Yureka

Alright... It's a series that originally ran from 2000-2014 according to Wikipedia. It was only barely translated into English and got, I think 12 volumes from Tokyopop, who romanized some of the names for their release.

It's 2023. A netizen who goes by Azrenir finally managed to finish translating it into english, by their own admission, without knowing a single lick of Korean. I'm just glad I got to the final resolution. 266 chapters and almost 20 years later.

It was one of the first series to take place mainly in an MMO, sharing that with the dot-hack series. Back in the early 2000's VR and even the concept of VRMMOs hadn't been popularized like SAO was.

There's so many moving parts to this Manwha. The story mainly centers around Jang-Gun (online ID 'Roto' or 'Lotto' depending on the translation, and the (mis)adventures of those connected to him in the online and physical world.

It's a sprawling setting with a large cast and I'm surprised the author managed to make as much sense of it as they did. Maybe the multiple translations, hiatuses, time passed, and cultural differences got in the way but there was plenty of times I felt lost as a reader. The characters seem relatively believable tho so I can't fault it too much for feeling a bit thinly spread in some areas. If anything, they managed to capture the feel of an online world with a massive number of people playing at all times as they introduced so many characters, some were forgotten or abandoned quickly, just like playing MMOs lol.

But it's finally completed in English. If you found this after years of wondering how it ends, you're going to read it no matter what this review says. Go, finish and enjoy this forgotten, ridiculous piece of early 2000's media.

It's sad seeing no reviews so might as well leave a little something never read the story but I'll see if I like it or not