My Insanely Competent Underlings [Manhwa Review]
Hello guys. It's been a while since I wrote a manhwa review. For today we'll be talking about this peculiar mix of adventure and humor. It's from Redice Studio so there's no doubt that it's decent art-wise, and of course it would be fun to read. Some previous works of Redice are Return of the Disaster-class Hero which is a good one and the very popular Solo Leveling .
I know that compared to the two mentioned earlier My Insanely Competent Underlings is a tier below in terms of both the art quality and story telling. But we should give it credit for one particular thing that the both Solo Leveling and Return of the Disaster-class Hero which is that insane amount of humor. At chapter 16 there are still many possibilities of the plot's direction but one thing is for sure and that is the plain stupidity of both the male lead and his underlings is very entertaining.
Being a VR manhwa makes it a lighter read. Although most manhwas in this category have this common cliché staring point where the MC used to be the limelight of that particular game universe they tried to watered it down a bit by putting the MC Lee Hoyeon as rank 97th in the world. Actually, I think it works better for them. Popular VR novels like The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor or even the newer ones like The Kings Avatar have this hidden aura of seriousness around them. I guess both MC's already have a pre-determined path. Yeah, there's plenty of good comedy in TLMS but at the end of the day it's about Weed's 'real' life and not the other way around. In case of TKA it's more of a redemption story for me. Well, both of them have this Cinderella kind of vibe which was pretty good early on but generally devolve through time because of the many bad copycats trying so hard to chase the clout of these successful ones.
What I like about My Insanely Competent Underlings is that there's no very strong commitment in the outside/real world. I know people might hate me and maybe labeled me as being shallow but it is what it is. Although I must admit that the MC's facial expressions in the early chapters are indeed very annoying it made me realized that it makes sense when the sidekicks/ underlings were introduced.
I think it was popularized in TLMS where the MC have this unexpected series of unfortunate events which ended up benefitting him as the story progress. But in that case it was very subtle. In MICU the author made it like it's bread and butter for the whole story. Foiling the MC's plan almost all the time while still getting an optimum outcome is a refreshment, at least in my case.
It reminded me of another great comedic manhwa, The Greatest Real Estate Developer. Both MCs have their own shitty expressions while daydreaming. Sadly for Lee Hoyeon he lucked out in terms of underlings. At least Lloyd Frontera's knight Javier is the epitome of what a side character should be - level headed, reliable and strong. Speaking of strength Wilhelm Meier, Lee Hoyeon's first underling is no short of it, the problem lies with his other attributes. And I just want to personally curse the author's humor because Meier's existence is one of the greatest joke in the whole series. What I mean is who in their right mind would put a huge 7 foot guy, clad in full mercenary set with brutal looking scars all over his face and body and then later on labeled him as 15 year old.
That's only the first underling. The moment they met the second underling which is a young lady make the whole thing seems to be all over the place. Both underlings have this perception that their boss Lee Hoyeon has the ability to dominate the world. The moment he showed his weakness he was labeled as 'sick' as their personal excuse to justify that their so-called boss is the best in the world. I repeat it's entertaining BUT very tiring to read at the same time. In numbers and considering the few chapters released I'd rate it as a solid 7.5/10 for now.
Image and Website:
https://www.asurascans.com/manga/my-insanely-competent-underlings/