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General Info:
Series Name: One Last God Kubera
Year of Serialization: Released in 2010
Author(s): Currygom
Artist(s): Currygom
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fnatasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Shounen, Webtoon
Current Status: Ongoing
Moment of Reviewing: Season 2 Chapter 109
Other Formats: N/A
Series Summary:
A girl with a god's name, Kubera. The god who's prophesied to bring great change into the world.
The story begins with Kubera in a remote mountain village with her family. Her life soon turns upside down as she witnesses the fiery end to her town and everyone she knows. Accompanied by a magician of riddles, watch as the world trembles at the war against the gods.
Critical Review:
I'll be honest, I originally was not a fan of Kubera. In fact, when I first tried to read it I ended up dropping it 20 or so chapters in. Eventually I looked back, picked it up again, and read through the entire thing. But I still wasn't sold. At the time I'd often see Kubera being compared to my favourite series - Tower of God, so I read it wondering what the hype was about but, while I thought it was good, I just didn't find it compelling.
The reason why I didn't find Kubera compelling was simple, it was because I had looked at the Action, Adventure and Shounen tags, and as such I was expecting fights, confrontations, resolutions, climaxes, villains, heroes, quests, victories, defeats and your good old zero to hero scenarios. Pretty much none of that was to be found, and that's because Kubera doesn't play out like your typical Shounen, at all.
Your typical shounen will have villain's that the protagonists have to overcome, with perhaps entire arcs being centred around them and only being resolved upon their defeat. Kubera? Kubera doesn't really have villains, at least not the kind that function as trials for the main character to overcome, it does have enemies, but they're not villains in the traditional sense. In fact, get this, the beginning of Season 2 springs this line on us; "There are no villains, only victims." Kubera's progression really does reflect this statement as the characters are fleshed out in such a way that you may end up sympathising with the 'bad' and scorning the 'good'. Or rather everything is pretty much shaded gray, but in a dynamic and very well executed way in which characters constantly evolve and are portrayed in different lights.
Shounen's also tend to have an abundance of ultimatums and character goals. The grand dreams such as 'I'll become Hokage' or 'I'm going to be Pirate King', and the short term resolutions such as the typical 'I'm going to defeat you' or 'I'm going to save you' lines. Kubera? Not so much. Most of the characters motivations and intentions are an absolute mystery, because that's what Kubera is, at it's core, it's a mystery. When you read Kubera, for the most part, you won't know where the story is heading much less why it's heading there. Reason being is that the characters of Kubera aren't trying to explain the story to you. When a character thinks back on the past and goes into a flashback, they're not doing it so that you can understand what's going on, they're simply thinking about whatever they want to think about, even if it's completely incomprehensible to you, the reader.
So what exactly does Kubera have? Well, as aforementioned Kubera won't always provide context, and when it does it may seem superficial, so often times you may be tempted to dismiss parts of it as irrelevant. But the beauty of it is that if you're really paying attention to the details, somewhere down the line you'll be handed a piece of information, and suddenly all those panels that may have seemed like absolute gibberish will begin to make sense and will reveal a much broader picture.
The characters of Kubera are also extremely well developed and character interactions truly take the spotlight and can be incredibly complex - simple phrases may have double meanings, seemingly random actions may be the product of something much deeper, and when a character says one thing they often mean the other. Red herrings and deceptive actions are abundant, the obvious is often a lie and the truth not so simple. Facial expressions are also very well drawn and add to the mystery, while the dialogue is clearly well thought out and layered so as to disguise or reveal a characters actual intentions.
The world building is also brilliant - the planets, cities, races, lore and hierarchies are all crafted amazingly. Nothing feels like it was thought up on the fly and unlike the world building of other manga there's nothing wasted and nothing excessive - it all feels exceptionally well structured and, while it may not seem grand at first, Kubera's world building has a depth to it that I've never seen in a manga before. Kubera has a certain something, everything in it seems to hold a certain density and complexity, and everything in it is remarkably interconnected; every character and every event can be viewed from multiple perspectives and each perspective is somehow interlinked. To one a character may be a destructive and heinous beast that for some reason relentlessly pursues them, to another the character may be a loving brother who's merely trying to protect what's important to him; but this isn't really anything new, factions and their supporters are always likely to have conflicting opinions, except that in Kubera the one and the other will both be best buds. How's that for topsy turvy? The views, opinions and thoughts of one character will also tend to reveal the intricacies of something else - Kubera is full of revelations and is a bit like a puzzle. In fact Kubera reads more like a novel than a manga as it has an impactful narrative structure and it's storytelling style is atypical of a manga because, as aforementioned, context is only given when the characters or events allow for it. Kubera isn't particularly geared towards the readers comprehension, it will give you what it wants when it wants and it's your job to make sense of it to gain the full experience - which makes it quite obvious that Kubera is not written to be popular; the author is merely writing and drawing what they want to write. Although, if you are paying attention you will get the context bit by bit from various different sources, and scenes will become ever more intense as you do. (Kubera really does age well.)
Overall I'd give Kubera a 10/10 because it fulfils what it is. Kubera looks to be everything that it wants to be, I can't find any flaws with it. Even back when I didn't like it I could never say that it was bad, I could only say that I found it boring or that it wasn't my type. I originally couldn't understand what all the hype was about but that was the problem, I had gone into it expecting one thing but had been given another; but when I finally did open up to what Kubera actually was I could find nothing less than excellence. That, and the weekly releases are incredibly satisfying to read.
To be honest I don't feel like my review does Kubera justice, but I didn't want to overextend and end up spoiling anything.
~ Reviewed by Scaze
Series Name: One Last God Kubera
Year of Serialization: Released in 2010
Author(s): Currygom
Artist(s): Currygom
Genre(s): Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fnatasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Shounen, Webtoon
Current Status: Ongoing
Moment of Reviewing: Season 2 Chapter 109
Other Formats: N/A
Series Summary:
A girl with a god's name, Kubera. The god who's prophesied to bring great change into the world.
The story begins with Kubera in a remote mountain village with her family. Her life soon turns upside down as she witnesses the fiery end to her town and everyone she knows. Accompanied by a magician of riddles, watch as the world trembles at the war against the gods.
Critical Review:
I'll be honest, I originally was not a fan of Kubera. In fact, when I first tried to read it I ended up dropping it 20 or so chapters in. Eventually I looked back, picked it up again, and read through the entire thing. But I still wasn't sold. At the time I'd often see Kubera being compared to my favourite series - Tower of God, so I read it wondering what the hype was about but, while I thought it was good, I just didn't find it compelling.
The reason why I didn't find Kubera compelling was simple, it was because I had looked at the Action, Adventure and Shounen tags, and as such I was expecting fights, confrontations, resolutions, climaxes, villains, heroes, quests, victories, defeats and your good old zero to hero scenarios. Pretty much none of that was to be found, and that's because Kubera doesn't play out like your typical Shounen, at all.
Your typical shounen will have villain's that the protagonists have to overcome, with perhaps entire arcs being centred around them and only being resolved upon their defeat. Kubera? Kubera doesn't really have villains, at least not the kind that function as trials for the main character to overcome, it does have enemies, but they're not villains in the traditional sense. In fact, get this, the beginning of Season 2 springs this line on us; "There are no villains, only victims." Kubera's progression really does reflect this statement as the characters are fleshed out in such a way that you may end up sympathising with the 'bad' and scorning the 'good'. Or rather everything is pretty much shaded gray, but in a dynamic and very well executed way in which characters constantly evolve and are portrayed in different lights.
Shounen's also tend to have an abundance of ultimatums and character goals. The grand dreams such as 'I'll become Hokage' or 'I'm going to be Pirate King', and the short term resolutions such as the typical 'I'm going to defeat you' or 'I'm going to save you' lines. Kubera? Not so much. Most of the characters motivations and intentions are an absolute mystery, because that's what Kubera is, at it's core, it's a mystery. When you read Kubera, for the most part, you won't know where the story is heading much less why it's heading there. Reason being is that the characters of Kubera aren't trying to explain the story to you. When a character thinks back on the past and goes into a flashback, they're not doing it so that you can understand what's going on, they're simply thinking about whatever they want to think about, even if it's completely incomprehensible to you, the reader.
So what exactly does Kubera have? Well, as aforementioned Kubera won't always provide context, and when it does it may seem superficial, so often times you may be tempted to dismiss parts of it as irrelevant. But the beauty of it is that if you're really paying attention to the details, somewhere down the line you'll be handed a piece of information, and suddenly all those panels that may have seemed like absolute gibberish will begin to make sense and will reveal a much broader picture.
The characters of Kubera are also extremely well developed and character interactions truly take the spotlight and can be incredibly complex - simple phrases may have double meanings, seemingly random actions may be the product of something much deeper, and when a character says one thing they often mean the other. Red herrings and deceptive actions are abundant, the obvious is often a lie and the truth not so simple. Facial expressions are also very well drawn and add to the mystery, while the dialogue is clearly well thought out and layered so as to disguise or reveal a characters actual intentions.
The world building is also brilliant - the planets, cities, races, lore and hierarchies are all crafted amazingly. Nothing feels like it was thought up on the fly and unlike the world building of other manga there's nothing wasted and nothing excessive - it all feels exceptionally well structured and, while it may not seem grand at first, Kubera's world building has a depth to it that I've never seen in a manga before. Kubera has a certain something, everything in it seems to hold a certain density and complexity, and everything in it is remarkably interconnected; every character and every event can be viewed from multiple perspectives and each perspective is somehow interlinked. To one a character may be a destructive and heinous beast that for some reason relentlessly pursues them, to another the character may be a loving brother who's merely trying to protect what's important to him; but this isn't really anything new, factions and their supporters are always likely to have conflicting opinions, except that in Kubera the one and the other will both be best buds. How's that for topsy turvy? The views, opinions and thoughts of one character will also tend to reveal the intricacies of something else - Kubera is full of revelations and is a bit like a puzzle. In fact Kubera reads more like a novel than a manga as it has an impactful narrative structure and it's storytelling style is atypical of a manga because, as aforementioned, context is only given when the characters or events allow for it. Kubera isn't particularly geared towards the readers comprehension, it will give you what it wants when it wants and it's your job to make sense of it to gain the full experience - which makes it quite obvious that Kubera is not written to be popular; the author is merely writing and drawing what they want to write. Although, if you are paying attention you will get the context bit by bit from various different sources, and scenes will become ever more intense as you do. (Kubera really does age well.)
Overall I'd give Kubera a 10/10 because it fulfils what it is. Kubera looks to be everything that it wants to be, I can't find any flaws with it. Even back when I didn't like it I could never say that it was bad, I could only say that I found it boring or that it wasn't my type. I originally couldn't understand what all the hype was about but that was the problem, I had gone into it expecting one thing but had been given another; but when I finally did open up to what Kubera actually was I could find nothing less than excellence. That, and the weekly releases are incredibly satisfying to read.
To be honest I don't feel like my review does Kubera justice, but I didn't want to overextend and end up spoiling anything.
~ Reviewed by Scaze