Bastard

While writing this review I find myself in a position of affliction. Every limb of my literary body tears and rends its bones separate from the whole, in a combative wave of dissonance Bastard is wonderful. Bastard is awful. Bastard is ecstasy. Bastard is Bastard.

I am here to set the record straight on this series. The most unfortunate and unnecessary problem with Bastard is its ever-present reliance on bad writing tricks and hypnotic acts dependent on the ignorance of the reader. Yet, the irony is that this utilization of plot conveniences and literary evasion grants the series a delectable dynamicsm that one cannot help but indulge in. To be conscious of the series flaws is by no means difficult. On the WebToon app, you can see via the comment forums that the audience is fully aware of its qualitative misgivings, but rather than criticize they hold a banquet of praise for its disregard of rationality and admiration of chaos. Indeed, it is a sinful indulgence, but an indulgence nonetheless. The writing is at times unbearably bad and thrives on concept alone. Any renowned writing aesthetic would find Bastard to be an impermissible display of lazy writing that must face every munch and nibble the critic enacts upon its weary neck.

But do not misunderstand. Bastard remains a unique work of art that any reasonable folk who does not find himself obsessed with a conceited sense of the written word will enjoy. What I have learned from my years of digesting literature is that sublime writing is worthless if not founded on an engaging concept. It is the concept that interests us, it is the concept that drives the story, and it is the concept that infests our minds until our perceptive glances are no longer compelled by Earthly diversions, but the enchantment of phantasmal dreams. I can say with assurance that Bastard is a win in this department.


Verdict: 6/10

Quick Summary: Bastard is an enjoyable thriller with poor and absurd writing that could be easily fixed. Yet, it is this use of the absurd that opens the gates to so many narrative pathways making it engaging and unpredictable. The four main characters are well developed and the end leaves the reader with a real sense of fulfillment. Although Bastard has many chapters they are structured with brevity and there are few pages and panels to observe. It is a quick and simple read, that any and all should have no difficulty reading.

A fantastic manwha with great, consistent art and one of my favorite antagonists in all of literature. The romance aspect is well done and likable without being overdone, its edgy without being a gorefest, very bingeable and very, very good. The constant washed out browns reds and greens never end up exhausting the reader and only help build atmosphere and tension in the story. The main thing breaking it down is its horrible ending, which simultaenously feels way too cheap and 'bowed up' to be happy, but somehow still failed to deliver on being satisfying and conclusive. One of the greatest webtoon manwhas ive ever read, despite that, and i highly recommend it

At first, I must say that I really liked the manhwa and the characters (with special from Manny and Jin himself) and I had a good time reading it. However, I cannot ignore a factor that for me killed a large part of Bastard's score.


The tutor's introductory death is a big problem. As much as Seon is powerful and influence is very necessary for an assassin, it doesn't change the fact that detectives could make the simple call that she disappeared under the tutelage of a private teacher and worked for the CEO. Therefore, the whole plot could have been discovered early on by the public.
In addition, the investigative body could raise even more suspicions with Kim's report: she ended up being guilty of all 6 cases of disappearance, even though she committed only two. But if the tutor disappeared teaching classes at Seon's apartment, how the hell did Faye kill her then in the first place? Even more so if Jin recorded his phone calls, he would be able to actually arrest his own father without much of the characters dying in the process.

But the score just doesn't drop too much in my view because the character construction is fantastic and Manny certainly stands out as an extremely intelligent character, well explored and developed in a wonderful way. It is a recommendable manhwa, after all.

This is a review where I will be as straightforward as I can. Bastard is something else, and I will explain why.

I read this in a week and I found this one to be a kind of slow burner. Bastard starts off really tense, where you get to know a couple of things (no spoilers) that might stress you out or even keep you on edge. The main character, Jin, is an emo kid who is being bullied at school and he has problems with his father (serious problems) that he wants to clear. His relationship with his father made his life kind of miserable and he dies not havr any friends. Now, the story is great, but its not perfect. There is an intense atmosphere and vibe throughout the whole story, and also an immense of stress that you'll come across. The character art was really unique and it added to the emo feel.

The ending was also pretty cool, and I definitely reccomend this manhwa for everyone. Go check it out.

Note: English is not my native language, I apologize for possible mistakes.

What happiness! Bastard finally in MAL, I was hoping to see him here for a long time.
I would have liked to review it just when I finished reading, but at that time the file was not here, and well I can say about this great Manhwa I suppose I could sum it up in something: You can not stop reading!
Each chapter kept me in suspense and wanting more, I spent 2 days reading and reading ... I remember that I said I would only read about 10 chapters a day and without realizing I would arrive until 4 in the morning reading, this story was well done in the genre of suspense, mystery and murder, the synopsis of the story is simple and even the plot is really simple of a serial killer, but it was done in a way that catches the reader with each chapter.
The most prominent point? the antagonist, I think that almost everyone who has read this Manhwa will agree on this and that is that our beloved serial killer, our beloved villain of this story, is not only Bastard's best, but I would venture or risk saying that is one of the best evil characters and antagonists I've had the pleasure to follow, one of the best villains traced in comics, manhwas or manga ... makes you hate it, love it, praise it, it's amazing if something made this story made me To continue and to continue without stopping was undoubtedly thanks to his antagonist.
The art of drawing I liked a lot, joins very well to the atmosphere of suspense and darkness of the story, combining dark backgrounds and a somewhat dead coloring if you could say, but I really loved it, the best thing is that it is in color and that makes the expressions of the characters in many moments as well as situations feel or see more vivid.
His other characters are also well made, the protagonist Jin Seon is the most one who evolves over the course of the series, maturing and going from being someone plunged and controlled by fear to a person who accepts their responsibility, looks at it in front and faces as we can see at the end, another character that I liked was his friend Manny Kim like the antagonist this is a character you can hate or love, sincerely you have the doubt of whether he was a friend or not in many senses, but I liked the character enough and suffered with him in a shocking moment for him in history.
To finish this is a reading that I would recommend without any doubt to anyone who wants to have a nice time, its suspense, its history, its unpredictable moments I'm sure it will please the majority.

Overall: 9/10

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Español-Spanish

Que felicidad por fin subieron Bastard en MAL, estaba esperando verlo aquí desde hace tiempo.
Me hubiera gustado reseñarla justo la termine pero en ese entonces no se encontraba la ficha aquí, y bueno que puedo decir de este gran Manhwa supongo que podría resumirlo en algo: !No puedes parar de leer!
Cada capítulo te mantenía en suspenso y con ganas de mas, pase 2 días leyendo y leyendo...recuerdo que dije que solo leería unos 10 capítulos diarios y sin darme cuenta llegaba hasta las 4 de la madrugada leyendo, esta historia fue bien hecha en el género del suspenso, misterio y asesinato, la sinopsis de la historia es simple y hasta la trama es simple en realidad de un asesino en serie, pero se hizo de una manera que atrapa al lector con cada capítulo.
¿El punto más destacado? el antagonista, creo que casi todos los que han leído este Manhwa estarán de acuerdo en esto y es que nuestro querido asesino en serie, nuestro querido villano de esta historia no solo es lo mejor de Bastard si no que me aventuraría o arriesgaría a decir que es uno de los mejores personajes malvados y antagonistas que he tenido el placer de seguir, uno de los mejores villanos calcados en comics, manhwas o mangas...te hace odiarlo, quererlo, alabarlo, es increíble si algo hizo que esta historia me hiciera seguir y seguir sin parar sin duda fue gracias a su antagonista.
Su arte de dibujo me gustó mucho, se une muy bien al ambiente de suspenso y oscuridad de la historia, combinando con fondos oscuros y un coloreado algo muerto si se podría decir, pero que realmente me encanto mucho, lo mejor es que se encuentra en color y eso hace que las expresiones de los personajes en muchos momentos así como las situaciones se sientan o vean más vividas.
Sus demás personajes también son bien hechos, el protagonista Jin Seon es el que más evoluciona durante el transcurso de la serie, madurando y pasando de ser alguien sumido y controlado por el miedo a una persona que acepta su responsabilidad, la mira de frente y la enfrenta tal y como podemos ver al final, otro personaje que me gusto fue el de su amigo Manny Kim al igual que el antagonista este es un personaje que puedas odiar o amar, sinceramente te queda la duda de si era un amigo o no en muchos sentidos, pero el personaje me agrado bastante y sufrí con él en un momento impactante para el en la historia.
Para terminar esta es una lectura que le recomendaría sin ninguna duda a cualquiera que quiera pasar un rato agradable, su suspenso, su historia, sus momentos impredecibles estoy seguro que le encantara a la mayoría.

Overall: 9/10

This is one most fucked up pieces of media I've consumed so far.
The number of characters is few but every one of them is written and used in depth. From the first chapter you are hooked, and even after you complete it, it leaves a lasting impact.
The antagonist is the best one I've seen.

Story:
The only drawback of the story is it's practicality, although that depends on the country you live in and the law and order system you're used to. Everything else about the story is just phenomenal right up until the end.

Art:
8/10 because a lot of the panels are just reused.

One of the finer pieces of art you'll ever read, if you're tolerant to dark storylines. If not, don't read it.

This was a really enjoyable read!

This is gonna be a small review, with spoilers and critique to some ignorant readers.

It is a unique story, I don't like romantic stories but Bastard had a really cute one. The main character was complex, and we would see that he is prepared to sacrifice and kill strangers to protect the one he loves. Father was one of the scariest things I ever saw in media, his intelligence and resolve, also how he can get inside humans minds to manipulate them, he is a monster. But in the end, in some morbid and strange way, we get the feeling that Father loved his son in some mess up way.

I really like the character Manny, his story, from bully to friend of our main character was good. But when Manny become invalid and lost his family when he was calling for his friend, and the only one who shows was Jin, that moment was really emotional, yes it was predictable, but I was literally crying here.

Art is kinda industrial, greedy, and colors really much the thone of the story.

Bastard is a phenomenal story, but reading comments on some chapters, I was shocked by the ignorance of some readers. And those people call some things in the plot cheap writing, but yet those readers don't know anything about law in real life.

Saying why they don't record father and submit his massage to the police. Please read the law, if you know it, you would know that record can't be evidence in court. And this is just an example of readers' ignorance. Creator of Manhwa knows the law and how it works, you can see that in "Bastard".

There are some cheap tricks and plot points, but those things are overshadowed by a great story. Bastard is addictive, intents and it is not too predictable. Overall I gave it 9/10, I love it!

Oh wow, It's like 3 a.m. in the morning and I don't know how I can express my experience while reading this particular manhwa. I'm not really an active webtoons user but one of my friends recommended this manhwa to me two days back. I know that I'm too late to write a review on this but seriously, the story, the characters, the theme, the artwork, everything is so nicely done especially the ending, it was so amazing!
Well, at first you'll be thinking who could be the serial killer according to the synopsis of this manhwa but you'll soon discover the serial killer in the 2nd or 3rd chapter.
The story isn't only based on HORROR or THRILLER. There's more to it than that! The story also contains major plot twists and romance too. The thing I liked the most about this manhwa is its ending (around the last 20 chapters).
This was so well executed. Although there aren't too many fightings (exceptional in some cases), the suspense made it worthy enough to "binge-read" it. There are some tragic incidents throughout the series (but I'm not going to spoil it) and those incidents are executed so well that it may even make you cry or at least make you feel sad.
The psychopath (here the serial killer) IS TO BE HONEST THE BEST WRITTEN CHARACTER IN THE ENTIRE SERIES (according to me).
Followed by Jin Seon (The protagonist).

There are 2 characters I hate the most, one is the psychopath and other one is Beau Park.

The characters are so well written. From the psychopath to the main hero, even the side villains/heroes are so well written!
Their backstories are perfectly executed! But I'm a bit disappointed cause there were not many characters in this series and our MC is only friends with 1-2 people but it's understandable.

Enjoyment: 10/10!!!!
The reason I liked this manhwa is because of its insane artwork. A really great job done by YoungChan Hwang. You can just feel their emotions even if they're just drawings. I had to take a couple of breaks cause the story was too overwhelming for me but the experience was outstanding!

Overall, I think it's either 9 or 10 because I really am a little bit unsatisfied in the last chapter although the ending was superb! But since I can't spoil it, I will finish my review right here.
And I feel so relieved after writing this as very limited amount of my friends actually read this masterpiece. In other words, share this manhwa to everyone you know and I'll be sharing it to my friends too. Peace.

[NO SPOILERS]

Bastard has a fantastic premise that gets you hooked and the characters & story make sure you stay hooked until the very end.

It was an amazing ride from start to finish. It had comedy, romance, mystery, gore and thrill. It had me on the edge of my seat, so much so that I binged the entire series in a single sitting.

Art (9/10): Don't be mistaken by just a 9. Even though its art may not be as good as the best, it is certainly good enough for this kind of story and the character expressions more than accurately capture what they're feeling. The backgrounds and settings are well drawn too. There isn't any too much side-by-side panelling, so it's easy to read even for those who are newcomers to reading manga or manhwa.

Story (10/10): The premise and early chapters set you up for a potentially great read and the rest of the story delivers. There is a central story that runs throughout with events and actions of characters circling around. It is easy for this kind of story to get stagnant but, Bastard just keeps on moving and it never feels like the story isn't going anywhere. I have heard a person say that there are too many coincidences that happen that drive the plot. But I can recall only a couple. They still remain in the realm of possibility and could absolutely happen in real life. The others are actually driven by the characters themselves.

Characters (10/10): Here is where Bastard's strength lies the most. The stakes are high for the characters and this keeps you invested in wondering what will happen next. The MC himself has been given a great personality of being weak yet brutal, clueless at times to cunning. This is perfectly complemented by the way he has been living his life. The characters have been given depth that explains why they are the way they are and why they do the things they do. We come to grow attached to them which only makes us more worried about what happens to them.
Then, there's the villain of the story. He/She (no spoilers remember?) is one of the best villains I've come across in recent times. Cold, manipulative, calculative, obsessed. We don't know why he/she does the things he/she does. And that just adds to the mystery and tension. His/her ideologies are opposite to the MC's yet similar in certain ways. The former creates the MC's conflict with the villain while the latter creates the MC's conflict with himself.
Overall, there aren't too many character relationships in the story, but the ones that are there are beautifully fleshed out enough.

Overall (10/10): It is just a great read with a unique premise, characters and a story that help create a fantastic thriller of a manhwa.

I just finished this Manwa. And now it is 3:12 am.
I don't know how can I describe this... one thing that I know is this is the best manwa until now. Until now I thought Solo Leveling is the best Manwa but this shit is on Another level.

Synopsis: Fuck the synopsis just read if. You will not regret it for sure.

The best ending I can ever imagine.
Wow, if the author finishes this manwa at 93 chapters still it was an amazing ending but he took this another level. And that was the moment he nailed it... <3

You know those manhwa/manga that people say they just can't put down? Yeah, Bastard is exactly this.

It starts off kinda normal, throws you into the crazy life of the main character, and proceeds to get better from there. The twists and turns in this manhwa are amazing and leave you shocked but you just want to read more of it because it's so interesting. That especially goes for the end of it. It makes us believe the same things the main character did and then surprises us with the actual truth. It doesn't leave you with an unsatisfying ending. All important questions are answered at the end and everything is clarified. There's little to no rushing with this series at all.

The art matches the dark and psychological content. The color scheme is darker, limited, and more muted than a lot of other series which definitely adds to the atmosphere. The faces the characters make sometimes are pretty intense and maybe even chilling at times. The overall art style doesn't seem or look weird in my opinion.

The characters are pretty good. Jin is a boy whose environment and way of living has clearly effected him in many ways. His actions are pretty understandable but he may shock the reader every once in a while. Kyun is a girl with more to her other than appearing to be usually happy. The character development is good. Also, most of the characters are pretty likable, especially Jin and Kyun. Manny, on the other hand, wasn't so much but he became a better character as the series went on.

Story: 10
Art: 10
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 10

This is a series that, despite being longer than a majority of the things I've planned to read, I finished relatively quickly due to its interesting plot. Overall, Bastard deserves a 10.

Short list of reasons to read Bastard (spoiler-free):

1) Story
- is relatively short and fast-paced;
- grabs your attention with the first chapters;
- contains so many plot twists, that if you try to model them, you'll end up making a roller-coaster (a really breathtaking one - from the start to the very end).

2) Art
- provides you with the feelings of hopelessness and fear throughout the whole reading thanks to the darkish colors;
- immaculately conveys the terror of the most intense moments with the help of various drawing techniques;
- satisfyingly bloody and gory when needed.

3) Characters
- are easy to empathize with;
- some of them are really complicated;
- actually develop.

4) Enjoyment
- once you dive in it, the manhwa becomes so addicting, that you'll devour every chapter until nothing is left.

Overall, you definitely will not regret reading Bastard, so don't hesitate and leave your doubts aside. It's worth giving a try.

This with killing stalking design would have been amazing, also its pretty impossible to stop reading after 1st chapter‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎.

And i don't know why people on reviews are comparing Killing Stalking and Bastard, because i don't thing they are similar at all, they both are amazing choices if you like psychological horror.

The only thing that was bothering me was the characters design (like seriously what's going on with Manny's hair XD), but because of that, when I first start reading this manhwa I wanted to stop, overall the story is pretty captivating and it's not even that cliche which is good, I read this in 2 days, and that is definitely a good reason to give it a try.

Let me start this review by saying that I was just on the the final chapter of Bastard literally one minute ago and closed the MangaBlaze app only a few seconds ago. And now I'm here writing a review about it. So here goes.

Story:10
Overall the story was Fantastic. If you used MangaBlaze to read this then you will have already read the word 'Horror' in the description. However there is much more to Bastard than the single word horror. Even if it was purely a horror it wasn't scary or freaky and the gore was quite mild (in my opinion). So don't go saying when you read the description "Awww it's a horror story, looks like i'm not gonna read it" etc, because it is not only a horror genre. The story is quite gripping and as each chapter goes by you want to read more and more of it until you become obsessed and don't want it to end. Well this is how I felt about it anyway. The plot takes place in Korea were a teenager is forced, by his dad, to commit murder. Well in fact his dad does the killing, he just lures in women and knocks out the victims with a hammer. The boy (Jin) has been doing this since he can remember so he just thinks it's natural. That is until he meets a girl in his class named Kyun. His dad starts targeting her, and as you probably suspect, he starts wanting to protect her. There is a lot more to the story however out of fear of spoilers I won't continue any further.

Art:10
Now here's the interesting part. The art is very strange and unique and i've never seen it in any manga before. Nowadays manga is done on computers more often than by paper, so the pages have full colour. But the weird thing is the fact that the layout of the page is around two panels a page! This is definitely done for affect because of the dark themes that this series contains. However I can't help but think that this may also have been done to take up space for the lack of content. Probably not, and I hope not, but still i'm just putting it out there. The art is solid and at times may seem a little simplistic but that doesn't really matter due to the fact of it's outstanding story.

Character:10
Well the characters in this series were great. They showed stunning emotion and were really unique. Sure Jin is the shy quite kid that we've seen countless anime/manga but he had his own personality and lack of common sense and knowledge which wade this series humorous at times. Jin really was an amazing character and I was rooting for him throughout his whole journey (except for the first few chapters when I thought he was a psychopathic mass murderer). Jin's dad was also an outstanding character. His two sided personality of crazy psycho killer and nice kind man were really strange though started to make more sense as the story goes on. Theres not much to talk about Kyun Yoon considering she's kind of the cliched anime girl, except she has a bit more personality.

Enjoyment:10
Welp, from reading this review you probably get the picture.

Overall:10
If you haven't read Bastard then go do it now, you won't regret anything.

After some time of reading countless Manga,Comics or what the fuck you call them. I searched for something new, similar to how i discovered the Anime and Mango medium as a whole.

I saw that there was a top list for the socalled "Korean Mangos" or "Manhwa" and while i normally don't trust MAL's top list, i started the top rated one Bastard and finished it in a relatively short time.


Bastard has a simple premise, a father likes girls so much he wants to kill them and his son is his accomplice despite not wanting to be it he drags along since Jin (the Son) is afraid of his father. After yet another murder he gets punched to crap by a slave of the big bully of his school (Manny), he is a very weak boi, but is saved by a transfer student who he falls in love with, the problem here is that this transfer student named Kyun Yoon is the next target of Dongsoo (the father), and thus a very fast paced thriller,with interesting Characters and some silly plotholes is born.

The police basicially doesn't care the first half of the story, since they kill at home it should be pretty obvious that the police would investigate the victims last place, but they for some reason don't even bother. Yet again this could be overlooked but the amout of plotholes and stupid plot conveniente moments really showed over time, Dongsoo is following his son pretty god damn often despite being a CEO in a big ass company and a famous murderer, he also has the ability to teleport everywhere.

The Characters are, pretty well written and unlike most Manga they show rather Humen reactions to disturbing shit, yet while this is a good thing and also the trauma of Jin is again a good thing, the Characters sometimes overreact so much its just edgy and pretty dumb.
The most problematic Character in the story is in my humble opinion Kyun, she got her own story but most of the time she is just used as a reminder that Jin has indeed something to loose.

The art is no the best but the panel structure is great, the same panel with only slight differences to show Character reactions or to show that time passes in the story is great, yet while the Characters look pretty neat i found that the backgrounds looked...rather shit.


Its hard to go into detail on the Characters/story without spoiling things so here...

SPOILER WARING


Ahhhh father-son relationships are wonderful, Bastard is basicially that, a story about a rather complicated father-son relationship, i'll get to that later.
While i found the Characters to be overall kinda well writtin i have a big chunk of complains about em, Manny is the big bully of the school but later trains Jin to get stronger simply for the sake of his father. The back and forth of his Character was pretty nice to read, showing of as a bully but being "friends" with Jin after school, yet after he lost his legs and finds out that the only person to care about him is Jin and to some extend Kyun. Afterwords Jin tells him about his father and Manny therefore sends this black guy after him, he proofed that Dongsoo his a murderer but also that Jin is his accomplice,later the black guy discovered that he abused Jin and shouldve told Manny, if not its dumb if yes its pretty dumb that Manny still wants to avenge his family with Jin, he knew he got abused and that he was the only person to still care about him yet he wanted to smash his legs. Still this is the biggest Character/writing flaw with his Character and i still think he is to some extend well writtin.
Jin and Dongsoo are different caliber tho. Jin thought of Dongsoo as an enemy since his last memory before the accident that made him so weak is his father standing at the edge of the roof, he thinks that his father wanted to kill him if he is not useful anymore, later on he suddenly remembers (for plot convenientes of course), that he and his father killed for fun ever since he was young. He had the same "Demon" inside of him but through the accident he suppresed the so called "Demon" and altered his memories, so he can blame it all on the bad bad daddy. That is of course a nice idea but evokes some problems, why would his dad if he cares so much for his son traumatize him, he knew that he is not the same as him but still. Some might say thats cause he is a psychopath, but no one is born a psychopath or at least not a mass murdering one, i wouldve loved some reasoning why Dongsoo killed all those chicks but got none. At the end there is the end of the story, wich i find rather prolematic Jin forgave his father just cause he remembered that in his childhood he had fun killing chiks and Dongsoo starts chillin just cause his Son forgave him, telling him everything. He kills himself knowing he has no "beast" as a Son, but if this is what he hoped for, why even try to traumatise the own son, why not trying to hide his killing and then knowing for sure that his son is save. If we on the other had got more background childhood information on Dingsoon this couldve made sense but we got none so this was rather odd and felt quite dumb, just for the sake of a happy end.

My last major criticism would be the middle part, it just developed the completely obvious romance and got some development on both Jin and Kyun, yet about 2/3 through the story Kyun felt like a silly mary sue always doing the right,forgiving and underdeveloped Character, yet after the middle part arc she got a bit better developed. The female killer was, again only used for the arc to develop Jin and Kyun, she had some kind of story wich felt rather superficial but still for what we got understandable, to some extend.



END OF SPOILER
Final Verdict/TLDR:

6.1/10

Its not the greatest thriller but it has enough heart to let me forgive some of the silly things. Very captivating with a little downfall of quality in the middle, it recovered fast enough and kept me engaged. Its ok to hate on it if you really can't stand the stupid moments but its also oki to love it if you can overlook some of its silly moments. I highly enjoyed this rather quick Korean thigy and would recommend it to everyone searching for a fast pace edgy thriller.

If you wanna hate on the review pls go do so, i would love to hear some other opinions on the story, of course stay friendly. Thats all i had to say, stay healthy and kill your chicks you cheecky Bastard, have a nice day ;)