TL;DR: The Breaker character guide, AniList-verified: Shi-Woon Yi carries Part 1 and New Waves as the sole confirmed protagonist, Chun-Woo Han trains him, and Eternal Force's actual lead is a new character, Ha-Je Kang, not Shi-Woon.
Reviewing
The Breaker
Search "The Breaker characters" and the results split between a decade-old Fandom wiki and forum threads still arguing over romanization. None of them flag the detail that matters most for anyone catching up on the story right now: Eternal Force swapped its lead.
The The Breaker review covers whether the fight craft and the master-student arc earn its 8.0/10 verdict. The The Breaker reading guide covers where to start and how the chapter numbering resets across three separately published parts.
This guide does neither job. It puts a verified name, a verified relationship, and a verified arc next to every major face across all three parts, checked against AniList's character database and Wikipedia's sourced plot summary instead of assembled from memory.
Key Takeaways
- Shi-Woon Yi is the confirmed protagonist of Part 1 (72 chapters) and New Waves (203 chapters), the only character AniList bills as MAIN cast on both entries.
- Chun-Woo Han, styled Goomoonryong ("Nine Arts Dragon") on AniList, trains Shi-Woon in Part 1 and recurs as a supporting figure through New Waves and Eternal Force.
- Eternal Force's actual protagonist is Ha-Je Kang, a character AniList hasn't profiled yet; WEBTOON's own synopsis confirms Shi-Woon appears in that arc as the mentor, credited there as Si-Un Lee.
- Sera Kang and Jin-le Kwon join as Shi-Woon's core allies in New Waves, alongside the Sunwoo Clan leadership he inherits and then declines to formally claim.
- Kang-Sung (Sam-Mun-Ryong, the Three Arts Dragon) is the one named antagonist confirmed recurring across all three AniList entries, ending Part 1 as the new Alliance Head.
- Every name below traces to AniList media IDs 38586, 52651, and 148677, cross-checked against Wikipedia's sourced plot summary.
Overview
The Breaker's cast is scattered across three separate AniList entries because the story itself is scattered across three separately published works: Part 1 (2007 to 2010, 72 chapters), New Waves (2010 to 2015, 203 chapters), and Eternal Force (2022 to present, currently on hiatus at 100 released chapters). Reader confusion starts exactly there. A name that's a lead in one entry can be a supporting credit two entries later, and Eternal Force adds a wrinkle none of the site's existing coverage explains clearly: the third arc isn't Shi-Woon's story anymore.
This guide covers every character AniList confirms by name across the three entries, organized by which part of the story they belong to rather than an alphabetical wiki dump. It skips the handful of minor names AniList's character database hasn't populated with role tags yet. Readers new to the murim setting, the hidden martial-arts-society premise this whole cast operates inside, should check What Is Murim Manhwa, Explained first, since the relationships below assume some familiarity with terms like ki, sect, and clan.
The Breaker Character Guide: Shi-Woon Yi Across Three Arcs
Shi-Woon Yi, credited on AniList's structured name field as Shi-Woon Yi and also as Shioon in supporting bios, is the only character AniList bills as MAIN cast in both Part 1 and New Waves. He starts the story as a bullied Seoul high schooler with no martial arts background at all. Wikipedia's sourced plot summary is specific about the entry point: Shi-Woon asks his new teacher to train him specifically to solve his bullying problem, not out of any grander ambition.
That request is the whole engine of Part 1. Chun-Woo Han trains him for roughly a month before a mission forces his hand. By the arc's end, Chun-Woo publicly renounces Shi-Woon as his student and destroys his Qi center, the internal energy channel every murim technique runs through. He does it specifically to pull Shi-Woon out of Murim jurisdiction and the retaliation that would otherwise follow. It reads as a rescue disguised as an ending. Shi-Woon closes Part 1 with a crippled Qi center and, without knowing it yet, a new title: So-Sul Woo, head of the Sunwoo Clan, names him her successor before the arc is done.
New Waves opens on that inheritance. Shi-Woon has declined the Sunwoo Clan leadership rather than formally claim it, and a real stretch of the 203-chapter arc is spent on Sera Kang restoring his destroyed Qi center so he can fight again. AniList still bills him MAIN cast here, alongside Sera Kang, Jin-le Kwon, and Un-Wol.
Eternal Force is where the naming convention breaks for anyone skimming AniList's character page. Shi-Woon is still listed, but not as the lead; that role now belongs to a character the database hasn't fully caught up on yet. That shift gets its own section below, because it's the single fact competing coverage of this series gets wrong most often.
Chun-Woo Han and Un-Wol: the Debt That Starts Everything
Chun-Woo Han, listed on AniList as Chun-U Han with the alternates Han Chun-Woo and the title Goomoonryong, is the reason Part 1 has stakes at all. Wikipedia's plot summary traces his motivation to a specific event: Chun-Woo won a Murim tournament and earned the title Nine Arts Dragon, and the Martial Arts Alliance had his own teacher killed out of spite for that win.
Un-Wol, listed on AniList by that same name, is dead before Part 1's present-day timeline starts, but AniList still bills him MAIN cast in both Part 1 and New Waves, which tracks with how much flashback weight the series gives his death. It's the engine behind everything Chun-Woo does next: he joins the Black Forest Defense Group, an anti-government faction opposing the Alliance, specifically to avenge him. AniList downgrades Un-Wol to a background credit in Eternal Force, consistent with a legacy character whose direct plot relevance fades once the story moves past the generation he trained.
Chun-Woo's Seoul mission is what puts him in Shi-Woon's school, and Wikipedia's summary is clear the two meet for reasons that have nothing to do with Shi-Woon personally. Chun-Woo is there to free So-Sul Woo, head of the Sunwoo Clan, from Alliance captivity. Shi-Ho Lee, credited on AniList as a Part 1 MAIN-cast character and, per Wikipedia, an assassin from a rival school by trade and Chun-Woo's love interest, is killed by the Alliance during Part 1. That loss compounds the reason Chun-Woo carries into New Waves.
Chun-Woo Han (left) and Un-Wol (right), the master whose death sets Chun-Woo's entire arc in motion. Portraits via AniList.
For where The Breaker's cast and premise sit against the rest of the murim genre's biggest series. .
Best Murim Manhwa 2026 →
New Waves: Sera Kang, Jin-le Kwon, and the Sunwoo Clan Shi-Woon Inherits
New Waves is the arc where AniList's character list roughly triples in size, and Sera Kang is the clearest new addition. She becomes head of the Mil-Yang Clan after Chun-Woo kills her grandfather during Part 1's events, and Wikipedia's summary credits her with orchestrating a plan that both reinforces her own standing and, as a consequence, restores Shi-Woon's destroyed Qi center. AniList bills her MAIN cast through both New Waves and Eternal Force.
Jin-le Kwon, whose AniList name transliterates elsewhere as Jini Kwon, is the granddaughter of a Sunwoo Clan elder and becomes Shi-Woon's bodyguard for the arc. Wikipedia notes she grows genuinely attached to him over the course of that assignment, not just professionally invested in his safety. Both women are confirmed MAIN cast on AniList's New Waves entry, alongside Shi-Woon and Un-Wol.
The Sunwoo Clan itself gets deeper coverage in New Waves too. Jeon Jang-Il, credited on AniList with the nickname Crazy Tiger, is a clan elder who, per Wikipedia, sacrifices himself protecting Shi-Woon during a fight against the arc's antagonist organization. Ha-ill Gang is confirmed on AniList as a recurring Sunwoo Clan member across both New Waves and Eternal Force. For readers weighing whether to start here or elsewhere in the genre, Manhwa Like The Breaker ranks eight picks by how closely they match this specific modern-murim, master-student combination.
Sera Kang (left) and Jin-le Kwon (right), Shi-Woon's two closest allies once New Waves begins. Portraits via AniList.
The Breaker Character Guide: Eternal Force's New Protagonist, Ha-Je Kang
Here is the detail that separates this guide from every other English-language source currently covering The Breaker. AniList's official synopsis text for Eternal Force, sourced directly from WEBTOON, opens like this: "Ha-Je Kang can't take it anymore. Pushed to the breaking point by relentless bullying, Ha-Je stands at the edge of the school roof, ready to end it all."
He's stopped by a mysterious upperclassman, Si-Un Lee, who turns out to be one of the most powerful martial artists in the Murim. Ha-Je begs Si-Un to train him.
Si-Un Lee is Shi-Woon Yi under Eternal Force's romanization of his name. AniList's character database still lists Shi-Woon under his established structured name and has not yet added a separate profile entry for Ha-Je Kang, which is exactly why so much casual coverage, including some of this site's own earlier articles, still describes Eternal Force as a continuation of Shi-Woon's personal arc.
It isn't. It's a new coming-of-age story that reuses the exact shape of Part 1: a bullied student pulled into the Murim by a senior with a hidden past, except every role has shifted one generation forward. Shi-Woon is the powerful mentor now. Ha-Je is the one learning to fight.
That structure matters for how you should read the 100 chapters currently available. Expect Ha-Je Kang's bullying, his rooftop moment, and his early training to carry the same weight Shi-Woon's introduction did in Part 1's opening chapters. Expect Shi-Woon, Chun-Woo Han, and the rest of the returning cast to function the way Un-Wol functioned in the original. They're present and consequential, but they're no longer the characters whose growth the story is actually tracking chapter to chapter.
Recurring Rivals and Antagonists Across All Three Arcs
Kang-Sung is the one antagonist AniList confirms recurring across all three entries by name. Credited with the alternate title Sam-Mun-Ryong, the Three Arts Dragon, Wikipedia notes he stopped at that rank specifically out of respect for the Alliance chain of command, then becomes the new Alliance Head once Part 1's events remove his predecessor. That promotion is what keeps him relevant through New Waves and into Eternal Force.
Ji-Gum Yoo, listed on AniList with the epithets Smiling Blade and Blade Star, is a New Waves addition. Wikipedia describes him as a sword prodigy who transfers into Shi-Woon's school as part of Sera Kang's plan and ends up fighting Shi-Woon on her behalf, later turning his own attention toward destroying the arc's antagonist organization for reasons the story keeps deliberately vague. Tae-shin, credited on AniList with the nickname Immovable Steel Wall, is confirmed recurring across New Waves and Eternal Force, though AniList's bio for him is thin enough that this guide won't invent backstory it can't verify.
Mun-Gi, credited on AniList under the structured name Mun-Gi Man and identified by Wikipedia as the Torrent Clan leader nicknamed the Northern Black Star, starts Part 1 allied with the Alliance before switching loyalty. When Shi-Woon spares his life instead of letting Chun-Woo kill him, Mun-Gi swears loyalty to Shi-Woon on the spot, a debt that carries him into a recurring supporting role in Eternal Force.
For a cast built around the same sect-and-clan-rivalry skeleton as The Breaker's, worth comparing rival to rival. .
Return of the Blossoming Blade Character Guide →
Step-by-Step
Here's roughly the order this cast enters the story, useful for lining a name up against wherever you currently are in the run.
- Shi-Woon Yi and Chun-Woo Han, introduced together in Part 1's opening chapters as student and reluctant teacher.
- Un-Wol and the Martial Arts Alliance, established through backstory as the reason Chun-Woo is on his current mission at all.
- Shi-Ho Lee and So-Sul Woo, entering across Part 1's middle stretch as Chun-Woo's love interest and the Sunwoo Clan leader he's sent to free.
- Kang-Sung, confirmed as the new Alliance Head once Part 1 resolves, carrying forward as the series' most consistent antagonist.
- Sera Kang and Jin-le Kwon, joining early in New Waves as Shi-Woon's new allies and the reason his Qi center gets repaired.
- Jeon Jang-Il, Ha-ill Gang, Ji-Gum Yoo, and Tae-shin, filling out New Waves' expanded Sunwoo Clan and rival cast across its 203 chapters.
- Ha-Je Kang, introduced in Eternal Force as the arc's actual protagonist, with Shi-Woon (as Si-Un Lee) now occupying the mentor role.
That order tracks the manhwa's own pacing rather than a wiki's alphabetical listing, since several of these names only make sense once you know which arc introduced them.
Common Character Mix-Ups
A handful of names in this cast get flattened or misread in fast recaps, and separating them out directly saves confusion later.
Shi-Woon Yi and Si-Un Lee are the same person under Eternal Force's romanization. AniList's structured field for the character still uses the original spelling; the WEBTOON synopsis for the third arc uses the alternate. Neither is wrong, but conflating them is exactly how a reader ends up assuming Eternal Force still follows the original protagonist.
Chun-Woo Han and Goomoonryong are also the same person. Goomoonryong is a title, Nine Arts Dragon, earned by winning a Murim tournament, not a separate character's name. AniList lists it as an alternate under Chun-U Han's own character entry.
Ha-Je Kang and Shi-Woon Yi are not the same person and do not share a role. Ha-Je is the bullied student of Eternal Force; Shi-Woon fills the powerful-senior role that Chun-Woo held in Part 1. Recap coverage that treats Eternal Force as "Shi-Woon's story continuing" is describing a character function, not the actual named protagonist.
Mun-Gi Man and Mungi Ma likely reflect a family-name and given-name ordering swap between AniList's structured field and Wikipedia's romanization, not two different people. Both sources agree on the Torrent Clan and the Northern Black Star title.
Tips for Tracking This Cast Across Three Story Parts
Track allegiance before you track power level. Kang-Sung's jump from Three Arts Dragon to Alliance Head only makes sense if you're following who answers to whom, not just who wins which fight. The same goes for Mun-Gi's loyalty switch: it's a debt, not a power calculation.
Don't assume a MAIN-cast credit on AniList means "still the protagonist." Un-Wol carries a MAIN credit in two of the three entries despite being dead before the story's present timeline even opens, because his flashback presence outweighs his screen time in the current arc. Read the credit as "narratively load-bearing," not as a guarantee of who the camera is following right now.
If a name only shows up once, check which arc it's tied to before assuming it's a typo or a duplicate. Sera Kang and Jin-le Kwon are both New Waves-only additions to the MAIN-cast tier; neither appears in Part 1's character list at all, which is expected given they're introduced specifically to service that arc's plot.
Read Eternal Force expecting a soft reboot in cast function even though the setting and several returning names stay the same. That expectation alone resolves most of the confusion new readers hit around chapter 10 of the third arc.
Related Reading
- Gosu Manhwa Review: the closest structural match to The Breaker's modern-murim, hidden-legacy premise.
- God of High School Review: another school-set martial arts cast, ranked against this one in the full series review.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the protagonist of The Breaker?
Shi-Woon Yi. AniList bills him as the sole MAIN-cast character in both The Breaker (Part 1, 72 chapters) and The Breaker: New Waves (203 chapters). He starts as a bullied Seoul high schooler with no martial arts background and asks his new teacher, Chun-Woo Han, to train him.
Who is Chun-Woo Han in The Breaker?
Chun-Woo Han, credited on AniList as Chun-U Han and by the title Goomoonryong (Nine Arts Dragon), is Shi-Woon's teacher in Part 1. Wikipedia's sourced plot summary traces his motivation to his own master, Un-Wol, being killed by the Martial Arts Alliance out of spite after Chun-Woo won a Murim tournament.
Is Shi-Woon Yi still the main character in The Breaker: Eternal Force?
No. AniList still lists him in Eternal Force's cast, but WEBTOON's own official synopsis for the arc names a different lead, Ha-Je Kang, with Shi-Woon, credited there as Si-Un Lee, appearing as the powerful senior who trains him. It mirrors the Chun-Woo and Shi-Woon dynamic from Part 1 with new names in each role.
Who is Ha-Je Kang in The Breaker: Eternal Force?
Ha-Je Kang is the protagonist WEBTOON's official synopsis names for Eternal Force, a bullied student pushed to the edge of a school rooftop before Si-Un Lee (Shi-Woon Yi) intervenes and later agrees to train him. AniList's character database for this entry hasn't added a separate profile for him yet, which is why most casual coverage still describes Eternal Force as Shi-Woon's story.
Who is Sera Kang in The Breaker: New Waves?
Sera Kang becomes head of the Mil-Yang Clan after Chun-Woo kills her grandfather, then becomes one of Shi-Woon's closest allies in New Waves. She's the character who restores Shi-Woon's Qi center after Chun-Woo destroys it at the end of Part 1, and AniList bills her MAIN cast across New Waves and Eternal Force.
What is the Sunwoo Clan in The Breaker?
The Sunwoo Clan is the faction led by So-Sul Woo in Part 1. She names Shi-Woon her successor before the arc ends, but he declines to formally claim the position going into New Waves. Jin-le Kwon, an elder's granddaughter within the clan, becomes Shi-Woon's bodyguard and ally during that arc.
Is this The Breaker character guide based on AniList or a fan wiki?
AniList's character database for all three entries (media IDs 38586, 52651, and 148677), cross-checked against Wikipedia's sourced plot summary and the official WEBTOON synopsis for Eternal Force. Where a detail couldn't be confirmed against a primary source, it was left out rather than pulled from a fan wiki.
