As you turn the page of your book bright flashes of color fill your eyes as you continue on with your manga. On the other side of the room your friend is reading the same book, but it’s the webnovel version, no colors, no pictures, only your imagination. In my opinion manga is far better than the web novel.

Manga, in the most simple definition, are Japanese graphic novels that range in art style and genre. However with the rise of the internet a great deal of these mangas are making their way online, along with their origins. Many manga tend to come from light novels, similar to how anime tends to come from manga once they get popular.

A more recent manga that has made its way online is “The Weakest Tamer Began A Journey To Pick Up Trash.” It is still ongoing with the latest release being released on Dec. 23. It’s currently at issue number 11 or 6.1 according to the site I use where the webnovel it is based on is at issue 54 having been posted on Jan. 6 2021. 

Comparing the two the eleven chapters of the manga are a compressed version of chapters one to 41 However there are things missing between the two. The main difference between the two is how they handle the sub genre. It mentions a past life of some form, most likely a reference to the rather popular genre of manga, isekai, characterized by a person dying and coming back to life in a new body and a new world or being dragged into a new world. Notable examples include “That Time I Reincarnated as a Slime,” “Konosuba,” and “Shield Hero” are rather popular examples of this genre.

I have personally watched all of these, and while I would say they are interesting watches, they also tackle heavy subjects ranging from false rape accusations, to slavery, to some truly strange characters that may turn you away from the show.

However,“The Weakest Tamer” is a story that tackles the hard issue of being considered worthless to a world of magic and myth, with the main character being described as evil. Within the world there is magic, and each person at the age of five goes to a temple to receive the measure of their magical power. The rating is out of three stars, the higher the number of stars the more proficient you are with your give job.

When the main character, Tamer, is taken to measure her abilities, she was found to be starless, or abandoned by the gods. As a starless person she was seen as evil, abandoned by the gods, something to be cast out. And so she is.

All of this occurs in the first episode of the manga, or the first four episodes of the web novel. Comparing the two I would argue that the manga is better. It compresses down the information, cutting out extra details, and it shows things that might be difficult to understand when put in a text format. In my opinion it the manga is better than the light novel, with pictures able to convey a slightly better example of what is going on during critical plot points, though for the version I read it was mostly in black in white.

In my opinion if you want something fun to read that’s not about an overpowered character plowing through waves of faceless enemies and villains of the week then this is a manga for you.