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]

God, that would be fun! I'm just not sure of a venue ... maybe I can bribe the Mr. to take the young lady out for a while. This is one of the times I regret having a daughter her age - she fusses about how my friends are more interesting than hers. But I need to set some boundaries, dammit! My friends!

[chomiji]

As much fun as that might be, I don't think we'd have much conversation if we did that!!!

Honestly, I think we need the equivalent of the beach trip I dragged sanada on last June. We went to Cape Henlopen park in Delaware and splashed about and talked, and sunbathed and talked, and then changed and went into Rehoboth and window-shopped and talked, and ate dinner and talked ... .

[chomiji]

Oh, make fun of the beaches that were a big, deep part of my childhood, why don'cha! We used to go to Assateague quite regularly, miss!

;-)

Atlantic beaches are themselves - they're not Hawaiian beaches. You need to learn to appreciate them. And Rehoboth sucks - that's why we did the swimming at Cape Henlopen, which has no boardwalk and hence appeals to a more purely sun-and-swim crowd.

I spend a huge amount of time in the water at the beach, but we talked out in the water too.

Anyway, it doesn't have to be a beach. It could be a picnic in a park - either a woodsy type park or something like the botanical garden in Wheaton, Brookside Gardens. Or just tea somewhere.

[chomiji]

I'm just a little confused why you think these are all rocky beaches. Even Rehoboth is sand, although the sand is damn near grey with dirt from generations of beach-goers:

• Rehoboth
• Cape Henlopen
• Assateague (VA end)

I can understand about the seasons, though. I don't imagine that the west coast would ever feel right to me.

[chomiji]

Hmm, don't know what happened to the Cape Helopen pic ... here's another one.

The water is much cloudier than the water in Hawaii - when you look down into it, it tends to be green and translucent rather than blue and transparent. And of course it can be very cold. The water in Cape Cod Bay can be bathwater warm, but that's because it's so shallow. (Oh ... here's some more beach pix, from our vacation last year.)

I've seen rainbows around here ... and I've already told you how much I love our spring days and nights. But it's like arguing "my baby is prettier than your baby" with someone - neither of us has a prayer of convincing the other because of the emotional charge these places carry.

[chomiji]

I can listen to your nostalgia for the place that your heart calls home all day, all night, and my only negative thought will be only a tiny twinge of worry that you're going to move back there. It's just that if it involves negative comparisons with the places of my positive childhood memories, it's going to provoke a knee-jerk defense ... I'm sure you can understand that!

(So that leaves out this area - especially Rock Creek Park - Assateague/Chincoteague, and the area of West Virginia that extends under Maryland and over Virginia, from Davis to Berkeley Springs.)

;-)

[chomiji]

Hmm ... we'd have to see which beaches were dog-friendly ... they don't all allow puppies.

Bonnie, my little black poodle, used to like water - clearly a throwback to the ancestral strain!

Selfishly, I'm glad to hear you'll be sticking around!

[chomiji]

Well, DE state parks allow dogs on a 6-ft leash (no mention of pit bulls at all), and in the article on surf fishing, they say dogs are allowed in the surf fishing areas. At the northern end of the swimming beach at Cape Henlopen, there's a surf fishing beach, so if we decided to go there, that would be the spot - close enough to the swimming beach to hail lifeguards if necessary.

[chomiji]

Well, I have no idea whether we'll ever make this beach trip ... but I was enjoying thinking about it! Except that we'd need a shelter for Ms. Bikkit.