The Breaker

Yi "Shioon" Shi-Woon's everyday life at Nine Dragons High School—which consists of beatings from fellow student Chang-Ho and his gang—is far from ideal. But one day, a mysterious man named Han Chun-Woo spots one of these beatings and, instead of offering support, brands Shioon a coward for refusing to fight back, adding insult to injury. To Shioon's surprise, he finds out that Chun-Woo is the new substitute English teacher at his school.

Tired of the daily abuse, Shioon decides to enroll at a martial arts academy to learn how to defend himself. On the way there, he stumbles upon Chun-Woo in a predicament—cornered in an alley by a group of angry men! Provoked, Chun-Woo suddenly dispatches them using martial arts techniques, which Shioon covertly records. Later, he uses this recording to blackmail Chun-Woo into teaching him to defend himself. Reluctantly, Chun-Woo agrees, and Shioon is soon thrust into the world of martial arts, known as Murim. However, Shioon is naive and unaware of his master's shady past and the unseen underbelly of society. How will Chun-Woo manage to teach Shioon and help him survive in the world of Murim?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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The Breaker has been published in English by Ablaze as 2-in-1 omnibus volumes since June 30, 2021, and was published in Polish by Yumegari from February 2013 to January 2015.

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Yi, Shi-Woon

Main

Han, Chun-Woo

Main

Lee, Shi-Ho

Main

Kwon, Jae-Kyu

Supporting

Hyuk, So-Chun

Supporting

Kangsung

Supporting

Sae-hie

Supporting

Seonu, So-Seol

Supporting

Unwol

Supporting

Lee, Gyoo-Bum

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 14, 2026

MeReiNo

Recommended

The Breaker has a pretty simple beginning, but the story gets much more interesting as it goes on. I really liked watching Shi-Woon grow from a weak and insecure person into someone who is willing to fight for himself and others. The fights are exciting and the art fits the martial arts style really well.

The characters were probably my favorite part, especially Chun-Woo. Most of them have their own personalities, strengths and flaws, so they never felt completely one-dimensional. Some moments are predictable, but I still enjoyed them because the execution was good. If you like martial arts, training arcs and strong character development, I ...

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Nov 16, 2019

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

The short version:

If you've ever experienced any modern day asian martial arts drama, you have already experienced The Breaker. Unless you're fan of the genre, there isn't really a reason to read it.

The long version:

The Breaker is a bit weird manga-manhwa hybrid. It's made by Korean authors, it's released in Korean magazine by Korean publisher and yet it's made to be read right to left, as a regular manga would be. While I don't know what the reason for this decision was, just be check if you're reading it the correct way if you're getting confused.

The reading direction isn't the only odd, crossbreed thing ... about The Breaker though. So is the art and in a way, the story.

Most of the story is a regular one - weak protagonist gets bullied at school and a chad teacher takes him under his wings, GTO-style. Another cliché follows - the protagonist is given an insta-power up item that makes him strong for basically no reason other than the plot progression. Enemies starts popping up and fights ensue. MC also gets big angery when someone close to him is in danger.

Now this is where it gets to the weird part - even though it follows the classic setting for the zero to hero story, the role The Breaker's protagonist fulfils most of the time is... a punching bag. Against every enemy. Even after he gets strong. Even against folks much weaker than him. MC's go to strategy is to get beaten, get up, recieve more beating, get up, repeat, shock the opponent with getting up numerous times and then the fight gets resolved somehow. No joke, this is how most, if not all, fights the protagonist is part of go.

Ultimately the story just opens a bag of martial artists, throws them at the "good guys" and is like "Yo fight those, coz reasons". The conflicts are explained with the martial arts equivalent of technobabble. I've noticed that some people are writing about "amazing plot twists", so let me warn you beforehand - there are none. And by that I don't mean the the plot twists are weak or predictable. I mean that the story has nothing that could be called a plot twist.

One thing I really liked is that at one point in the story, a character acknowledges that even the strongest martial artist will die if they get shot. Which was nice until I realized this makes one of the core setting void. You see, in The Breaker, the "civilians" and the martial artist societies are separated, as mixing would result in conflict and martial artists are way too overpowered for the regular world, at least that's how it's explained to as. What isn't explained though, couldn't the police just shoot them if they start making too much ruckus?

Now, for the art - especially at the start, the illustrations of The Breaker look like shoujo artstyle trying to fit shounen story. Main characters are bishounen, the background is plain and the character frequently break into chibi forms or "typical anime reaction faces". Which, as you can imagine considering the main genres of The Breaker, disrupts the atmosphere. It breaks The Breaker.

As with the badly timed comical relief, the series also suffers from intrusive fanservice that serves no purpose. Well, yes, fanservice usually serves no purpose other than being a fanservice, but this setting is an especially bad place for it.

Luckily, the art issue gets better and as you're getting through later volumes, there are less and less missplaced "funny" faces and fanservice. The art itself also gets better and particulary in the last few volumes some very well drawn pages can be seen.

Overal, The Breaker is just a mediocre martial arts story that isn't exactly bad, but also isn't exactly good.

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Mar 28, 2025

Elios69

Not Recommended

If you want a good plot , lovable characters like you care about them then this is not for you.

It sometimes tells you about backstory which dont carry any impact its like you dont even need to know it. And most of the times it just shows the support characters chatting and plotting which is rlly stretched out and it also dont have any feel like impact its just there.

The mc obviously gets stronger which is cool but what after that.

It slowly shifts to being supernatural and it just feels so not realistic that its tough to care about the fights.

Obviously if a ...

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