The story revolves around a rich and delinquent student by the name of Moon Bin Lee who consistently dreams about the past, chasing a dark-haired girl into the abyss. Soon enough, he is overwhelmed and abruptly finds himself as Sa Kyoung Kim, son of a prominent warrior family in Mongolia. Furthermore, the very people he now lives with, are physically almost identical of his present day life. Not to mention that it is in a period of territorial conflicts, involving the protagonist in the battles that happened admist the crisis. Luckily for him, he is very skilled in kendo, a useful ability in such times - naturally. The various battles that actually take place are interesting, but it must be mentioned that it can get a bit too excessive in violence; regardless, war is not the main focus of the manga.
The manhwa starts out strong, conveying the setting as well as the main cast of characters appropriately; it maintains a steady and logical progress through the difficulties he experiences in his current position as a modernized teenager. However, there is a problem that emerges as the story progresses: the smooth and logical narrative gets lost, and in turn readers see an increased pacing which results in various conflicts either lacking in execution, or in coherency: in other words, it creates a rushed feeling. It also has some interesting display of what the teenager is experiencing, lightly touching upon what is to come through the art and dialogue presented. Still, some of said scenes were arguably wrongly placed, interrupting the story, rather than enhancing it. In addition, when not read carefully, it created the illusion of him being transported back and forth in time, when that was actually not the case.
Threads of Time is primarily a character driven story, and mainly focuses on three characters, one being the teenager, and the other two being of the Mongolian camp, the General Sali Tayi and the granddaughter of the Khan, Atan Hadas. Kim Moon Bin is quite a generic character at first: rich, spoiled with a broken family relationship, and on top of that a delinquent. Nevertheless, readers observe the gradual changes the protagonist experiences through the environment and supporting cast: the fact that he finds himself in constant struggle in such a foreign environment is good to see, as opposed to other works where the characters adapt abruptly to the new environment.
The other two characters play an important role in developing both themselves, as well as the protagonist, Atan Hadas being the most noteworthy one. She is a smart and a strong, independent woman who strived to be a warrior, yet was accepted as a commander through carious circumstances - learning the ways of war, as well as realizing whom she loves, moves this character forward. This could not really be said about Sali Tayi, who is primarily a villain, yet his motives are rather weak for the atrocities he commits. Fleshing out of said character is observed.
Concerning the art style of the manhwa, it is as a whole well done, with some clear discrepancies in the begging: it is clear that some of the character models, as well as their expression vary a bit too much. This improved over time, together with some backgrounds, which were detailed in most cases. There were here and there some panels with either a lot background detail, while others were simply done.
Threads of Time was overall a very enjoyable read, yet suffered from a number of issues that sadly hindered the immersion in the story quite a bit, as well as feeling rushed. It must be noted that although it has some minor warfare, it is not the likes of similar manga such as Kingdom or the Ravges of Time. However, through the narrative and its characters, the message contained within is certainly worth the read on that basis alone.
Thank you for reading.
