Feng Shen Ji

May 10, 2013

tcubed

Recommended

Bored one evening I saw the high rating of this manga but not many reviewers so thought I would give it a try. I can't believe this manga isn't more popular.

We'll start off with the story. The main character isn't some sort of tragic hero, he is somebody that you actually start off disliking straight from the bat. His arrogance, weakness and selfishness are somewhat irritating when compared to the other characters, this however doesn't last very long.

The protagonist doesn't suffer from some cruel fate or poor upbringing and become a hero overnight. There is a long journey ahead of him and many hardships. ...

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Sep 2, 2014

2SugoiToActSugoi

Mixed Feelings

These days, seinen, geared towards young adult men and older, are thought of as the mature, intelligent evolution from shounen. In turn, shounen are seen by some as mindless and flashy acts of violence and softcore eroticism meant to feed young boys’ growth in testosterone. Both vast opinions have flaws, just like any opinion born from the extremely flawed mind of a human, but the stereotypes of each genre are true in some way: shounen are indeed geared toward young boys and seinen are geared towards men who want a story with more mature themes. Having this in mind, the manhua Feng Shen Ji completely ... fits said expectations.

With mild gore, deaths, eye-catching artwork, and strong (almost tiring) supernatural themes such as reincarnation, the story begins with a bang large enough to keep one’s attention for one reason or another. From the first chapter, Feng Shen Ji is put across in a quick and entertaining way, leaving what seems to be room for growth but is really just lazy storytelling. There’s little explanation—and what’s elaborated on is done so in a simple fashion—because no one cares about that, right? Chapter by chapter, Feng Shen Ji becomes less like a coherent manhua and more like an uninspired, stereotypical autobiography completely lacking in depth.

The plot, consisting of a mess of vehement creatures, divine powers, and gods, starts something like this: While chaos rages, a tragedy happens to the young prince Wu Geng, and his life continues because he somehow cheats death (this is a theme that isn’t rare throughout the manhua). He lives life and fights with one purpose: freedom and prosperity through his hardships.

The main problem is that you don’t know why. Any reader deserves a reason as to why someone does what they do—something more complex, something attributed to deeper emotions. While freedom and prosperity are all fine and dandy, it’s been done before; with nothing grittier, the characters turn into a puddle of soup seasoned with a lack morals and direction. The characters’ uninteresting personalities are stemmed from their most evident trait: a simple, juvenile mindset. The story that they’ve been placed in is no better, with the same amount of thought put into it as the amount of times the main character sounds intelligent.

Every direction the plot goes seems like its come straight out of a book called “Clichés and How to Sugarcoat Them.” (Pick it up if you’ve never heard of it.) Feng Shen Ji chose to sugarcoat these clichés with two methods: Artwork of such quality that it was almost distracting and not putting serious emphasis on anything. Most occurrences in the manhua go by dully, walking across a fun little road named Monotony. There was no true conflict or plot twists because of how rooted it was to unoriginality and even the most important events just happen, devoid of gripping themes. The question of what is more at fault—the lack of compelling characters or the plot stripped bare of complex themes—is almost unable to be answered.

In fact, it is the art that breathes more life into the characters than anything else. Its best asset is that it’s not merely black-and-white lines, but is fully colored and fitting of the manhua’s atmosphere. Muscle-bound men adorn the pages, accompanied by graceful, silky-haired women. Gods look the part of the villain particularly well. Sceneries are skillfully drawn. Every few pages, Feng Shen Ji trades its normal style for a painted counterpart meant to give emphasis to important parts of the story. Most importantly, the combat is easy to take in and understand.

But despite how the art pops with color, there is a deep sense of black-and-white within the manhua. You can tell those who are “evil” from those who are looking to serve a plate of justice to the world within seconds. Characters have little that keeps them going on, keeps them fighting, or causes them to act the way they are—they’re just that way. The enemy gods are generally taken care of quickly once the clash has been established and the plot follows a plain cycle of working/training for freedom out of a situation, conflict, and a large change in scenery.

Semblances of growth in characters are just flukes. Wu Geng, the main character, sorely lacks morals and likability from start to finish. He’s impulsive and juvenile, but if I could say one thing, I would say that he acts his age. While he thinks he has the audacity to punish others, the largest problem with his character is that his personality is not only put across in an uninteresting way, making him immediately unlikable, but he also rarely gets enough punishment for his own ignorance. The only thing that makes him different from a usual idiotic lead is that there’s little to no attempt to make him interesting besides his immature monologues. The only growth that he, or any of the other characters, have are changes in appearance and status from year to year.

Besides him, the rest of the characters blur together and are easily forgotten, seen as interchangeable by the writer. What makes them unique is the fact that, unlike many characters these days, there are no cheap, flashy spices added (the same spices that, ironically, makes them unbearable). Their personalities come from the common archetypes stripped to the bare minimum. Perhaps, in the writer’s mind, this approach made the manhua more realistic.

Little to no emphasis is put on psychological growth, and instead the focus is on the mindless entertainment quality (through gore, deaths, and a hint of sexuality) and how pretty the package it’s wrapped in looks. Still, it is a manhua with mature themes, thus it caters to an age group that can handle such themes. For those reasons, yes, Feng Shen Ji is a seinen.

In no way did that make it mature.

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Mar 15, 2013

Jubei07

Recommended

I have recently added this series to my favorites list because I find myself craving more. This is one of those manga (in this case, manhua) that gets your attention and leaves you desiring the further development of the story line. The main character, Wu Geng, is a prime example of good character development in a story. Not to mention, the full color pages are beautifully done and add to the overall quality of this manhua.

Without delving too much into the story, we start off with a great tragedy that occurs in a young boys life. It may appear that fate is not on Wu ...

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Feb 3, 2013

endlessages

Recommended

First of all, Feng Shen Ji is drawn in very beautiful full color and many of the panels show are as a feast to the eyes. The battle scenes are particularly well done and are a delight to read.

The story, however, takes a couple of chapters to really kick off and a few more for you to begin to like the main character. But unlike the standard manga, the main character grows as the series goes on, becoming more mature and worldly at a steady pace rather than the random spikes and dips normally seen.

The plot is more akin to a novel or ...

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Jun 19, 2018

Gundroog

Mixed Feelings

On the surface Feng Shen Ji seems like a mix of Hokuto no Ken and God of War. Buff Chinese dudes going around punching gods and the art looks great, what’s not to like, right? As it turns out, plenty.

In case you were attracted by the extremely well drawn covers and some painted panels then you’ll probably notice the gaps between them and everything rest. Basically there’s two types of panels in this manga. Some are painted from scratch and are usually really detailed and good looking. The rest is usually normal drawings that are later colored with various degrees of success.

While by no ... means ugly, the art in the latter is much weaker compared to painted panels. Wonky proportions are not rare, especially the further away from viewer characters get. There’s no shortage of dull angles, most of the manga felt flat with and on rare occasion you got some low and high angles shots, nothing extreme though. This kind of meekness when it comes to expression runs throughout the manga.

Even though artists seem to have a decent grasp of anatomy when it comes to muscle they rarely play with proportions and perspective to create really cool and dynamic action scenes but instead they always feel stiff and rigid. Speaking of action scenes get ready for some family friendly violence. Nobody in this manga gets noticeably injured when it’s involved, I feel like this is an issue of censorship more than anything but nonetheless it removes a lot of impact from action scenes when instead of opponents actually getting eviscerated you just see a bunch of yellow lines and red splashes telling you that something is indeed happening even if it doesn’t feel like it. On occasion there is some pretty brutal stuff like someone ripping through their opponents rib cage but it’s all blacked out to avoid showing violence.

I’d want to commend the artist from coloring entirety of the comic but at times it felt like pages would look better if it instead was just black on white images without half-assed coloring ruining the contrast and crisp lineart.

When it comes to writing the situation gets better. While the opening chapters are very rough to get through due to comically bad amount of exposition and ridiculously big speech bubbles, they peter out soon enough and the story actually gets going.

For the most part Feng Shen Ji 1 is a bog standard shonen affair. It’s a story about an underdog hero slowly getting powers to fight back against the baddies, along the way he follows the typical cycle of losing, training and winning but where I think it stands out is in creating interesting scenarios that make it worth reading. Even though the plot is not gonna show anything different the situations characters find themselves in are fairly interesting. Authors are never afraid to throw a few wrenches in the wheels and they follow through on things like that. Usually in shonen everything has to exist in some stasis, nobody is allowed to actually get injured or die cause it might make story more complicated. In Feng Shen Ji one of the key characters loses a hand and they just roll with it. As nice as that is however don’t expect too much depth from characters either. While protagonist constantly evolves and goes through quite a few changes to adapt to his life the rest of the cast are a collection of one note archetypes.

Another thing I liked about the writing is that characters actually talk to each other. While yes there is a lot of dry exposition at times and the duologue is hardly insightful at any point it’s still so satisfying to have main hero who doesn’t just get talked at but shoots back when he can and taunts his opponents. A small thing but I think it adds quite a bit of enjoyment in the long run.

Important thing to note is that for some reason MAL decided to divide the full run of Feng Shen Ji in 3 parts so what you get here is essentially just a set up episode. That doesn’t mean there’s no good ending, there are individual character arcs that do good progress throughout the story but don’t expect a complete story if you just want to read this and not he other two episodes. Otherwise if you’re into shonen and the theme seems interesting to you this might be a decent casual read.

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Jun 10, 2015

Rikuson1

Recommended

Feng Shen Ji 1 had the great character development and is also quite unique in comparison to you typical manga main characters but since this is a Manhua I guess that differs him. Feng Shen Ji 1 is a masterpiece in my book. No OP main character that whoops everyone he sees which I'm tired of and I'm glad I found this series for that. The main character through out this series used his brain more than any other tool or strength given to him and I love that about him, he is always up against someone way out of his league and you could ...

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Jun 16, 2013

destonyDbaby

Recommended

Feng Shen Ji is the highest rated Chinese manga on MAL and it damn right deserves it. While it may be very dialog heavy, it is necessary to fully understand what is going on. It will be worthwhile reading this as you will learn or get inspired by certain characters in this stories

Story
It starts off with introduction of the father of the main character the emperor of the Shang dynasty and shows exactly whats the story is about. Humans vs Gods, humans who obey them and humans who rebels against them, fallen gods who don't see the way the other gods do things and ...

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Jun 17, 2013

farijun

Recommended

this is my first time reading a chinese manhua but i can tell you that after reading this one you will never again be satisfied with japanes manga^^ i think this is the only manga which got my heart pumping in excitement and which i thought that both Story and Character development couldn't have been done any better. The Problem with seinen Action manga is that they usually tend to lose their direction after a while but this one sticks to it till the end and the development never ceases in any aspect, so i can give a 10/10 score without hesitation. i can ...

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Feb 8, 2014

pratulbagri

Recommended

Imagine if you decapitate someone but instead of blood a rainbow is splattered across your face. This is the core of Feng Shen Ji manhua. It throws us into the fantasy world where Gods are slavers and humans exist for servitude. Welcome to Zhao Ge, the bustling capital of Shang dynasty whose emperor has refused to serve Gods any further. What follows is a feast for eyes.

Art: gorgeous, exquisite. I will run out of adjectives to describe the art and still fall short. From fighting scenes to landscapes from mines to facial expressions everything is pitch perfect. This perfection becomes bane in this case; every ...

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Feb 28, 2014

Po_and_Dong

Recommended

Feng Shen Ji goes hand-in-hand with a certain concept in reading and enjoying manga (or alot of things for that matter) that I like to call Closed Accomplishment. A manga with closed accomplishment is one that is not trying to be stunning in every category of writing etc, rather it attempts to be the very best at what it is at its core. Feng Shen Ji is just Feng Shen Ji, and because of that can be enjoyed in a sort of vaccuum, with there being no need to judge it in numerous factors to enjoy it fully, this being due to its unique artwork ... style, and heavy content amount unusual for a japanese manga (as this is originally a Chinese Manhua.) Down to the point though, Feng Shen Ji is an action manga showing some of the most enjoyable, well drawn fights I have ever seen, and a simple albeit perfectly executed storyline that goes with it.

Feng Shen Ji is about Wu Geng (Ah Gou), the son of the Emperor of the mighty nation of Zhang. When Zhang is tasked by the Gods to conquer and unite humanity, the Emperor Zi Shou refuses, declaring revolution against Heaven in order to rid the human race of the Gods' Dominance. Despite a roller coaster encounter with all 6 great gods and the Ruler of Heaven Tian himself, Zi Shou is defeated, and his Empire destroyed and conquered by the resident number 2. Through a series of events, Wu Geng is killed by his own mother and ends up possessing the dead body of a slave whose eye he stabbed before the beginning of the story. Wu Geng is told a great destiny awaits him, and he is captured and taken to the dreaded mountain mines with the slave's wife to be and some others. Things only go crazy from there.

The first thing I want to talk about with Feng Shen Ji is the art. When reading Feng Shen Ji, something is going to stand out to you right away, and that is that EVERY SINGLE PAGE IS IN COLOR. There is no exception to this at all throughout the manhua, and since its barely 2 years old with chapters over 40 pages on average one wonders about the work ethic of it's creators. In my earlier Tower of God review, I talked about even if an art style is inherently not good, color can make it overall a more pleasing visual experience then well drawn black and white manga. Despite this I warned readers that since Tower of God isn't even actually drawn it might still not look great. But what about Feng Shen Ji, the second fully colored manga? Well rest assured, Feng Shen Ji doesn't disappoint in art style either. Anatomy, facial detail, and environmental detail is all top notch. Fight scenes are fantastically drawn, each detail in every fist, flame, tooth, and nail is given a full accord. To put it simply, Feng Shen Ji would have been one of the most well drawn manga even without the color, but in addition to that, every single page is in color. And I haven't said it before, but this is good color, as not all color jobs on manga are created equal. It's obvious that this colorist is consistent and actively work's with the artists to achieve a perfect result. The consistency in quality is notable, and although the art is wonderful to begin with, it gets better even so. Similar to the Monkey King, you can enjoy this manga just by the art alone, and going back to my original statement on how Feng Shen Ji is fantastic because it achieves exactly what it attempts to, the art is a massive factor into the overall quality of this well drawn, well choreographed fighting manga.

Coming off of that, what purpose is art unless there is something to draw? Luckily, Feng Shen Ji's action sequences do not disappoint in the same way the art does not. Action scenes are creative, bombastic, and fun. No fight's outcome is predictable, and more than that, no fight's processes are predictable. In this regard it achieves what many action manga try to achieve, perfect action. The world of Feng Shen Ji is full of gods, demons, zombies, beasts, and stone warriors, choreography involving the inevitable bouts with these creatures prove to be as wonderful as foreshadowed, something not all manga can achieve well. An example from the story would be Wu Geng's initial fight with Shi Xing, Shi Xing overpowers him completely, but Wu Geng escapes and uses a variety of carefully planned bullshit with everything from bazookas to pocket sand to attempt to defeat him. It's all ridiculous but it fits to perfectly with the tone up to that point but you can't help but be entertained. I've mentioned it before but one thing that makes the fights specifically so fun is that they are very unpredictable. When I read Medaka Box, it was kind of silly how much foreshadowing there was in a fight, you could tell exactly who was going to activate their power up and win. This was so prevalent in fact, you might even be able to tell when specific plot twists would happen. In Feng Shen Ji, this doesn't occur. That's because you aren't given enough background information to infer what is going to happen, not just in the form of the story lore but also little details that determine a fight's next sequence. It's very awesome to read, and really puts the previously detailed artwork and color to work, synergizes completely.

Feng Shen Ji's story can be interpreted in a few different ways. Battle of the gods and Heaven Revolution is by no means an underused trope in manga (or fiction as a whole for that matter), so then why is Feng Shen Ji interesting. Well for one thing, it is not based on frequently used Greek, Japanese, or Egyptian mythology. It is based entirely on Chinese Mythology, which if anything, does not compltely correlate to many stereotypes in these types of stories. The "Gods" are not so much a dozen or so super powered beings with divine powers representing a certain element of nature, but rather a race of super humans residing in heaven, with their own cities as well (however they are the former as well.) There is no concrete lightning great god, there are several Lightning Great Gods, there are several great plague gods, etc. The point being this is an original pantheon, so you can expect a unique backstory. I also want to mention on while this manga is obviously based on Chinese folklore it doesn't actually follow it in anyway, its only based on it. There is no God from real chinese mythology in this manga, and just so the world of Feng Shen Ji is not Earth, and doesn't share its timeline. It is a unique canon with its own history and backstory, and some interesting meta canon as the concrete to the bricks. With that detailed I'll talk about some specifics. Wu Geng is not an interesting character, but he is entertaining. Wu Geng does not have any depth to him at all, that is to say, his entire thought process is displayed to the reader at all times. He does not have a mysterious past or some childhood trauma that similar protaginists have that affect their personalities, Wu Geng is too cool for any of that nonsense. In fact, Wu Geng is so incredibly normal for his character archetype (that is a very hot headed, leadership like character) that he makes most of his clever decisions actually reasonable. You the reader may find this a little bit strange, as usually a complicated plot will not fully be revealed to the audience for suspence. Not the case with Wu Geng and his shenanigans, especially in the mines. What this shows as despite being simple, this character and his motivations are just as likeable as the best from the other side, it only beneficially adds to the experience. Wu Geng also has some interesting one liners which may or may not be the result of a language barrier with the native Chinese, such as "Put face into ground and eat dog shit God, God eating dog shit kick!" which he uses more than once. Wu Geng isn't the only fun character though, some like resident quiet badass and smelting aura master Zi Yu are even more fun to watch, Zi Yu having no special backgrounds but still the first character to actually kill a God. It's interesting because, none of these characters particularly become dislikeable, I personally think it might be because this story is so momentum drive, with almost no time spent on developing characters, only on developing events, that they are never given the chance too. It begs the question that if development is done off that it can make characters less enjoyable. No need to worry about that, as the Berserk Gorillas attacking are much more important right now then character development. It may sound silly to say such, but it works just fine.

Feng Shen Ji is a manga that accomplishes what it is. It is an action driven story, with focuses on fights, adventure, and revolution. It doesn't make any prolonged attempt to develop characters because that is not this kind of story. If this kind of energetic manga is to your liking look no more for the epitome of the genre.

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May 30, 2022

JKrauser

Recommended

Years ago, I came across with a panel of Feng Shen Ji on the internet randomly. I've been in love with its art ever since that day and now, years later I finally found it again, went for it immediately and I can say it was definetely worth waiting.

Story was rather cliché especially in 2022 but the pacing was very well done, I've not even once felt like some parts of the story were being rushed. In 38 chapters, you get to witness decent character developments, amazing battle scenes, some pretty interesting characters and eventually you end up wanting for more. (well we have part ...

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