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

Re: Smut and Sexuality (makes it easier to find ;D)

[chomiji]

I definitely think that Gojyo would rather take almost any amount of physical abuse than have Hakkai shun him. Yes, Mommy Dearest has convinced the red-headed stepchild that punishments prove that the one you love knows you're still there ... that was actually explored, gently, in one of the Addiction stories on saiyuki_time - yes, here it is ... cicer's "Entrapment."

Stories like that are somewhat of a guilty pleasure - I respond to them and hate myself for doing it. It helps if Hakkai realizes he's lost it and gone too far. (The after-the-rescue-from-the-goons one almost doesn't count ... that one's partially just Hakkai's letting go after keeping himself so tightly wound for so long, and Gojyo, although he's scared, more or less welcomes it. So that's where my line is drawn ... that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

Re: Smut and Sexuality (makes it easier to find ;D)

[chomiji]

Yes, I see what you mean about its being potentially disastrous ... cicer is surprisingly mature in her view of what goes on between them - she's only an undergrad, from what I can figure out.

Heh, I do the same things with stories that bother me ... work out an "afterward" where it comes out all right, or as close as it's going to get, anyway.

Re: Story dynamics

[chomiji]

I think you're right.

David Gerrold is a very lame writer - his one claim to fame, really, is having penned the classic comic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" - but he once made a very good point: the best episodes of that show are those in which the POV character (usually Kirk) has to make a choice: save his friend or save his ship, save his career or save an innocent life, carry out his mission or set straight an issue from his past, and so on.

Similarly, I think the best Saiyuki fics - especially the sex/romance ones - are those in which at least one character resolves an issue (or at least takes a step in that direction) or discovers something about himself. (Sometimes what's discovered can be very painful: in "Tomorrow and Tomorrow," Hakkai discovers that he really has no intention of surviving Gojyo's eventual death.