Yongbi the Invincible Book 1 1996 CPM Press   Buy It Now

If you’ve read fighting manga, or watched fighting anime, you might have noticed that the main characters are often a little simple-minded, but highly skilled at fighting.  Goku from Dragonball is definitely an example of this phenomenon.  It seems that Yongbi, of the Korean manhwa Yongbi the Invincible also fits this mold.  Well he may not be unintelligent, but he does tend to fall prey to his baser instincts.  He is lustful, greedy, gluttonous, and his best friend is a horse.  The only time he really seems to know what he needs to do is in battle. 

The first book of Yongbi the Invincible introduces the young bounty hunter Yongbi as he on a journey to turn in his newest acquisition.  This criminal Goo-Hwi is the leader of the Black Snake assassin organization.  Goo-Hwi is a feared and powerful warrior, so the villagers whom they encounter wonder how this unknown young warrior could have captured him.  Yongbi seems very confident though, and continues on his way riding his horse and dragging Goo-Hwi behind him.  Yongbi eventually comes across an unconscious child who pays Yongbi in jewelery to take him to Hobook Castle, the place that Yongbi was traveling to anyway to turn in Goo-Hwi.  After arriving at the castle the story changes dramatically as we find out about a plot to kill the child, Goo-Hwi escapes the prison, and the Red Blood, a loan shark organization comes after Yongbi for his debt.

This book is quite action packed and the pace is changed often.  So far it is essentially the story of Yongbi’s greed.  How he’ll do anything to make money to get out of debt.  We don’t know why Yongbi is in debt though, perhaps he spent the money on altruistic purposes, or maybe it was all wasted on booze.  It is unclear as of this volume.  Goo-Hwi and the child also are a main focus of the book.  Goo-Hwi’s escape from the prison leads him to find the child who is also trying to get away from his aggressors.  We believed Goo-Hwi was evil up to this point, but he agrees to help the child escape.  The apparent bad guy of the book ends up becoming more heroic than the main character.  Incidentally, Goo-Hwi reminds me quite a bit of Mr. Satan (or Hercule) from the Dragonball series, both in looks and attitude. 

So it really is a strange and different story in this book.  The anti-hero Yongbi bumbles through situation after situation relying on his fighting skill and horse to get him through.  Then there are other factions such as the government of the Hobook Castle, who want to kill the child, the Red Blood, and the Black Snake.  These organizations still only play a small role in this book, but I think they will have important roles throughout the story of Yongbi the Invincible.  Also, Goo-Hwi and the child seem to be important characters.  With so much unpredictability the story has a lot of potential at being complex and interesting, but it is still a little early to tell how much in this first book.

The art in this book is good, but sporadic.  The backgrounds are always drawn with meticulous detail and are quite beautiful.  The characters however can range from realistic to overaxagerrated and comedic, to dark and demonic looking, depending on the situation.  This transition can happen at any time and a consistency to the art is never reached.  With the quick changing storylines and action focus, I guess the art is fairly appropriate though.

Yongbi isn’t bad, but it is a little strange.  I ended up becoming more interested in the character of Goo-Hwi than I did in the stories main character, and it is his story that I wish to see more of in the next book.  This book is the perfect choice for an action or martial arts fan.  It may also appeal to those who are interested in stories about untraditional heroes.  I’m not really sure where Yongbi the Invincible is heading, but this book was interesting enough to keep me reading the series.

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