Review : Ragnarok.

Ragnarok is the story about a warrior named Chaos in the mythical worlds of Midgard. Basically, the end of the world is coming and the old gods are trying to stop it. They've sent out their Valkyries to find those destined to cause it and remove them. Unfortunately for Chaos, he is in fact the reincarnation of the fallen god, Balder and hes the main target of the Valkyries. Lucky for him, there is a mage named Fenris Fenrir, who has set out to find Baulder's reincarnation before the Valkyries, with whom she needs to change the world.

Ragnarok is a blend of fantasy action and adventure with a dash of comedy on the side. There are multiple characters with differing personalities and a crazy bad guy wearing too much eyeliner. Basicially this first volume just introduces a variety of characters and gives them each a purpose with some good quality action and laughs in between.

This manga is actually what created the famous computer game, Ragnarok Online, a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Which has been serialised into numerous countries around the world, including Australia. Ragnarok Online 2 has been released in Korea, where it and the manga originated and will hopefully have an english release sometime next year.

The art of ragnarok is acceptable, it's slightly rough at times, but thats alright. Ragnarok, being a manwha, has a korean influenced art style and theme, which is identifiable in the characters armor and weapons. Ragnarok has also been published in the english book format, instead of backwards like traditional manga, so it's a good place to start for first time manga readers.

Ragnarok seems like a great manga for fans of fantasy fiction novels or fantasy computer games, although it's hard to tell where exactly the story is going with only this first volume, it's interesting enough none the less.