Villain Initialization - Reviews

With good points and bad points, Villain Initialization is not exactly what you expect from the 'Time Travel Revenge' subgenre, persay, and has a lot of slapstick comedy thrown in. The main character is kind of an idiot, and while his 'motivation' is 'kill the hero' he... well, I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say that isn't happening any time soon.  Makes sense, because then the story would presumably be basically over?  But the way the author keeps it from happening, repeatedly, is pretty contrived.  Still waiting on the reveal of WHY he wants him dead, honestly. 

If you like unexpected little twists, random jabs of comedy, and an author's attempts at portraying a 'smart' character who is simultaneously a gigantic idiot, I'd recommend it.  It's entertaining enough, to be certain.  I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I am, but that's probably because I expected a straightforward 'lets get stronger and kill my enemy' cliche and this manhua goes about it... differently.  Definitely somthing I'd want to binge once it's longer, as the author believes in cliffhangers something awful lol. 

As for the art, it's rough and scribbly at times (though it gets better by a lot after the first few chapters honestly) but the overall style of it fits the mood and feel of the story.  Artist is particularly good at mood coloring and conveying movement.  Sometimes, the PoV art really has me doing a double take because I like it that much, other times I just stare and wonder why someone would draw a panel the way the artist did. 

You will be one of 2 people reading this, someone who understands or someone who doesn't.

Now, the description given on this is entirely ineffective and has you expecting all the wrong stuff when you try to start it (he ain't gonna be some super cool OP dude), but the actual story is really a largely comical piece with misunderstandings (like our MC seen as a good guy) and fun, but also a really good developing storyline and flashbacks. The characters are well made emotionally and realistically. 

The problems in it, however, come from an iffy translation and a whole lot of the story having to be read between the lines. Another problem, more minorly, was scene changes (one chapter had people questioning about if a chapter was skipped because it started on a scene change and had no forewarning, but one wasn't), but if you read the entire story overall, it's really well paced and actually works well.

A different take from the time travel-second chance series that I had read so far. The characters are diverse and the story keeps a smooth pace. The female leads are also badass without overshadowing the MC.

There are almost no useless or cliche moments, even if there were, it fits well into the plot and makes it more unique.

Have read upto 127 chapters. Waiting for more.

Read up till chapter 13, I would say that time travel / fantasy tags are not that important compared to goofy comedy.

The MC had a beef with the HERO of his world, and wanted him dead. Why, not explained yet. He jumps back in time to his teen years and starts plotting to kill the hero while he's young, but nothing really works for the mc.

Waiting to see what advantage did he get from the time travel, the author tries to paint the MC as smart but without results, I can't see that, though again, the main genre here is comedy.

The art is surprisingly amazing and fits the story. I will put this one on the shelf for the dark days to get back to it, cause it's not in my mood right now.

Really good story in my opinion. My only big problem is that the start is really boring and slow, however later on they start going into the story and getting really good. I would have made it 9/10 but it was so boring I almost dropped it, if I drop it from boredom before it gets good then it's not good storytelling, but I am glad it didn't get to that point. I am sorry, I'm not good at this but I hope you can take my word on this and read it till they get into the actual story, the beginning is boring but is helpful to get a real connection to the characters. Some scenes even made a cold-hearted, cynical bastard like me cry a little.