Trace, The darker Boku no Hero Academia (Manwha Spoilers)

Boku no Hero Academia (or My Hero Academia in english) has been for quite a while now, getting attention left and right.  In MHA, you follow Midoriya Izuku, a boy without a power in a world of super powers, who wants to become the greatest hero that’ll ever live.  It follows his adventure in a society where people with powers are common place, and being a super hero is an actual job.

Randomly I suddenly remembered a Korean Manwha that followed people getting powers.  I started reading the story approximately 9 years ago and finished it in 2010.  The story was simply called Trace and it lasted for a mere 7 volumes.  Now at this point, I’ll put to your attention that this is simply for Trace.  Trace has gotten 2 sequels that I know of:  Trace 1.5 and Trace 2.0, but since I haven’t read either of them, they wont be included in this review.

In Trace, other than the normal species, there are two more… Troubles and Traces.  Troubles are monsters that can have a variety of look who seem to kill for no reason at all.  Traces are humans with super powers who fight these Troubles.  It’s not like they do it for good however, but it’s just their innate instinct.  They see a Trouble, and they kill it…  to them it’s the same thing as turning on the light switch in a dark room.  That said, Traces aren’t looked up to at all, most Traces use their powers to commit crimes.  Most Traces are looked down upon, and are sent to special “Trace” areas where they are only really used to kill Troubles.  Rather than as people, many look at Traces as monsters.

Trace follows the story of three protagonists.  Sa Ghang-Gwon is born with the Trace ability to manipulate Ice, and while he was young he accidentally almost killed his parents since he couldn’t control his power yet.  Just like that, his parents abandoned him and he grew up on the street, losing his emotions.  As if it was by luck, he was found unconscious by a girl of the same age, Han Tae Eun, who manages to convince her single father to adopt the young boy.  Feeling warmth, he hides his powers and appears humans, yet follows his instincts to kill Troubles whenever they appear on the pretext of keeping his new family safe.

Then we have the story of Kim Yun-Seong, a middle aged man with a perfect life: A high paying job, a beautiful loving wife and a cute daughter.  One day, he collapses and finds out his legs are mutating, he had become a Trace.  He tries to hide his powers the best that he could to live a normal life but it didn’t matter…  and his family was forcibly taken away from him.

The final protagonist is Morrienoah Jin, a hit man trace with the ability to shoot out of his fingers.  Just like always, he got a job, but this job wasn’t a hit job… it was a body guard job.  He refused it but the woman, Jang-mi Rose, insisted.  He ended up taking the job, and slowly fell in love with the woman.  After killing the killer however, she commited suicide in front of his eyes.  It turns out that he killed her father a long time ago, so she swore revenge by having him fall in love with her… then taking that love away.

Even though there are three protagonists, there are essentially only two stories – Sa Ghang-Gwon who deals with the trouble of identifying as a Trace and Kim Yun-Seong’s and Jin’s story, a criminal group that is otherwise known as the “Beggar Team.”  With two of the main characters in one story, it’s obvious to know that we deal with the “Beggar Team” more than we do with Sa Ghang-Gwon.  I actually have no complaint about this though since the Beggar Team has a much more interesting plot, following the route of a villain rather than a hero.

Unlike MHA where people with powers are glorified, Traces are looked upon as freaks and have been for the past 30 years, even when their humanities only hope to fight against Troubles.  Instead of focusing on how amazing it’d be if humans suddenly got super powers over night, it shows a much more darker story, where people are killed and the “heroes” that protect them are simply just another evil.

I remember being really attached reading this, and after my quick little reread, my heart was torn.  The writing in the beginning isn’t very good at first, but the quality of it improves over time.  Really, I remember trying to get into Trace 1.5 and just couldn’t get into the story, but after rereading it again I’d like to give it another go.  When that time comes, maybe I’ll be making another post about it, who knows?