 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DARK HORSE | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | PARK JOONG-KI | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | ENGLISH / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 200 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | 16+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 10/14/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 11/11/2009 | | | ▪ | 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 eight, the action of Shaman Warrior reaches new heights! This is the penultimate volume in the Shaman Warrior saga, as it is the most action packed yet! With only a few allies by her side, Yaki has her hands full with a bevy of new villains. Whips, bombs, swords, and the ominous powers of a shaman warrior - this volume is sure to knock your socks off! Yaki's quest to avenge her father and protect the endangered shaman bloodline nears its finale, as Korea's best-selling fantasy epic enters its pulse-pounding and artery-squirting homestretch in this eighth volume in a series of nine. We've watched Yaki grow into a heartless assassin and beautiful woman, and she's destined to carve a bloody path to the backstabbing general who ordered the death of her father - with or without her own shaman powers awakening. I love Shaman Warrior – it’s good, gritty fun like a crazy action-filled samurai and/or ninja movie. It’s bloody and fast, and features amazingly well-drawn action scenes that really bring the book to life. The art in Shaman Warrior is so wonderfully consistent throughout each new volume, and it can really be called “art” due to its proficiency. The concept of art and what is artistic will differ in opinion from one person to the next, but most people should be able to look at the pages of Shaman Warrior and instantly think that this work is exquisitely drawn. Each page must have taken forever, as the characters, backgrounds, and everything else are all drawn in the utmost detail. Art quite like this is far and few between in the manga/manwha world – it’s unique and worth mentioning. This volume is especially breath-taking as the action really rises up for a climax, and we get to see some of the artist’s best work to date. The amount of movement and energy in the visuals is awesome – it would be wonderful if this manga became an anime! Something that really helps showcase the art is the size of the books. Each book in this series is sizably larger than the usual industry standard for manga like a Viz book, or a Tokyo Pop book. Having the books be of a larger size means the art will in turn be a larger size. With larger art comes the potential to see more detail in what you are reading, so Shaman Warrior does well to be presented in this format. Each panel is of a pretty good size also – rather than trying to stick 10 panels on a page, the artist does 5 instead, so you can see a lot more and not feel overwhelmed by having to deal with too much detail in too small of a place. It’s just so enjoyable to look at – you have to read it yourself to get the full effect and see the difference this kind of formatting makes. Text is easy to read too, and manhwa reads left to right just like English books, so it’s a good introduction for anyone not used to reading manga in a right to left format.
IN SUMMARY:
Shaman Warrior is right up there with all the best martial arts action manga/manwha we know and love. It has a great story, and even greater action scenes. This is a gritty, down and dirty book that pulls no punches – very entertaining and artistic! |
