King of Hell
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| King of Hell | |||
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| 魔帝 마제 Maje (Majeh - Demon Emperor) |
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| Genre | Action, Fantasy | ||
| Manhwa | |||
| Author | Ra In-Soo | ||
| Artist | Kim Jae-Hwan | ||
| Publisher |  Daiwon C.I. Inc. |
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| English publisher |  Tokyopop |
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| Serialized in | Champ Comics | ||
| Original run | 2001 – Ongoing | ||
| Volumes | 28 | ||
King of Hell (originally titled Majeh in Korea) is a manhwa—a Korean comic—written by Ra In-Soo and illustrated by Kim Jae-Hwan. In the United States, King of Hell is published by TOKYOPOP.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Majeh was a great swordsman in life but in death he is merely an envoy to the next world for the King of Hell: an old man who bosses him around and throws things at him. It is later discovered that he is a legendary swordsman who was placed in a magical realm where the fiercest warriors stayed, killing those who dared to attack him in one fell swoop. The magical realm in which Majeh was sent is a place where martial artists who have honed their skills to incredible levels through horrendous or inhumane tactics are sent. As such that realm is legendary for the inhabitants' prowess in battle as well as their cruelty and delight in death and destruction. Majeh used his incredible martial arts abilities to easily defeat the inhabitants of the sealed realm with his trademark "Heaven's Arrows of Judgement" technique which he is still able to perform in his teenage form, albeit to a lesser degree.
[edit] Teenage Form
Aware of his incredible power, the council of the Next World declared he was too dangerous and placed a seal on him, causing Majeh to revert to his teenage form and suppressing the vast majority of his powers. However, even in his teenage form, Majeh is still an incredible martial artists who has no trouble in defeating most of his opponents as well as any martial artists he may come across in the living world. A ninja, Samhhuk, who is spying on his movements as ordered by the King of Hell, is caught by Majeh and forced to be his slave or die! Samhuk, being told of Majeh's power, reluctantly agrees and ends up the slave and punching bag for Majeh. Majeh discovers a rift between worlds letting demons in and he has to travel all over the eastern territories to hunt them down.
We find that he is a mysterious character who make a lot of silly jokes. In retrospect, Majeh's personality is that of a teenager but is also serious and often scary as his darker, more sinister side is released when he is actually fighting. After he returned to Hell another disaster occurred and Hell's most wicked Demons escaped into the world of Mortals to find host bodies. However because the escaped fiends are malignant spirits and evil they must find the body of a recently deceased martial artist to fully utilize their lethal martial arts. Majeh's task, as a beast of burden, was to arrest these formidable enemies. He refused to go back to the mortal world.
The King of Hell tricked poor Majeh into going back to his preserved body. For a surprise the Gold mark which locked most of the greatest power of Majeh was still fully at its task. Majeh's mature human body shrunk into a teenager size which also decreased his power. So what you think happens when he meets a top demon fighter?
Back in his body he met a fearful boy with name Chung Poong and Dohwa, a female fighter who specialized in the art of poisonous needles. Just for fun Majeh decides to go with them to a martial arts contest and ends up entering the contest with Chung Poong. Dohwa, being older, is unable to participate due to the fact that the contest for martial artists over the age of fifteen had finished its registry already. Majeh, his natural state being suppressed to that of a teenage boy, entered the contest where the five martial arts prodigies of the country were also entered. These martial art prodigies are as follows: Crazy Dog, a 6 year old hellion from a remote mountain village that specializes in clubs, Young, a member of the Mooyoung Moon Sect of assassins possessing incredible speed and sword skills, Dohak, a 15 year old monk affiliated with the Soorim Temple in the Soong mountains whose specialty if staff weaponry, Poong Chun, a 12 year old expert with the broad sword affiliated with the Shaman Sect, and Baby, a seemingly weak and innocent 15 year old warrior affiliated with the Blood Sect whose specialty is the Snake Hand Fist. However, only four of the five child prodigies are mentioned or even seen in later chapters with Dohak and Crazy Dog being killed and turned into living puppets. Young joins Majeh in his quest due to his curiosity of the truth behind the mysterious Majeh, while we learn the the innocent Baby suffers from a split personality disorder. Apparently, Baby controls the body most of the time but when Baby or the body is in danger, Hyur comes out. Unlike Baby, who is adverse to fighting, Hyur has no qualms about killing someone just for the heck of it and can easily kill those who get in his way. However, we discover in one of the later volumes that a third personality known as Kwang also resides in Baby who is much more powerful than Hyur and as a result comes out even more rarely. As the contest continues, things get worse when one of the wrathful demons Majeh was sent after joins in and inflicts a fatal wound on Majeh. Things turn when the Gold Mark weakens and the formidable demon meets a mature Majeh with full power. The Outcome is easy.
More than the demon hunt the mortals had to face the past for an old enemy survived : The Sa Gok. Thought to be wiped out, this group plans to rule the world by eliminating both the White and Dark Sects, they were planning new plots to go on with their task.
The sealed section of the Other World in which Majeh and the other great martial artists were trapped is called the Moorim. Majeh was released from the Moorim after the Superhuman Strength Sealing Symbol was placed on his back by seven elders. Majeh lived the first time 300 years before the manwa takes place and two people he knew from that time appear in the story, an old martial arts master that Majeh once defeated and refers to as Greenhorn, and a beautiful woman named Dohwa whom he loves. Dohwa was able to survive the centuries by sitting beside the Hanumsoo, a pool that is supposedly the source of all the world's coldness, and watching over Majeh's body until a crazy poison master stumbled upon them and killed her after she got too far away from the pools energy. The King of Hell was able to trick Majeh into going back to his body, probably by telling him Dohwa was in danger but neglecting to tell him she would die no matter what.
Majeh later met Chung Poong and then the young woman who uses poisoned needles as her weapon who also bears the name Dohwa. Later it is revealed that the younger Dohwa is the owner of a demonic whip named the Mapyun.
After the Martial Arts tournament during which Majeh defeats the first of the escaped fiends the assassin prodigy Young tags along with Majeh to find missing martial artists while Dohwa and Chung Poong go on a side mission to find a magical tablet that will help make them stronger. Majeh and Young uncover the crimes and plans of an old and thought destroyed group called the Sa Gok who had turned the missing martial artists into zombies and would use them to start a Great War between the "good" and "evil" sects in Korea.
Majeh then dragged Young out to Devil Mountain to investigate rumors of a tomb recently found there. This is where the title King of Pa Chun first comes up, a legendary swordsman from 300 years before who rocked the martial arts world. The funny thing is that Majeh happens to know exactly where the King of Pa Chun and his legendary sword was buried and it is not in Devil Mountain. Majeh eventually reveals to all of his fellow treasure hunters, including Chung Poong and Dohwa, that the rumors of a tomb and treasure were an elaborate trap.
Majeh was able to stop the Great War cold then left to continue hunting down the remaining 6 escaped fiends. He encounters one while on a side errand for the martial arts leader and helps the monk it was trying to possess destroy it completely. He encounters 2 more on Raven Ghost Ilse leaving only two more for him to find. The only problem is that to get enough power to defeat them he has to die.
[edit] Volumes
Each volume includes new and old faces from the previous volumes. However, many of the characters introduced are never seen in the subsequent later volumes as they are killed off are never mentioned again. Majeh, the main character opts to travel with two specific people beginning in the timeline of volume 3 in which he meets the coward Chung Poong Namgoong and the femme fatale Dohwa Baik.
There are currently 18 volumes available from TOKYOPOP.
