Record of Ragnarok, Vol. 1: Can Humanity Survive?

Have you ever wanted to just dive into a manga because of the very concept alone? What if the literal gods from all mythologies fought against the greatest human warriors in history to fight for humanities survival? As a fate fan, how was I not going to check this one out. I already have seen so many great warriors through out history duke it out. Why not against gods? That feels like the next step and honestly amazing. Especially since that this is the simplistic and most awesome position possible. Let’s do it. Lets get into this.

The premise of this manga series is pretty simple. One day, the gods meet and decide that humanity should just die because of how bad they are. In all honesty, that’s fair. I would allow it because I mean *gestures at everything*. But no, that isn’t going to happen or at least immediately. On Humanities side, there are the Valkyries. The demi gods that are the protectors of humanity that want to give them a chance. Brunhilde calls the gods cowards and asks for Ragnarok and the rest is history.

Well, for the most part. This entire manga volume is a set up to a good fight between Thor, god of thunder, and Lu Bu, one of the great warriors in all of history. It is very simple and shonen tournament fighty with 1v1 combat and flash backs that tell you how awesome they were in their periods of history before any attacks are blocked or some attacks hurt the unprecedented god. In this match, the two warriors finally accept each other as noble combatant and that’s it so far. The fight has not concluded but only has gotten hyped up.

Of course, Brunhilde is the real main character of this manga. She is foul mouthed and is basically in sighting an insurrection against the gods. Something which they love because its making the fights even more spectacular and worth watching for them. Especially since each of them are slowly sacrificing themselves to turn into weapons that can handle combat against the gods. The only trump card they have. Watching Brunhilde do all of these things is what makes this worth it because the flash backs are honestly a bit too cliche even if they are full of moments of awesome and are well put together in general.

So yeah, this is very much for people who are shonen fans or fate fans or people who love fights. There really isn’t a lot of subtext of texture, the manga is just what it is. Its honest about what its doing and wants to be and is full of some awesome scenes that has some flashbacks in them. Its also pretty slow moving right now as well even if they look great while they are doing it. On concept alone, I want to read more of this just to see who ends up fighting who. I mean, jack the ripper is on the human competitor list. Why wouldn’t I want to see Jack the Ripper fight someone? Also, more Brunhilde please. She’s honestly hilarious. So good, but nothing amazing is what I am giving this.