The Infinite Mage

[MangaDex]

 

[Plesh]

This should've just focused on the MC learning the world of magic but instead had to force a romance in it, the world building and characters up to the academy was solid.

 

[kyself]

I wish there were less quips on the pages from the group. Or none.

 

[Drissle]

Genuinely red haired girl is pissing me off
LEAVE HIM ALONE MY GOD

 

[yeetus_feetus1001]

I thought the mc on the front cover was rudeus greyrat from mushoku tensei

 

[gracecfe]

I am trying so hard to like this but the Hallmark friendship, family and romance clichés, over exaggerated of noble are evil, misuse their power, looking down and act like shit while commoners are just no value disposal life is just turning me off it. The discrimination towards commoner is horrible.

 

[CoHoBaSt]

The writing in this story is poor, primarily, in my opinion, due to the writers poor understanding of conflict and resolution, alongside a distinct inability to write solidly motivated characters.
The conflict in this story consists of many distinct, individual arcs such as the one to get enrolled into the academy, to get promoted to rank 5, or the dark mage thing. Although initially innocuous, this quickly becomes distinctly noticable as a staccato, almost drumbeat-like plot, where each arc has a dictinct and abrupt start, a brief build-up, and a drawn-out climax. This shows the authour's limited understanding of the joy of reading, which lies not in telling us in the moment how difficult things are, but instead in presenting problems and watching our main characters overcome the challenges through their own ingenuity.
Spoilers ahead, no spoilers mark because the polt writes itself.

A good example for this can be seen in the promotion exam arc. The exam is announced, and instead of using the convenient excuse of the two ladies trying to help MC to explain the challenges of the maze, the opportunity is squandered and simply used to emphasize how little time there is to prepare. The authour appears to not understand that simply showing a number is not all there is to building tension. The authour then dedicates an equal or greater amount of pages (I couldn't be bothered to check) to the challenge itself, once again failing to understand that the audience (in world) screaming does not equal to proper stakes for the reader. A good fight where the MC beats the bad guy is only truly a good fight when we understand why the fight is important, which, quite bluntly, it is not, the regular promotions appear to be far less dangerous, and better accomplishes MC's stated goal of better understanding magic. Not only does that fail, the authour's attempt at showing how difficult the fight is, and also why the MC deserves to win are equally ineffective, making this a pointless, stakeless, meaningless fight. In this story, this is unfortunately the norm.
The challenge is also not overcome through conventional means, but rathar through a deus ex machina ("divine intervention") in this case via the MC having an epiphany into his understanding of magic. This is poor writing, especially when repeated at least four times (fight against the savant guy, the promotion exam, the fight against the werewolves or whatever, and the fight at the beginning with red-hair girl) that there is a solid argument to be made that the authour believes this is the canonical and acceptable method to resolve a conflict. It is certainly not.
Had MC failed the exam, perhaps due to stubbornly opting to self study and not taking skinship advice from one of the girls who offers to help him, not only would the plot be improved, we can also see MC improve as a person. Instead, against all logic and better jusgment, both in and out of the story, he is allowed to succeed, and I do not see him failing anytime soon. This behaviour, repeated through muliple arcs, has built up into a scar in the reader's mind to make them think that the MC is invincible because the world will literally bend over backwards to acommodate him. This scar is commonly referred to as plot armour.
Speaking of accomodation, let's talk about conflict resolution. After the climax ends, the villian somehow always apologises for being morally incorrect?? Putting aside that this is unrealistic, this also allows conflicts to be tied up with neat, pretty little bows that are detrimental to the plot and add to the staccato-ing of the arcs. When the MC is allowed to join the magic academy due to being friends with blue-hair-son, it is okay to have the head of family grudingly do so because to make a child go back on his vow is a worse embarrassment than having a commoner friend. Family head can then be used as a helper villain in a larger plot, but this is cut out as an option because "Oh he sees the light now so wham ban thank you maam you're in". It is okay for the losers to be sore losers. It is okay narratively for characters to hold grudges, the way they do in real life. In fact, I am of the opinion that not doing so is unrealistic and poor writing.
OH WAIT I FORGOT THE WORST PART!
THIS AUTHOUR HAS NO FUCKING CLUE HOW TO WRITE CHARACTERS!
Every character, with no exception, is a strawman, a caricature, a cpoypasta archetype. Every. Single. One. wise headmaster with regrets and is a genius. genius girl with dark backstory. two teachers that are polar opposites. rich bastard who has abuses his power and is fundamentally a good peron. Not only are these well-established archetypes, with absolutely no change to the established formula, the archetypes ARENT BEING USED PROPERLY?? The power of the genius with a dark backstory (red-hair-girl) is that they have a weakness and have to reckon with their past, and that they work to improve themselves. THESE BITS ARE THE ONES THAT ARE NOT PRESENT IN THIS STORY. Somehow, the few bits that the author deviates from the formulae make the characters less compelling, not more?? OH AND WE FORGOT SOMEONE! THE MC! HE's A MARY SUE! CANT DO ANYTHING WRONG GOODY TWO SHOES! Somehow always choosing the 'correct' answer and is never put in a seriouslt morally difficult decision, and when he is, he, JUST FORGIVES?? LIKE WHEN HE FIGHTS BLUEHAIR-THIRDSON, HE EVEN SAYS, HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO BE FRIENDS WHEN YOU LITERALLY TRIED TO KILL ME? AND HE FUCKING DOES IT ANYWAY! BECAUSE HE'S PERFECT! FLAWLESS! A SAINT! It would be infinetely better and more realistic and more interesting if he held a grudge, but no, he just forgives?? When he's bullied, he JUST FORGIVES?? THIS AUTHOUR CLEARLY HAS NEVER FORGIVEN ANYONE FOR ANYTHING BEFORE BECAUSE IF THEY HAVE THEN YOU WILL KNOW, FORGIVING SOMEONE TAKES IMMENSE GOODWILL THAT OUR MC SOMEHOW HAS AN INFINITE SUPPLY OF?? Anyways if he has an infinite supply, then the supposed difficult choices he has to make are not at all difficult, and he has never truly faced any sory of dilemma whatsoever! insane.

anyways, I read this because I was bored up to chap.70 and it's garbage. 1 star. this star goes to Sharlene, our beloved tea girl who I like so much omg I bet she has all the tea. as a fellow tea- and garbage-eater, I stan this representation for us silly support characters. oops anyways it's garbage because the authour has no idea how to write. no idea how to write a story, no idea how to write a character, no idea how to write a world.
fuck. shit. I forgot about that, as an engineer with a physics background. all of the terms for magic are literally just borrowed from this world, with almost nonexistent changes. They literally call the thing responsible for mass the god particle, the name that they dubbed the higgs boson (subatomic ptle. thought to grant mass in Standard Model). photons, electricity, the use of finer divisions to simulate and predict behaviour, whole other can of worms but needless to say, borrowed from physics. Why bother with fantasy and magic if you aren't gonna make them do fantasy and magic things? I want physics defiance, not adherence! anyways to the guy who says the worldbuilding is good I recommend reading up on the history of modern physics. less romance, more worldbuilding. also better characters.

back to the conclusion, because I cant be bothered to rewrite this, since I spent more time thinking about this than the writer spent on the plot, wow. garbage. imma sleep now.

 

[r0ilg3n42]

Good manwha enjoyable to read finish in one sitting

 

[SonWukong101]

I don't know what type of drugs the creators sniffing but gah dam this MC be getting on my nerves.

Bro really a wussy being used like that by a girl who tried to strip brodie clean of cloths by street thugs.

 

[dheomaster]

"how many cliffhangers do you want author?"
"Infinite"

 

[elo98]

It is disturbing that many manga authors tend to create a bloodbath at some point.

It begins with a ok story and a lot chapters are enjoyable but then, does the autors get boored? Do they think the only possibility for a story to envolve is when there are people who murders others? What the fuck are they thinking? So this is another one that can be dropped. In this case at V2 Ch.68. I am disappointed, shame on you REDICE Studio.

 

[elo98]

The writing in this story is poor, ...garbage. imma sleep now.

I got frustrated too about that manga but your wall of flaming text is kind of sheesh.

 

[DefaultImaginati]

It begins with a ok story and a lot chapters are enjoyable but then, does the autors get boored?

Yeah, clear sign of author’s boredom, lack of interest and creativity, that they stretching scenes to infinity. Just think of it, from ch 70 to ch ~90 is a single scene with repeated images and boring dialogues.

 

[Brewplanet]

Look at that! Look at how long is that!

That one guy above He got mad from reading this and wrote the whole 100 pages thesis just to say this work is “trash” and rated it “1/10”

Isn’t it you that are trash? Haha

 

[Brewplanet]

Now now I want to write this since I see this thing again today, just look at only in MangaDex alone

why is it that every mangas or manhwas that got an average rating of 8-9 from 10k or 100k or even more people, but there will be that one guy who got mad and goes on and on about how trash it is and give it a trash 1/10 rating

Even if everyone rated it 10/10 but you give it 5/10 that’s still reasonable, (but normal people would question themself already) no one with the right brain will give it 1/10, (maybe if they’re retard)
Those mangas/manhwas artist, they work so hard to create the piece to make the reader enjoy yet there is a trash that maybe never touch the real manga book in their life come to read it online for free and say it’s a trash 1/10 😭

While people enjoy it but you’re not just not enjoy but dont like it to this point and unhappy, why waste your time, and to wrote it loooong like this one above, wow 🤣 your life must be miserable

PS.1 It’s funny, even after you gave it 1/10 still can only bring the average rating down to 8.96

PS.2 Wow I write this long, but even if I copy and paste this comment 26x times it’s still not even reach half of that thesis 🤣

 

[StreetPooper]

Filler manga 4/10
Boring characters, villains, plot-line
Listen to the above comments

 

[bluepeppers]

Can someone recommend some similar stories that are written better? I like the simple premise, but execution is quite lacking here.

 

[nowon]

Gotta say, this story is ticking all the right boxes for me. It doesn't feel like any scene is wasted and the author actually has a plan for how each arc will go. A good example is when those 3 follow the teacher and end up meeting that blind artist, as well as protecting her. It directly sets up a precedent for the next arc.

I'm also used to reading manhwa/manga where the magic system is shit. It's rare that people actually put effort into it. This one seems based on a mix of meditation and math/physics, a combo that allows for things to scale and still make sense. Its interesting. I recognised a few things from meditation that made it in, like the experience of having "yourself" dissapear. It's also just fun to read about physics as someone without a background in it. It's a system where going to school and studying actually makes sense, and they're not just learning made up magic circles or runes or whatever

That being said, not a perfect system. Shirone is quite op at this point. I'm not sure how they'll continue to scale things without it being detrimental to the previous "logic" of magic that's been set up (will all the characters just break that logic?) Seems like a story that might start off good and go haywire, but we got to ch 100 without any major issues so let's hope it goes well 🙏

Another place where this manhwa shines is the class system. So many stories gloss over this, having the butler or maid-type characters enjoy serving nobles being part of their personality, just a lazy way of writing. Having class be a burden for the protagonist that they have to juggle made the setting not just a physical backdrop but a part of each character's motivation. The way he doesn't really have to worry about it after entering magic school is its own kind of reward as well.

Once again though, there's some room for improvement. Shirone'a strengths and weaknesses due to his class are hashed out pretty early on. He trained in the mountains cutting trees & he wasn't educated when he was younger, so his omnipotence is high and omniscience is low. Despite this, it feels like his struggles at school mainly show up as test results without much bearing on the plot. I understand it's a fantasy story, but catching up after missing years of school isn't so easy that it's possible to get on the same level of the other students in under a year. It would be more interesting if he were a little dumber and did things on instinct more, then had to reverse-engineer it because that's a believable flaw

Speaking of believability, omg there's this one scene that completely took me out of it. Because all along I'm thinking this is a world without modern technology, but for a few panels in that 12am horror arc, one character is just using a modern-day microphone ??? Did the author forget the setting haha, only instance of that I found though

But yeah in general, nice and entertaining story. The comedy hits for me and it's got the type of characters I like. Feels like so many stories these days have morally corrupt characters everywhere, not even for any logical reason, just because it looks "cool". Which sometimes feel like its just creating needless drama to write about. I like how they break this trope and have the enemies from the previous arc enter the magic school and still hang around, it's fun. This manhwa kind of reminds me of the stories that are aimed at an audience that's a bit younger, in that things don't get too dark and most characters are morally good. I don't have a problem with characters having empathy, it's actually nice since it's relatable. But what I do have a problem with is that each character's moral compass being almost identical. I think only Arcane differs in that respect. In reality, people aren't gonna be bought to tears over the same stuff. Some people really don't care or find it a huge effort to care about other people. But this approach makes for some heart-warming scenes, so eh. 8/10 stars. Better than most.

 

[Mage83639374783774]

Its good can't wait for new chapter👍

 

[Mage83639374783774]

I am trying so hard to like this but the Hallmark friendship, family and romance clichés, over exaggerated of noble are evil, misuse their power, looking down and act like shit while commoners are just no value disposal life is just turning me off it. The discrimination towards commoner is horrible.

Dude it was exactly Like this in the past If you where a commonore you where garbage