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. This is where Feng Shen Ji differs from a lot of typical battle manga, heck the only thing he has to rely on for a long time is his brain. The story develops amazingly, the narrative is extremely well timed and the authors have this down to a fine art. Each volume leaves you on tenterhooks until the next but never are you unsatisfied with the amount of information that is provided in each volume. If you do manage to buy physical copies of these you certainly won't be disappointed with the value for money.
Moving on to the artwork, each page is drawn in beautiful colour. I pay more attention to the artwork if the manga is in black and white, with this drawn in beautiful colour there is so much to take in. Each page is beautifully drawn with colours that are really catching. The battle scenes are some of the best I have ever seen, you can follow what each character is doing with ease and it is not often I can say that about manga. As much as I can't wait to see what happens next and am ready to turn each page I am always hesitant as I survey the page one last time to take in each detail as this is drawn so well.
Readability for me is important but so is the potential to come back to a series in perhaps a years time and wondering would I still enjoy it. This series I can wholeheartedly give a definitive yes in answer to that question.
Overall if the battle manga genre with a not-so-typical male lead is something that interests you then Feng Shen Ji should be top of your pile to read. It has instantly put itself into one of my favourite series and I cannot wait until more volumes have been translated.
I don't often write reviews but I was thinking of the best way of promoting this manga because this to me is a diamond in the rough.
