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

[chomiji]

Well, I have had a marriage long enough to reassure me somewhat on that score ... not to say that the possibility of abandonment is not vivid in my mind every time we have a serious argument (which is, thank God, not too often, though we huff and fuss at each other pretty frequently). My inner child still doesn't feel wanted enough (thanks, Mom).

And I have no intention of leaving you. I realize it's not the same, but I think it needs saying. I've had relationships with my few girlfriends peter out more or less mutually (we started having too little in common after changes in job/school situations ... I think if e-mail had been more common then and online communities had existed, it might not have happened that way), and the RPG f-f couple that I was close to cut me off when I got overly clingy after my father's death (on the one hand I don't blame them, but on the other, I do).

Yes ... I guess Saizo's devotion is so goofy so much of the time that I can't think of him in romantic terms, but of course your reaction to him in the anime was quite different. Certainly in the silly Q&A profile she had of him at the end of one of the eearly volumes, he sounded like sexual jealousy could be a part of his personality ... .

(And now of course I'm dying to ask you whether you've had a chance to read any more SDK.)

[chomiji]

> hugs! <   You are not a doormat. You are my lovely smilla lady.

Well, maybe online wouldn't have made a difference ... honestly, the situation with C&J was probably rather unhealthy for all of us ... there were some crush/sexual undercurrents to the whole thing that were making it very awkward. (More details would have to be in a more private venue.)

Good stuff in some of those SDK volumes ... a really key plot point occurs in vol. 12, which will drive the next 10 or so volumes, and in 13, you get to see little Sasuke really strut his stuff, and find out the identity of another of the 4 Emperors. If you've read vol. 11, then you've read Yuki's 2-part gaiden "Dragon of the Blue Sky" - how did you like it? Did you expect anything of that sort in his history?