Rix Vanus - Reviews

[Ramble Review: Spoilers, written after Ch. 125]

It gets better.

Rix Vanus was one of my surprise favorite new reads of 2021 and continues to make me more and more interested in both Rix’ world and the various characters inhabiting it. While I personally am not bothered by themes of abuse (including sexual assault, rape, etc.) in the stories I read, I can fully understand why there are those turned off to reading Rix Vanus and if you're sensitive to those topics, I urge you to probably skip the read. That aside, despite the adorable artstyle, this manhua is explicit. Explicit sex. There's a lot of sex. Take that into account if you don't like that. Or if you do, I don't judge.

I will say that I was also initially put off by Rix’s curse, which is to perpetually be struck with nightmares of himself being sexually assaulted by the Demon who cursed him every night until he goes mad/dies. I almost skipped reading it at first and nearly dropped it in the first chunk of the manhua because of it. It felt repetitive at times, and I could see why others said it was just being used as a plot device to further the story and to create questionable sexual circumstances between characters. However, I felt myself become intrigued to how things would/could pan out and, combined with the charming artstyle and colors as well as my love for both Rix and Nuah, I decided to keep reading. 

Like I said in the beginning, in my opinion, Rix Vanus gets better. It has its sad moments, frustrating moments, cute moments... and there's those sweet and soft moments there too (and if you really love a certain puppy, imagine that as a baby puppy. Yeah, that's right.). The relationship between Rix and Nuah has development and side characters like Tylli and Darlan have started to get some spotlight. But, if you’re in it to find out if Rix finally gets freed from his curse and you’re not into long reads, this manhua might not be the best choice for you as some things (like his curse) may feel like they drag on for too long.

As a positive though, I forget Rix was even cursed in the recent chapters because I felt that the chapters have shifted from focusing on that to building up characters and their links to each other (ex. Rix’ past, Nuah and his identity as a divine spirit). Which, now that I think of it, could be a positive or a negative depending on the reader *shrug*. That said, Rix Vanus can potentially read like any other BL, and I can't necessarily deny that. But I'd say it's worth a try at least.

Anyway, I have a habit of writing too much and who knows how much of this is nonsense/repetitive, but here’s some bullet points… bullet sentences of some other things I wanted to write about.

• Art - Art! I’m such a sucker for artstyle and colors. The art of Rix Vanus is adorable and almost done in a watercolor/pastel-style(?) that I absolutely adore. The contrast between the dark, stern design of Rix to Nuah's light and airy design is one of my absolute favorite things about them. I also personally love the clothing Chanseong designed for the characters (main, minor, and background) as it gives some sort of backing culture to the fantasy world, even if their clothing… may not be the best combat-wise hahaha. Hey, at least they’re fashionable.

• Characters - All of them are generally likable and amusing characters, with main characters Rix and being obviously the most fleshed out comparatively currently. The cast of characters also vary fairly well, and I was happily surprised to see physically strong women like Rix’ mother and Darlan’s sister, who both have combat training. While I haven’t read the original novel that this was based on, I believe that Chanseong has changed the characterization of some characters, such as Rix, and cut some things from the story.

This review is my first on this site and my first time… well, writing, ever since graduating haha. This was also written at 4-5am so.... Uh, I hopefully will come back to change it up once Rix Vanus is finished, and I’m excited to see what’s in store for this story!

You see, this is a very good webtoon. Action BL is my favorite. The problem with this one is that the main character, Rix, gets r*ped multiple times. At this point, it's just a repeated, disgusting act that is used to drive the plot forward and I don't like that.

The story is interesting at the start theres alot of rape though. Ive caught up with the story at ch. 147, and it seems like the story is getting kind of flat recently..