I did not know what to expect when I began reading this, and it was for the best: I enjoyed the suspense, and really thought it ended too soon.
This is a story whose mythos unfolds as it proceeds. At the beginning we don't know much about the characters or the setup, but as we gradually get to accompany Yuva in his steps closer and closer to the dreaded creature that has kidnapped the princess, we discover interesting details about the characters and the world.
I am looking forward to volume 2!

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for allowing me to read this manga for free.

Volume 1 was actually not bad and it looks to be a good buildup of what the dragon tower is going to be about, especially our character leveling up. However I wish this was a full manga rather be broken into volumes as the splitting of chapters doesn’t really suit this kind of story personally.

Tower Dungeon presents an intriguing premise: a grand adventure into a sprawling dungeon filled with monstrous encounters, all brought to life with solid artwork and cool monster designs. The visual aspect is undeniably a strength, drawing readers into its medieval world.

However, where Tower Dungeon falls short is in its execution. The narrative feels rushed, lacking the impactful moments that could elevate it beyond a simple adventure. The pacing is so swift that it often detracts from any sense of grand scale or significant peril.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle is the main character, who is, to put it plainly, quite boring. Despite the exciting premise, the protagonist fails to leave a lasting impression or generate much reader investment. This lack of a compelling central figure further diminishes the story's overall impact.

Ultimately, Tower Dungeon serves as a serviceable medieval fantasy, offering a quick read for those seeking a straightforward dungeon-crawling experience. Yet, due to its rapid-fire pacing and uninspired lead, it's unlikely to be a story I'd revisit.

-adventure, monsters

So I would say 2.5/3 stars, maybe give volume 2 a go, but honestly this volume did not draw me in like I thought it would. The art is similar to other adventure type series. I feel like it moves quickly and personally just feels like it is supposed to summarize what was happening. Get a glimpse of some of the creatures their fighting, but maybe a page of it then keeps moving. Not much to really connect/ character development based on volume one so far.

Each village ha to send someone to the Tower to fight. Yuva is a farmer who goes to the Tower to help rescue the princess. They work their way up the tower to defeat monsters and assuming eventually get to the princess.

Tower Dungeon is Tsutomu Nihei's new series. It's just as dark and oddly distant as his other ones, which makes this interesting too. A necromancer has killed the king and carried his daughter to a tower called the Dungeon Tower. The princess needs to be saved and the guard needs people to help them. Thus Yuva comes to help. He's a farm boy with no battle experience, but that doesn't stop him. The tower is full of horrors of course. There's something with climbing when it comes to Nihei. It's always endless stairs or such upwards and the looming darkness. The manga has little in it, Nihei moves the story with atmosphere and slow minimalism and that's surely his forte. It's too early to say anything about the plot and the characters are distant, but that again is something very Nihei-like.

The art is crude, simple and lifeless, which I like. With Nihei, you always know what you get - it's not for everyone of course, but I like the distinguished style. The stories are always philosophical too and cryptic and this isn't an exception. It's too early to say anything more, since this can go anywhere.

Tower Dungeon is a fun fantasy manga that will be a hit for fans of ‘dungeon crawlers’ and games like Dungeons and Dragons. Following the trope of rescuing the Princess there is a nice balance of action, humour and fantasy hijinx to keep readers entertained. The art style, I found, had a bit of a nostalgic feel which I really enjoyed and the pacing was good, keeping me hooked til the end. A must read to fans of fantasy manga.
As always thank you to Kodansha Comics for the advanced copy to review, my reviews are always honest and freely given.
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Tower Dungeon 1 follows the story of Yuva, a farmer boy who is recruited by an order of knights who are trying to save the kingdom's princess from some sort of beast in a tower. As cliche as it may sound, it has some interesting twists and elements, like the 'levels' they go through, where they encounter different monsters until they reach the main one. The art is beautiful, the characters decent. I'm looking forward for the future volumes.

Tsutomu Nihei's latest English release is a fantasy manga that takes the common trope of rescuing the princess from the monster dungeon, but does it in a refreshing way. The simple black and white artwork contains a lot of information, and is worth reading slowly to fully absorb the atmosphere. The creature designs are really freaky, and the characters' personalities are thrown at us, but then slowly introduced to us through their actions. This was a fun read that fantasy action fans would enjoy.

Tower Dungeon 1 is an interesting opportunity to get to know Tsutomu Nihei through a story that departs a bit from the contexts he usually presents. A medieval atmosphere welcomes and soon disturbing creatures make their entrance. Nihei's art is fabulous, as always.
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for this advanced reader's copy.

It is a simple but pleasant read. Story is about a Princess that is taken as a hostage in the Tower Dungeon. A cast, including MC Yuva, is gathering to climb the tower and rescue the princess. Essentially it is following video game approach with characters climbing the levels up and defeating monsters.
The art is undeniably superb. Author shows amazing skills in all areas, perspective, backgrounds, dynamic characters, anatomy. Definitely something to be appreciated and to have a look at. Monster designs are definitely unique too.
Story wise it works, but so far with volume 1 it is a short read so there was no much time to get to know more about the characters and have reader to relate to anything that was going on. Also at times there was some unnecessary sexualization of female characters.
Therefore giving it 3 stars. Recommended if you are into dungeon like stories. If no then I would not consider it as a must-read.
Thank you to the Kodansha and Netgalley for digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

2.25/5
Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a take on a classic adventure story: an ordinary man has to climb to the top of an impossibly high tower, fighting monsters along the way, in order to rescue a captured princess. However, this unfortunately fell a bit flat for me.

What I liked:
- I really enjoyed the art style overall. It’s legible and I like the character designs.
- The monsters all look so cool. I could see this series having an art book with all of the monsters and it would be amazing.
- I liked the protagonist. He is professionally just some guy who’s along for the ride.
What I didn’t like:
- The plot moves so fast that there’s never any time to build suspense or get attached to characters. I genuinely don’t think I could name a single character other than the protagonist.
- This kind of feels like a manga adaptation of a novel or movie to me. It almost seems like the author expects us to already know what’s happening so instead of giving us any context, world building, or character growth, we skip to all of the dramatic action moments.

Tower Dungeon vol. 1 by Tsutomu nihei is a wonderful fantasy manga. The art in tower dungeon is wonderful aswell as the writing. Throughout reading this book I found myself looking ahead just so I could see what happened next. This book as twists and turns but it’s never a dull moment. I would rate Tower dungeon by Tsutomu nihei a 4/5 stars. This book is perfect for lovers of manga with a dark fantasy element.

This story feels like it has potential to be very good, but this first volume didn't really give me enough to get particularly invested in the plot or the characters. With how quick of a read it is, I would be interested to read volume 2 to see if that gets me invested. I think Yuva has potential to be a character I love, but I just don't know anything about him yet. I also don't fully understand the plot yet. I know they're trying to save the princess, but I don't understand how this tower or the creatures inside it work. I thought this would be more like a litrpg, but its really not that so far.

Thank you to the Kodansha Comics for access to a digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

I was originally drawn to this title because of the art style. At times, it looks like rough sketches which I think is so cool The scale of the architecture is massive, the world building is interesting, and the main character, so far, is pretty likable. We have some nudity from women characters that feels a little unnecessary, at least for Lilicen, I plan on picking up volume 2.
I would say this is for people who would like it if Delicious in Dungeon had a broodier, darker tone. 3.5 stars

I'm very on the fence about this one. I thought the art was really interesting and the premise of the story was really cool. However, there is something about this one that gives me pause. I'm super hesitant about this one, I definitely want to wait and see about the next volume before I truly have a concrete opinion.

Good art, an interesting premise, great character and creature designs, the architecture is insane, and i’m already loving the main character. The female characters seem promising to but they were also the only characters to be depicted basically naked :(…. I hate it when they do that.
It is just the first volume so there is just enough to get you interested in it. There’s not much substance on the characters yet, but it does look promising.

Thank you Net Galley and Kodansha for the eARC.

The magic design and the art style are very alluring in this title.
I was getting a darker version of Delicious in Dungeon with a little bit of Ghibli vibes, until the witch flashed us which I thought was very unnecessary. The fact that i feel like a lot is missing while I read, also hinders the story. I'm on the fence if I'd continue or not.

I've seen this manga floating around online for a while now (especially the cool volume 3 dragon cover caught my attention), and I was always disappointed that I wasn't able to read it without an official English or German release. But my sad days are over now, thanks to the English publisher Kodansha! It's a new series by the well-known mangaka Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!, Knights of Sidonia), but ultimately the first one that I'm checking out. The dungeon-crawling theme sounded right up my alley, but in the end it was a bit different from what I expected. The story is about a princess locked up in a tower full of monsters and the people that are sent to save her. There are soldiers and mages, and the main character and farmer boy Yuva is also there, I guess. They enter the tower, fight monsters and look for the missing princess. It's a fast story and not at all about exploring the dungeon level by level. They march up to the 50th floor very quickly where a new challenge awaits. Not that much has happened in this first volume, but I can't say that I disliked it. The characters were only ok so far, though. I don't really have an opinion on Yuva, but the female characters seem interesting. There's the military captain Minsabelle and the mage Lilicen, and I would like to learn more about them. But they were also very noticeably the only two characters that were depicted almost naked at times ... sigh. The art isn't my personal favorite either, but it works well with the architecture of the dungeon and with the gross monsters. All in all, I feel like this was really only the beginning of a story that could turn out to be very much to my liking. Volume 1 only covers the first two chapters so there is much more to come, and I see a lot of potential in this series. 3.5 stars.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.

Yuva is a young farmer who happens to be very, very strong. Because of that he's chosen to to his village's sacrifice -- sent to help the Royal Guard in their efforts to rescue a princess from a floating tower 100 floors tall. There are politics, magic, fights, exploration, all the things you'd expect. The dungeon design is interesting and the monsters inside range from slime monsters to the undead, and -- of course -- a dragon.

It's a quick read, albeit one that ends on a cliffhanger. However, it's very one note with little time given to the characters themselves and more to the action scenes. There's a lot of personality and world building done just through the art, and I think this is a worthwhile read if you like dungeon exploration books, I just wanted the pace to slow down and give me a bit more time to get to know Yuva and the other knights, to get an idea of how politics and magic worked in this world.

Still, I'll be looking for volume 2. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!