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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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Well, I met mine after college ... right after, I will admit, but it was through the SCA.
Washington is the kind of place where people come on TDY, so there were always a few kids missing and a few new kids there at the start of the school year. And because I was a bit of an oddball, I tended to indentify with the short-term kids because they felt out of place, too ... . And in the case of my jr. high friend Nancy, her parents were devout Quakers who always intended her to go to prestigious Sidwell Friends for high school ... and it was a 4-yr high school, too, so she didn't even finish jr. high with me ... :-(
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>> I've have had to die from the shame of it all <<
I only went to Pennsic once, and I was already someone's bedwarmer, so it wasn't an issue ... but I used to have to take evasive action to avoid cloved fruit at events before then. Kissing is something I'm only into as actual foreplay, so I had no interest in the SCA's favorite sport - I was always utterly grossed out by the idea of doing it with someone I was not completely into. I mean, I always thought I was doing my best to look forbidding and crabby, but apparently it wasn't coming off that way. Not that there were crowds after me, but there was always one or two persistent ones ... .
But really, there are always so many geeky guys in the SCA hoping that they are coming off as suave and princely - I really think your problem would be the other way around!
Well, I always clicked with those kids too, and I certainly knew where "home" was. But I was always at sea for friends, and so were they.
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What, at this latest Katsucon? I don't think you told me!
It's funny, I'm often quite cuddly, but sometimes it just gets to be too much and I need space. I think my senses get overloaded. Sometimes in the evenings, after a meal in a noisy restaurant, the combination of higher blood sugar and too mauch sight/sound/taste/smell put me over the edge, and I get very irritated (frighteningly so - as though one more bit of input will have me screaming) and have to lie down in a darkened room until I'm chill again. (And this is why I feel like I really know Sanzo sometimes ... .)
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Your story is a little funny and a little sad - hers is creepy/disgusting! Makes you wonder whether his friend knew what he was up to ... .
I've enjoyed concerts and such myself - I think you're right about fatigue and blood sugar levels being important factors.
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That sounds like recent experience talking, about the noise? I hope it wasn't one of the times when we took you out ... .
Restaurant noise & similar stressors
The Wash Post food critic is now starting to rate restaurants for noise level, so it's starting to bother others, too!
You may recall that one of the reasons we ended up at Tavira that time is that Karl likes it because it's usually quiet. Last time we went back there (Friday), the staff obviously had missed us. We had 3 waiters tussling over who got to take our order, and they gave us a gratis antipasto platter of Spanish ham and cheese and olives. (They wanted to give us wine, but no one at the table but me would have been drinking any of it ... we had Liz Partan along, but she's only 15.)