It is an adage that bad guys often make the most interesting characters, but in Tomb Raider King, there are no good guys. Among the many bad guys of the premise, our protagonist, Jooheon Suh, is definitely a baddie. He was a bad guy in his former life, but other people got the breaks, leaving him and his team to die a horrible death. Now, reborn with foreknowledge, skills from his former life, and buffs provided by an unknown power who appears to be in control of the situation, Jooheon Suh is going all in on being the absolute worst of the worst and loving every second of it.
I’ve read several “reborn to get revenge” stories, and while this one is, like so many of them, hinged upon the protagonist having prior knowledge, the real winner here is going to be…the relics. The relics are going to make for some great animation, not only because of their magical natures, but because they have their own personalities. Relics are often whiners and antagonistic to their users. Using relics will create a risk, which gives the creators of this comic freedom to make the characters do pretty much anything they need.
This flexibility works beautifully in the story. Jooheon is attractive, but when he needs to be idol-level famous, there is an app, erm, relic for that. When he needs to be able to read relic glyphs or speak the relic language, there is a relic-related skill for that. When a former foe is brought on to his team, her risk ends up bringing them into an enviable (and jealousy-inducing for another female team member) intimacy. Jooheon’s team is as powerful as the story needs. And, since the story is about how he gets revenge on the organizations that ruined his and his team’s lives, he needs a lot of everything. Money, relics, power, it all falls into Jooheon’s hands, and with it, he carefully destroys the people who destroyed him, with a self-satisfied smirk.
Not entirely accidentally, Jooheon ends up doing a lot of good things as well. In his past life, the person who contributed most to his misery also contributed most to the world’s misery. Here, Jooheon saves innocents, reforms bad guys, even saves the life of a child, all in service of his grander, much nastier plan, but it doesn’t change the fact that he does do good. That he still has the humanity to feel good about helps a lot to keep him from being so irredeemably awful that he becomes boring.
This is a real possibility, too, as Jooheon’s primary expression is a smirk. As Jooheon collects relics and power, he also gloats, which makes it hard to like him. He’s not kind to some of his employees, treating them and the relics like tools, and of course, Jooheon is deeply cruel to his enemies. Somehow, though, one does not hate him. I know “somehow” carries a lot of water there, but just you’ll have to trust me, after 14 volumes, I still don’t mind him and would like to see him at least clear the remaining tombs.
A great deal of the art is people standing around. It’s the kind of story that feels more like a live-action movie than an anime. Reactions tend to be over the top, with goofy faces as common as action shouting.
But back to the relics. I loved them, and I think you will, too. Especially if you have the slightest interest in mythology and history, the relics are the stars of this show. From a rope that wants to be Jooheon’s best friend to the Emperor Nero, every relic has a story, a grudge, and probably a few enemies. They bicker amongst themselves, they complain, they fight back, and many of them are utterly ridiculous, so you never know what the story will pull out and throw at you. I mean that literally, as tombs and their relics can be quite physical.
Despite the simple revenge plotline and the relics as sidekicks and magic, the story is actually quite complex. Jooheon will be recovering allies from his past life, and fighting the multiple organizations that popped up to control the relics and the populace…while also entering the tombs, beating their master relics with his own and closing the tomb—often against the wishes of the tomb itself. Again, that’s part of the charm–the puzzles that each tomb and its relics provide. Those keep the story exciting, in what might otherwise just be an extended hostile corporate takeover with a few curses thrown in.
Whether you like your fantasy for the discovery of new items and magic, complex political drama, or just blasting your way through archeological structures, this story is going to have something for you to grab hold of.
