Sunyu of the Shadowless

Sunyu of the Shadowless is a weird manhwa. It’s slow, the art style isn’t particularly intriguing and looks fairly amateurish, and the world is a very classic, very generic murim world. With that being said, I cannot believe how grounded the characters feel. In the same way that ‘Father, Unrivaled’ (Peerless Dad) uses the main characters children as the grounding force, Sunyu of the Shadowless uses the ragtag orphan group as the core.

Is the world building perfect? No. Is the choreography or art style gripping and eye-catching? Definitely not. But there’s something here that really feels… real. For some reason the characters feels like real people, really struggling through poverty, parenting, sibling rivalries, the bonds that hold a family together and the struggle to stay alive. I really do feel like there’s something special here, hiding in the character dialogues. Maybe it’s just because I read it at the right time, or because I’m going to be a father soon, but watching these children grow older while their adopted father does everything he can to put food on the table is just as heart warming as it is heart wrenching.

This is not going to be for everyone (especially not your average power fantasy manhwa reader), but if you’re the kind of person who is looking for character driven narratives and have a soft spot for families getting through the worst of times together, then I think you may really enjoy this.