Shaman Warrior, vols. 1-5 (Park Joong-Ki)

[chomiji]

Shaman warriors have the ability to transform their bodies in various ways, making them formidable war machines. As this series opens, a legendary shaman, Yarong, meets his death under circumstances that seem highly suspicious to his servant, the massive fighter Batu. Batu swears to defend his master's child, Yaki, but he soon finds this far more difficult than he expected: shaman warriors are being hunted down and killed, with the circumstances of Yarong's death being twisted to provide an excuse. Batu at last decides he must take desperate measures to ensure that little Yaki survives and becomes able to defend herself.

Thus far, this is playing out like an almost gender-blind shounen/seinen adventure. There are more male characters than female characters (especially in the first volume), but the female characters we've encountered thus far are fighting, doing magic, and adventuring along with the men. These female characters are also generally drawn with reasonable bustlines and amazingly modest clothing. The story includes betrayal, loyalty beyond the grave, a variety of non-romantic attachments (siblings, master-servant, parent-child, team mates, etc.), and complex politics. The artwork is gorgeous, illustration rather than cartoon, along the lines of Inoue's work on Vagabond and Samura's work on Blade of the Immortal (and when we do encounter grotesques, they're all the more unnerving because they're so well-drawn).

Oh, and telophase? Batu the Destroyer traveling with little Yaki is just your kind of thing!

Shaman Warrior, vols. 1-5 (review)

(FYI - that's teenaged Yaki in the icon.)

OK ... wild theories time. The Mr. and I don't think Yarong was Yaki's father. We think Yarong was Yaki's mother.

This may sound like total crack - after all, we have a number of pictures of bare-chested Yarong in vol. 1, and that's a totally masculine-looking torso, very much in the realistic mode: not tapered and bishie-ish, but compactly muscled and slightly stocky. But think about how Yarong has a tiny baby, and Batu keeps urging him to take it easy because "you can't fight anymore. Your body can't take it" and the General who sends Yarong off on his fatal mission apologizes that he had to "inform you of this while your body is still changing," and then later this same General thinks of Yarong with this statement:"I have plucked the most beautiful flower in all Kugai ... ."

I guess only time will tell.

Park gets a little weird with names: there is a character called Genji (female, and supposedly Batu's sister) and another called Aragorn (the tattooed warlord of a clan that's being forced out by the General). Genji is a lot of fun - frankly outspoken, a skilled fighter, and a master of disguise. Aragorn's a pretty good character too, but I keep twitching every time I read that name ... .

Yaki's experiences in the Butcher Camps are all too realistic, except in one area, and I think Park is actually to be commended for not going for the sexual angle in most of what happens to her. I also like how Yatilla gives her a reason to go on and be strong. He's a very promising character, and I hope we'll see more of him.

My only regret thus far is that Yarong was killed off so soon. He was just my sort of character.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oh, and telophase? Batu the Destroyer traveling with little Yaki is just your kind of thing!

Oh just TWIST MY ARM why don't you? *plans trip to bookstore*

[chomiji]

Heh heh heh ... I love you too!

Seriously, it's awfully good.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I found a seller on ebay with books 1-6 as a set. I bid on them; we'll see if anyone else wants them. :)

[chomiji]

Wishing you luck!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Too late: I just got outbid. :)

[chomiji]

Grrr! This just does not fit my plans ... all my friends need to read all the same things I'm reading so we can talk about them! That is how it should be!

Ah well ... I'm sure you'll figure something out!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Has it been mentioned yet that Batu acts like the world's hardest toughguy but is about the biggest softie that ever lived?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I think we may possibly have a winner here!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to tell you about it since I started reading it, but keep forgetting. (I really need to do pusher posts for both it and Claymore, now that I'm caught up.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'd been vaguely interested, but none of the bookstores I frequent ever seemed to have vol 1 in. Hopefully nobody bids against me, otherwise I'll have to buy them all separately and pay shipping charges for each. XD (well, ok, I have Amazon Prime if I wanted to pay full price each for a full set...)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never found it here, either, so I just DLed the first volume from mangatraders to see if it looked good(I've ended up doing that with a lot of the series I'm interested in lately...not even all the new Tokyopop and Viz series are showing up here, it seems.)

I think rightstuf always has Dark Horse books at 25% off.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yup! :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*sees Yarong theory*

*runs around flailing*

READ VOL SIX!!!! READ VOL SIX!!!! HAVE OWN WILD THEORY!!! (Uhm...actually, I don't think it's really spoilery...and maybe not too wild...but now that I think of it, something in there possibly makes yours not quite as crack as it may seem...and you gets lots of flashback!Yarong in it.)

I'm wondering, though, if Batu and Genji are actually siblings. magicnoire read the first 5-6(?) volumes as scanslations, and when I got to Vol 3, she told me that the scanslations didn't hint at that kind of relationship. If you take out the words brother/sister there really wouldn't be much reason to think they were any different from Yaki and Nejo: friends who became very close growing up together in a brutal situation.

The names really are all over the place, aren't they? Yaki, Yatilla, Yarong, Batu, and Horakaan sound pretty natural in a medieval world based on ancient Korea, but then there's the facepalmy Aragorn, and Genji=Tale of Genji when I hear it, and Nejo just sounds kinda random...

[chomiji]

I'll probably order 6 when I get the next SDK and Wild Adapter volumes, unless I see it in the store first. (I think there's a Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service that I'm missing, too.)

Hee hee, yes, if the Mr. thinks it's possible, then it's not just my own slash-deranged brain. He's a practical engineer guy! So maybe it's not crack ... .

Yeah, Batu and Genji could just be friends/comrades in arms - although I think Nejo would be happy to be more than that! I will say that I was a little surprised, given that Genji came from the same background and that the camp master/owner hardly hesitated over taking Yaki, that there weren't a few more girls there.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, my theory mostly centers around Yatilla more than Yarong, in a way. Though I guess both.

As far as Genji goes...well, the wrestlers were pretty pissed that they weren't "given" Yaki when she got there, so that could explain some girls. I'm also not sure just how much they cared whether or not all the kids lived...I doubt the head of the camp cared if the physically weaker kids were offed along the way.

I think Nejo wants to be more than friends with Yaki. Unfortunately for him, I don't think Yaki shares the sentiment.

[avierra.livejournal.com]

This sounds amazingly cool, I will have to check it out.

[chomiji]

It's pretty good! (Hey, if you like stuff like this, there are several other series we could get you into ...   XD  )

[avierra.livejournal.com]

Feel free to tempt me with further manga goodness. I have very eclectic reading tastes. ;)

[avierra.livejournal.com]

Well, I thought the scans you sent me for Crimson Spell were quite pretty and hot, so after reading them I immediately went to Amazon and ordered the first volume. So my own hair-ho-ishness sucked me in as well. ;) And yes, FOR SURE it will be nice to read a yaoi manga that doesn't have a simpering, weepy uke.

FAKE looks very cool too, I will have to check that out.

[chomiji]

Well, getting as many people hooked on Samurai Deeper Kyo as possible is my mission in life ... but the other well-drawn historical manga that are mentioned here are well worth reading. I will warn you that Blade of the Immortal can get quite grisly, though.

And Fake is definitely good fun for anyone who likes boys on boys. It's also much shorter than most of these series: 7 volumes. In contrast, SDK ran 38 volumes before finishing in Japan late in 2006, and BotI is still going at 18 volumes.

[avierra.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the SDK manga at all. I started the anime (although I have been given to understand it doesn't bear much resemblance to the manga), but it was too much for me to absorb at that point in time and I stopped watching it. Thirty-eight volumes is a lot! I read Naruto and it is currently at volume 28 in English. I do think I would like SDK based on what I know of the story-line. But also! Hot samurai guys with freaky powers, dark secrets and big swords..... mmmmmmmmmmm.

Both BotI and Fake sound like my cup of tea, I will definitely have to check them out. The drawing style on the BotI scans was wonderful; I think I mentioned to you that that is very important to me.