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Shaman Warrior, vols. 1-5 (Park Joong-Ki)
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.
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Actually, I'm liking UGH OK ... in what strikes me as a very Cho-ish reaction, the misunderstandings are causing me more pain than the violence is, especially when Sword's former lover starts meddling. But I can certainly check out the other one too!
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Yeah, I'm just getting to where the warden is trying to split them up ... I have to say that on one level, I feel that this is a sort of really transparent sick fantasy for the mangaka, because everyone wants a piece of Sen's ass (and pretty damn literally too). It's like a deranged, ultra-violent version of the gorgeous high school girl who's transferred in from another school and gets caught up between the guys who want her and the girls who alternate between hating her and wanting to be her best friend ... you know, where the gorgeous girl is a transparent Mary Sue ... ..
But I also have to say that they are damn cute/hot together. When they finally really get together after Sword's suicide attempt, there's one point where they're just looking at each other, and that look is so overjoyed, lustful, and loving that it just about kills me.
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Sen really is kind of a loose cannon, isn't he? He goes into these self-destructive phases where he sabotages things on purpose, just to show he has some kind of control over the situation, even if it's negative control. It's very realistic, actually, but troubling to watch.
It's not odd that he was the only Japanese guy, but it's kind of weird that there weren't any ethinic Chinese, Vietnamese, or whatever at all.
I've actually finished - yay! (Or on another level, boo! Because it was very involving and now I don't have it to read.) That really was a scary ending - I thought they were dead, or at least that Sword was dead. And the last part was so sweet, and they deserved it.
I was surprised by the warden's drug dealing, actually. I thought he was just a sleaze who was taking advantage of the power situation to satisfy his lusts. And I was surprised that Walter was an FBI agent.
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Yes, Drawing Blood - exactly! I found myself thinking, "Any minute now, Zach and Trevor will walk down that beach." (Except Zach is growing dreads, and Sword just cut his off ... .)
Yeah, it was pretty good - but damn, was it explicit ... if I blog it, it'll have to be f-locked (or I guess I could blog it on the fic journal).
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Hee ... I had Drawing Blood crossing over in my imagination with my ghoul character and his vampire lover/master. Zach is so slutty at the start of the book that it makes it very easy to imagine.
The interesting question is, would Sword's protective tendencies let anyone mess with his Sen?
(MHmmm, I'll have to dig through the e-mails for the Crimson Spell info ... these threads are getting hopeless as reference material!)
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He totally was ... that scene with the convenience store clerk sort of epitomized it! Yes, Gojyo would totally love him. (Zach is barely legal, IIRC ... what a contrast to Goku ... .)
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You're plot bunnying me again! I've got an AU swimming in my head with Zach encountering Gojyo in a Caribbean bar and suggesting, um, a get together at which Trevor will draw and Hakkai will watch and Zach and Gojyo will do ... whatever comes to mind.
Um, yeah.
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I've actually been giving a fair amount of thought to it ... Hakkai probably wouldn't be quite so cool about it. He'd probably be getting quite turned on (a la several of the things on the kink meme), but he'd be expecting it - in this scenario, this wouldn't be the first time Gojyo had wanted to do this and found some pretty young thing who was willing. Trevor would be much less certain, and confused by his own reactions, which Hakkai would (of course) notice.
I would need to re-read Drawing Blood, though, because I want to do Trevor's POV, and I'd need to soak in his voice for a while. And I'm not sure I'm in the mood for Brite just now. Which is funny because I'm really into plotting out this fic.
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Yes, exactly. Trevor is intrigued and repelled at the same time, and reluctantly wants Zach to have fun but isn't sure he wants to know about it quite this explicitly ... He's almost afraid to look at first, but Hakkai starts quietly pointing out things Trevor rarely has the time/attention/position to notice when he's with Zach, and he starts becoming fascinated and turned on despite himself.