Threads of Time, Volume 4

Moon Bin Kim is a student in 1997 Seoul, South Korea. His father has got him an apartment and sends him money as he needs it, but is lacking in the love and warmth department, to the extent that Moon wonders why his parents even had him. In the past couple of months, Moon has been having vivid dreams of living in 13th century Korea, known as Koryo at that time. The bizarre thing is that they have been becoming more and more real, and now they have engulfed him. He REALLY is in the Korea of 1229, a son of a warrior family who is trying to drum up support to fend off the Mongol hordes. And most of the people that surround him have the faces of people he knows in the 20th century, with just their names changed. If Moon can keep from losing his sanity, he might just figure out what is going on and why his life seems to stretch across the centuries. First of all, the art in this Korean manga is superb and realistic. The travelling back and forth in time is a little disconcerting but nothing you can't handle. I also thought it was interesting that the story is framed with actual historical events. A ghost that haunts Moon is especially scary. The dialogue also never stretches the boundaries of good taste with shouts of special attacks and the like. I would like a little more differentation in the design of the characters, since they tend to look alike. But you get the sense that only a few characters matter anyway. This is a great first volume.