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

[avierra.livejournal.com]

Arrgh ... the pink princess thing is a stage that almost all little het girls go through. I was fond of princesses for a while there too, although I think I switched to mermaids fairly quickly (and this was pre-Ariel). All I can suggest is that you find some stories with princessy girls who do something else besides wear clothes. Or something that's just so fun and interesting that she can't resist it despite the fact that it's not princessy. Do you all have the Junie B. Jones books?

The little girl is TOTALLY pink. We got her some of the fairy Barbie dolls, but she actually doesn't play with them that much. It's more like she likes the idea of being princess-y, but doesn't actually like being one all that much. For one thing, she's a force of nature, and you know how that works on chiffon ;) So maybe it isn't as bad as I have been thinking. I know she likes clothes and fashion though. Her Dad actually had to put his foot down and tell she was required to wear a shirt that covered up her belly button. For crying out loud. I guess that is TV's pernicious influence, and I blame Bratz dolls too (even though we absolutely forbade her grandmother to get her any Bratz, and so far she hasn't, but they advertise frequently and prominently, so it is hard to miss.

Grandma is a PITA in a lot of ways, and she has absolutely no sense of boundaries. She's not a bad person, but she is just utterly unconcerned with what anyone else thinks or wants, just what SHE thinks or wants. It is quite exasperating.

The Junie B books, I hadn't heard of those, but I looked them up on Amazon and they sound like a hoot. So I ordered them. ;)

[chomiji]

I checked on Amazon to see what people were saying about Junie B. ... I'm glad you ignored the folks who were on about how bad she is for kids. Not every book needs to be a lesson ... . They're pretty funny. My favorite is probably the one where she wants a pet to bring in for the school pet parade, and ends up with a fishstick on the end of a string ... and God bless her teacher, who manages to deal with the situation quite handily!

Luckily mine was not too into any particular style of clothes at that age, and by the time she was 6 or 7, she'd decided that her favorite color was green! (When we're traveling with my friend Kat and her family, we still tend to color-code everything for the 3 girls: Liz is pink or purple, Care is green, and Becca is yellow. Oddly enough, Liz is probably the least girly of the three!) Later on, I'm afraid I invoked classism - essentially, only stupid people wear those kinds of clothes.

You can always try getting some of the less slutty clothing catalogs - Lands End, LL Bean, Hanna Andersson (pricey!) - and letting her pick out some things from them. They simply don't have those kinds of fashions, and the idea of being able to pick things in the favorite color - even if it's pink! - often makes up for any lack of trendiness.

(And if you start visiting this neck of the woods, we may be able to rustle up some hand-me-downs if that would help the budgetary aspect of all this ... most of the Young Lady's stuff has gone on to her cousin Ilana - 6 yrs old - or game-playing-offspring Katy - also 6, but much larger for her age - but we could probably get some of it back. Katy's little sister Laura won't be big enough for those things for a while.)

[chomiji]

She does sound like Lirin-chan! Bet you can channel that into keeping a collection of pretty little nonsenses of some sort or other (ponies, fairies), and dodge the clothing issue with sturdy stuff that just happens to be pink.

The Mr. sometimes used to do that sort of thing, with the bracelet, but he's developed more of a clue about what I like, and I've developed a little more starch about resisting the pressure to say "Yes, it's lovely!" just to make him happy.* But that's not going to work with an older person who thinks she knows best.

* He's an engineer. Engineers like symmetry. I don't like symmetry ... or fussy intricate details, for that matter.

[chomiji]

It's not so much that I like jewelry stuff rough as I like it flowing and organic, with movement. That opal bracelet I showed you - the wavy silver one with the uneven channels of opal - that's sort of my ideal piece, and the triangular necklet with the branches and the opal buds is a close second.

What's funny is that the bracelet I'm making with the beads is theoretically much to symmetrical etc., but between the irregularities in the hand-knotting and the little freshwater pearls you supplied, it's got enough of an outside-the-box feel for me!

[chomiji]

>> ikebana instead of formal Western flower arranging <<

Yes, exactly!