 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DARK HORSE | | | ▪ | ADAPTATION / ART: | | PARK JOONG-KI | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | ENGLISH / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 228 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 16+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 08/22/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 05/25/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
One of the best-selling Korean epics of all time, Shaman Warrior recently won Korean Culture and Content Agency’s 2006 “Best Manhwa of the Year” award. Now you might be thinking: “What is Manhwa? I thought this was manga.” Well in a sense there isn’t much difference – Manhwa is the Korean word and equivalent of manga. The Japanese produce some wonderful graphic novels and stories, but the Koreans have shown they can do a great job too – more and more so in the recent years especially. This particular collection is translated into English (just like Japanese manga are), and oriented in its original left-to-right reading format, and published at its original size. In volume four, treacherous lands with even more treacherous inhabitants threaten Yaki and all those who wish to protect her. As an infant Shaman Warrior, Yaki's powers have yet to awaken, but the heartless forces of Kugai are determined to kill her and put an end to her Shaman bloodline. While Batu slips back to Kugai to hunt Yuda, the Death Lord who assassinated Yaki's father, Genji takes the young girl on a treacherous journey through desert wastelands in search of a clan that will protect her. The clan that Batu and Genji have in mind is a group of strong, brutish warriors who thrive on fear and discipline - but one that even the soldiers of Kugai fear and avoid. Hoping that these savages will both protect and train Yaki, Genji risks her life to deliver the young child into the hands of monsters. As the famous Nietzsche saying goes, "that which does not kill us makes us stronger." Being Manhwa, Shaman Warrior has a fairly different style then a lot manga you may have read before. The art is very mature and of a serious quality – the kind that many people would more easily accept as true art, rather than as a “comic.” Detail is present in bucket loads - from the characters to the backgrounds, everything looks great. The action during fight scenes shares the same excellent detail – you can almost feel the hulking punch in the gut being delivered from time to time! Fights are brutal and sometimes bloody, but nothing that most teens couldn’t deal with. The violence is not exploitative in the least. It’s interesting how human-like the characters are – the artist is really very talented at creating realistic human figures and anatomy to some extent. As said before, the art style is unique and quite different – readers looking for a more mature art style with appreciate this series almost certainly. Although the fight scenes and martial arts are all portrayed in a very entertaining way within the book, that doesn’t mean there isn’t any story or feeling. Batu’s relationship with the little Shaman girl (Yaki) is much like that of a father or older brother – he protects her with is very life, but is not overly comfortable expressing how much he cares for her. It’s much the same with any other character trying to shield her along the way – they do it with a sense of duty for what is right, but appear to truly care for the child herself as well. The story makes perfectly good sense and flows along nicely, but the action is always at the fore-front, keeping with the action/fantasy genre. The back of the book contains a very funny author-related joke comic. Sometimes the author/artist will make a short comic about themselves and their experiences while creating the series and this one is just so humorous and understandable.
IN SUMMARY:
Shaman Warrior is a raw, involving story of violence, and those who wish to protect against it. The art is phenomenal to a point – it just works so well for a action/adventure/martial arts series like this one. And all-around excellent read – highly recommended. |
