximize the value, and then corner the market.

[Death BOO Z]

chapter 75.
still a mess of translation, still a mess of plot.

it's too much of -see-goal-achieve-goal, without any struggle to get there. and there are no interesting side characters, only people for him to make fun of and prove their inferiority (which is usually in both morals and skills) and people who are there to behold his glory.

[Death BOO Z]

I don't knowif anyone else is still reading (like most mange threads).
I really like the story, the lore is interesting, the attempts at political games is nice and i love the progression.
but my earlier complaint still holds. there's no point in rooting for the hero if he never fails.

we've gone from zero to amazing without him losing even once. not losing at a fight, a competition or even an argument.
and even though he achieved his goal from chapter 1 (getting into the top class, and proving to his snobbish teacher that even lesser royalty/commoner families can be amazing), we don't get to spend any time on this, because he already is so fat past this and now he's being hailed as the next Jesus.
or when he got his first pokemon enchantment, we had one scene with this supposedly amazing pokemon thing (which was his 'goal' in the only decent action arc), before moving on the a new pokemon beast that is revealed to be the most-super-strong-amazing-yet-underappreciated thing ever.

[Sidnne]

I don't knowif anyone else is still reading (like most mange threads).
I really like the story, the lore is interesting, the attempts at political games is nice and i love the progression.
but my earlier complaint still holds. there's no point in rooting for the hero if he never fails.

we've gone from zero to amazing without him losing even once. not losing at a fight, a competition or even an argument.
and even though he achieved his goal from chapter 1 (getting into the top class, and proving to his snobbish teacher that even lesser royalty/commoner families can be amazing), we don't get to spend any time on this, because he already is so fat past this and now he's being hailed as the next Jesus.
or when he got his first pokemon enchantment, we had one scene with this supposedly amazing pokemon thing (which was his 'goal' in the only decent action arc), before moving on the a new pokemon beast that is revealed to be the most-super-strong-amazing-yet-underappreciated thing ever.

I've read every chapter of the Light Novel to date. Where the manga currently is at, is still basically just the very beginning of the story, despite being 108 chapters in. The story moves quickly, but it's really not an action packed story compared to other manga. It's more about him finding ways to progress and power up as quickly as possible in order to achieve his ultimate goal of being strong enough to eventually confront the Sage Emperor.

I enjoy having a story in which the main character is the most cunning and clever, and uses his wisdom and knowledge to advance, rather than simply using raw power.

[Death BOO Z]

it's not about cunning vs brutality. it's about the author streamlining his progress without the character facing any real obstacles. no one challenges him, he never has to step back, change course of action or even having someone talk him down.

he's been unstoppable since the first episode, without anyone to rival him.

oh, and the current manwha chapter has him make another bet with an authority figure, and saying he could reach X strength in Y time, learn some new plots, dammit.