Is Honkai Impact 3rd: Second Eruption Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read
Quick Answer
If you've played Honkai Impact 3rd and remember the Second Eruption arc fondly, this is a faithful enough comic version of it. If you haven't, it's a competent sci-fi action tie-in that mostly works on its own, though you're reading it as licensed content from a mobile game rather than an original comic.
Quick Verdict
“This earns its tragedy honestly instead of just borrowing the game's reputation for it, which is more than most game tie-ins manage. Go in knowing it's still a tie-in, with everything that implies about pacing built around an existing story rather than a comic-native one.”
Best for: Readers who want a game-adaptation action comic that treats its source material's emotional stakes seriously instead of phoning them in.
Not for: Readers who want a story built from the ground up as a comic, or who need a generation's worth of game lore before anything makes sense.
- Type
- Manhua
- Genres
- Sci-Fi, Action
- Status
- Completed
- This review
- Minor Spoilers
- Author
- miHoYo Comics
- Publisher
- Tokyopop
- Platform
- BookWalker (Tokyopop)
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manhua, 66 chapters, 6 volumes |
| Run | 2019–2019 · completed |
| Community score | AniList 8.0 |
| Content | Violence, tragedy |
| Where to read | BookWalker (Tokyopop) — official |
Overview
February 2000: every single staff member at Babylon Labs disappears in one night, no bodies, no explanation. Overseer Otto of the organization Schicksal sends a task force to investigate, expecting a contained incident. What they find instead is a presence tied to the Honkai, the setting's recurring source of catastrophe, and a far bigger threat in Sirin, a godlike being pursuing her own revenge. Schicksal ends up forced into an uneasy alliance with its usual rival faction, Anti-Entropy, because neither side can handle what's coming alone. Second Eruption is a manhua adaptation of one of Honkai Impact 3rd's most well-regarded story arcs, and it's a complete, self-contained action drama even if you've never touched the mobile game it's based on.
What it does well
The setup does real work before the fighting starts. A lab going silent overnight is a small, specific mystery, and the comic takes its time letting that mystery widen into something with actual global stakes instead of rushing to the next big fight scene. The forced alliance between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy gives the story's later chapters a second layer of tension on top of the main threat: these are two factions that don't trust each other, thrown together because the alternative is losing, and that friction carries scenes that would otherwise just be setup for action beats. The comic also earns its tragic moments rather than coasting on the fact that this arc already has a reputation among players of the source game. Characters make sacrifices that land because the story built toward them, not because you're assumed to already care from outside knowledge. And unlike a lot of licensed tie-in comics that get quietly discontinued mid-run, this one is a finished, complete story, so there's no risk of picking it up and hitting a wall partway through.
Where it falls short
The honest caveat with any game tie-in applies here: some of the worldbuilding leans on shorthand that assumes you already know roughly how this setting works, what Schicksal and Anti-Entropy are, what the Honkai actually is on a conceptual level, and the comic doesn't always stop to re-explain it for readers coming in cold. It mostly holds together without that context, but a little friction is there. The English release is also recent enough that there isn't much independent reader discussion to weigh against your own impression, so you're relying more on this review and less on a broader critical consensus than usual. And with an ensemble this size, a few characters inevitably get less room to breathe than the two or three actually driving the plot, which is a familiar cost of compressing a larger property's lore into a contained arc.
Verdict
Second Eruption is a stronger-than-expected game tie-in: a mystery that escalates honestly, an alliance that generates its own tension, and tragedy that the story actually earns rather than imports from the source material's reputation. It still reads like what it is, licensed content adapting an existing arc rather than a comic built from the ground up, but it clears that bar more cleanly than most.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- The setup, every researcher at a secretive lab vanishing overnight, is a strong, simple hook that escalates believably into a global-stakes conflict instead of jumping straight to spectacle.
- Two rival factions being forced into an uneasy alliance against a bigger threat gives the action real tension beyond just good guys fighting a monster.
- The comic treats its tragedy as earned rather than borrowed, which matters for an adaptation, since it would have been easy to just coast on the source game's existing reputation for this arc.
- It's a complete, finished story at roughly 65 chapters, so you're not left waiting on an adaptation that might get dropped partway through.
Weaknesses
- This is still fundamentally a tie-in to a mobile game's lore, and some of the worldbuilding shorthand (factions, ranks, the nature of the Honkai threat itself) leans on assumed familiarity more than a comic built from scratch would.
- Independent reader discussion of the English release is thin so far, so you're going in with less of a critical consensus to lean on than most of the titles we cover.
- The ensemble cast approach means some characters get far less development than the two or three carrying the main plot, which is a common cost of adapting an arc built for a much longer-running property.
Similar Titles
Another ensemble action series built around a small group facing escalating supernatural threats.
Shares the faction-politics-under-pressure structure, in a very different setting.
Where to Read Officially
| Platform | Format | Pricing | Region notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BookWalker (Tokyopop) | Print & digital volumes | Paid | Region availability varies | Open |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have played Honkai Impact 3rd to read this?
No, but it helps. The comic explains its own plot, but some of the worldbuilding around factions and powers assumes a baseline familiarity the game provides and the comic doesn't fully re-teach.
Is this connected to Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail?
It's from the same studio, miHoYo, and shares some lore DNA, but Second Eruption is specifically a Honkai Impact 3rd story. You don't need either other game to follow it.
Is Honkai Impact 3rd: Second Eruption finished?
Yes. It's a completed story at around 65 chapters, officially licensed in English across two paid digital volumes plus a print edition.
