Is Starting Over as a Tree Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manhua, 510 chapters
Run	2022–present · ongoing
Community score	AniList 7.2 · MangaUpdates 7.2
Content	Violence, war and death of named characters
Where to read	Tappytoon — official

Overview

One moment he's drowning; the next, he's rooted in a canyon as a willow tree. Before he can process that, the world itself starts changing — spirit energy returns, and every living thing around him begins to mutate into something stranger and more dangerous. His one advantage is an ability to evolve without limit, which turns survival into a long, strange climb away from anything resembling his old, human self.

What it does well

The premise alone sets this apart from the usual reincarnated-in-another-body story. Being a tree removes the easy outs a human or beast protagonist would have, and forces the story to get creative about how growth, combat, and identity work when your starting point is a plant rooted to one spot. The evolution system gives the early chapters a real sense of discovery, each new ability feels earned rather than handed out.

Where the story really finds its footing, though, is the cast the protagonist builds around himself. Instead of treating the various monsters and animals he recruits as disposable stat sticks, the writer gives them backstories, grudges, and losses that land emotionally — readers who stick around consistently point to specific side characters as the reason they kept reading past the slower stretches. The story's whole angle, that the 'monsters' are the sympathetic ones and humanity is the more complicated threat, gives fights real stakes instead of just bigger numbers.

The art keeps pace with all of this. Full-color panels make an increasingly bizarre cast of mutated creatures easy to read even during chaotic fight scenes, which matters a lot once the cast size grows.

Where it falls short

The story's biggest structural problem is consistency. The evolution system that makes the early chapters so satisfying starts to wobble under its own rules later on — stat totals and upgrades don't always track with what earlier chapters established, which undercuts the sense that this is a carefully tracked power system rather than whatever the plot needs that chapter.

A major war arc is the clearest example of the series overstaying its welcome: it stretches for far more chapters than its actual plot needs, repeating the same betrayal-then-pyrrhic-victory shape more than once. And the comic relief, mostly built around ogling female characters, sits awkwardly next to the story's more serious, thoughtful moments — it reads like a habit from a different, lighter story that never got cut.

Verdict

As a spin on the reincarnated-as-something-inhuman genre, this is one of the more inventive entries out there, with a cast that earns real investment. It just needs a firmer editorial hand on its pacing and its power-system logic to be as consistently good as its best chapters.