Children of the Rune
Storyboard: Mogin
Art by: MUNCHICKEN, KYONA
Original novel by: Minhee Jeon
Localization produced by: Kakao Entertainment and Kiwivine
Publisher: TAPAS (In progress)
Publication Date: September 14, 2024 – present
Rating: Young Adult
Genre: action fantasy
What do you do when your home and your family are irreparably destroyed in one horrible night? Do you try your best to move on, like nothing happened? Or do you try to get revenge to restore your family’s honor? The new Tapas vertical scroll adaptation of the classic Korean fantasy novel series Children of the Rune explores these questions to varying success.
Boris Jineman is the youngest son of the ruler of the lands of Longgord in the Travaches Republic, where princes are elected through the support of landowning lords like his father and blood feuds and revenge quests ravage the nation. His happy childhood with his caring older brother Yevgnen is turned upside down when his uncle Vlado returns to seek vengeance against Boris’s father, for exiling him when they were young. Away from everything and everyone he knows, with only his family’s sword, Winterer, to protect him, will this sheltered and traumatized twelve-year-old manage to build a happy and safe life for himself in the face of corrupt and greedy people trying to take him for all he’s worth?
When I started reading this vertical scroll comic, I was not aware it was based on an extremely popular Korean novel series from 2001. While I tried to approach it with an open mind, I found my attention drifting quickly once we launched into the lengthy flashback-prologue sequence showing how Boris found himself in a carriage with a pretty blonde girl calling him her adoptive brother in the opening sequence, a flashback which lasts more than twenty five episodes. The flashback could be condensed significantly without losing any essential information.
There are emotional moments that are very effective. Boris’s relationship with his older brother is genuinely touching, and though it’s obvious from the first episode Yevgnen will meet a tragic end, it’s still sad when it finally happens. Seeing Boris finally begin to meet kind and well-meaning people after so many horrible encounters is also really satisfying, but the way he and his brother are treated by just random strangers in public is exaggerated to the point of unbelievability. I found myself wondering if the inn patrons were being paid off by a rival family to bully this completely random rich-looking child, because it was that hard for me to believe these grown adults would act this unhinged without prompting. They literally just walked in, come on!
The art is beautifully done: the character designs are striking, and key elements such as the magic sword and the ice dragon summoned to destroy the Jineman family home are rendered with exciting colors. The fight scenes are dynamic and engaging; I was particularly impressed with the way the artists render sword swings.
The slightly hazy and washed-out coloring style made it difficult to tell whether certain sequences were happening in reality or were a complex hallucination until it was confirmed several episodes later that those were real events.
Another aspect of the worldbuilding that confused me was the political structure of Travaches, which is described as a republic with Prince-Electors a la the Holy Roman Empire, but also claims to not have nobility? What was Boris’s dad then, a CEO? Princes and lords are still nobles, even if they are elected.
I wonder if the confusing aspects of this prologue read more clearly in the prose form of the original novel. But in comic form, the buildup to the main storyline is too long to really sustain most readers’ interest, even if it does pick up in the future.