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]

Yes, the long vest/surcoat is nice. Boots are problematic for me - the wide feet and chunky muscular calves are major issues. I had a pair of lovely men's ankle boots that Karl got me as a present, but post-pregnancy, my feet were too big for them. (Yes, pregnancy can be nasty.)

(Hishigi shows up somewhere in the late "teens" of the series, I think. He's a great example of an intelligent, somewhat admirable enemy, and he's got Kougaiji's reluctance about some aspects of his leader's agenda, with Dokugaku's type of loyalty.)

[chomiji]

Amusingly enough, Karl and I bought the same men's New Balance walkers on Saturday ...3 sizes off from each other but the same width. But he had to take white (he didn't care) and I got black. New Balance makes a women's 4E, but no one (including the New Balance stores) seems to have it available to try on!

There's a manufacturer called David Tate that makes some wide foot/wide calf boots (Silhouettes - onlline and catalog - has them) that might fit me ... but I don't wear skirts, which is the main way women wear tall boots ... guess I'd have to wear 'em with knee britches!

Fluevogs, eh? Never heard of them 'til this post. Looked 'em up ... man, there are some fugly shoes on that site ...   ;-)   OK, there were one or two styles I might like! But mostly, not at those prices ... . I'm a simple person, really. There are things that people whom I like can wear, and I think they look marvellous, and when I think of them for myself, I say "No way! Ugh!"

[chomiji]

Well, I was thinking about the laced-up tall boots in your picture ... those are skirt-or-britches boots! My beloved but outgrown ankle boots were just fine with jeans. (I think they may have been Frye, come to think of it, but not the usual type ... black with a slim strap wrapped twice around the ankle and secured with a silver buckle ... as Karl pointed out, not many men would have wanted to wear them anyway.)

Yes - if I know the manufacturer's sizing well (like Hush Puppies or Easy Spirit or Clark's), or if I have tried on the shoe in the store but didn't like the colors they had available, I will buy from places like Zappo's. And that's generally where I buy Care's dress shoes, too, because the range of sizes is larger.

[chomiji]

LOL ... I own neither a kicky shorter skirt nor any tights beyond some basic black ones, so it's just as well that I don't have those sorts of boots!

Heh, and that's how the witches it Pratchett do a quick evaluation of another witch they don't know: "She's got good boots."

I have a feeling that the two groups are looking for something quite different in terms of boot, though!

[chomiji]

If I wear a skirt, it tends to be long and flowy, except for business suits ... and even one of my suits has a flowy skirt (although not as long as I'd like ... me in the pale grey at mom-in-law's wedding last September.

Care has one of those fluffy skirts - it looked absurd in a good way on her, so I bought it for her (Torrid, of course).

I dunno, I think the witches would tend to dismiss boots that had extra stuff (knee height, for example) regardless of how sturdy they were!

[chomiji]

Oh, I know about leather as protective gear ... we had one very dapper older gentleman (gee, he was probably all of as old as I am now) at the Aikikai, an Air Force officer, who always rode his motorcycle to class in full classic British-style cycling leathers ... just one pile of suave kink on two legs, he was, slim and trim and with a little moustache.

I'm sure Lancre wool socks are very special!