The Legend of Basara

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The Legend of Basara; Vol. 1 & 2
Topic Started: Nov 8 2005, 05:49 PM (381 Views)
Niko	Nov 8 2005, 05:49 PM Post #1
Traveller Posts: 418 Group: Henchmen Member #6 Joined: May 19, 2005	I've never done this manga-review thing before, and I've rattled this off pretty quick, so sorry if it's incoherent. A while back, I was looking to add a new manga series to the ones I collect, and I was considering three titles: Please Save My Earth, RG Veda, and Basara. All of these are series where I really loved the anime, but the anime was way too short to really tell the full story. I asked for opinions over at AOD, and Basara was the winner by a landslide. I'm now 2 volumes in, and I see why folks there were so enthusiastic about it. It's off to a great start! STORY: Basara is a (sort of) historical drama. It's actually set in the future, but it's a future in which global changes have resulted in Japan becoming a fairly desolate, inhospitable place to live, and society has reverted to a semi-feudal state, with individual villages eking out existence and trying not to get in trouble with their despotic king. The story starts with twins growing up in a small village. The boy, Tatara, is prophesied to be a savior of his people, while his sister, Sarasa, grows up in her brother's shadow, feeling rather superfluous. As they twins get older, news about Tatara spreads, and the whole kingdom starts to be abuzz with news of this "boy of destiny" who will overthrow the evil rulers and help the country become prosperous. These rumors reach the ears of Shuri, a ruthless prince known as the "Red King" who controls the region, and soon his army sweeps down on Sarasa's village to stamp out the threat. Tatara is killed, and it looks like the rest of the village will be, too...but Sarasa cuts her hair and poses as her brother, rallying the villagers to escape. Once they get away, Sarasa and her advisors realize that she must continue to play Tatara, providing a rallying point and symbol of hope to the entire kingdom. Sarasa, herself, goes along with this to help her people and to honor her brother's memory, but she also makes a more personal vow to get revenge on the Red King. Thus, the main story is an action/adventure with some political intrigue mixed in as Sarasa sets out to gather allies to Tatara's cause while avoiding the armies of the Red King. In the first few volumes, there are many twists and turns already. The Red King sets traps for Tatara, and Sarasa and her allies just barely managing to outmaneuver him, often with the help of Ageha, an interesting character who comes across as a mercenary but also seems quite loyal to Sarasa for reasons of his own. What makes the series move a step above just an action/adventure piece, though, is that the Red King is not portrayed as just an eeeeeevil villain. He's definitely a fairly bad person by most standards: he has a Darth Vader-like propensity for killing off underlings who screw up, he thinks nothing of destroying an entire village for harboring Tatara, he's ruthless and clever and determined to crush rivals and rebels alike into powder to achieve his goals. And yet...he's really not such a bad guy beneath all the heartless slaughter and destruction. As we get to know Shuri a little more, it becomes apparent that he does have a code of ethics he lives by, and that in his own way he thinks his course of action is the best one for the country. He loathes the corruption he sees around him, and his long term goal is to rule over EVERYTHING so he can impose his own will on the country and bring about his own brand of peace. Thus, in his worldview, it makes sense that he needs to wipe out Tatara, who is a major challenge to his authority and threat to his goals for the country. This is a very cool setup for me, because it really becomes a conflict with different layers so you're not just rooting for the "good guys". Both Sarasa and Shuri have the best interests of the country at heart, but they're each trying their hardest to tear down what the other side accomplishes, even though their goals aren't really that different. This situation is complicated further by the fact that, early on, Sarasa and Shuri meet each other several times without either of them realizing that the other is a sworn enemy: Shuri has no reason to suspect that the GIRL he meets could possibly be the BOY of destiny he's hunting, and Sarasa only knows what "The Red King" looks like in his armor and helmet. So, along with the adventure and political intrigue, there's a Romeo & Juliet sort of tragedy brewing. I've really been amazed at how much of this is presented in just the first two volumes...with something like 25 more to go. I'm betting it's gonna be quite a ride. ARTWORK: When people were recommending Basara to me, I heard a lot of comments like "Once you get used to the art, it's really good." Despite those kinds of comments, I didn't have any major problems with the art style used in this manga. Yeah, it's definitely different from some of the more well-known series like Fruits Basket or Kare Kano, but it's not really that much different from other old-school shoujo titles, like the original Sailor Moon manga or Boys Over Flowers, for example. The one thing that is quite different is that the layout is much more jam-packed than usual. This is a very plot-heavy series, so there's much more space given to just showing what's going on. This results in more frames per page than I've been used to in some of the more modern shoujo I've read, and also much more space taken up by actual words. It's a little harder to follow everything, but I really liked having so much plot crammed into each volume. It made the story feel much more like reading a real epic historical drama rather than a more introspective angsty soap. It took me about twice as long to read each Basara volume as it takes for, say, a volume of KareKano. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this series and recommend it.



NeuralClone	Nov 8 2005, 07:34 PM Post #2
Resident Tachikoma Posts: 507 Group: R&D Team Member #5 Joined: May 19, 2005	WOOHOO! Finally, another manga review! This sounds like a really interesting premise. I'll have to check it out if I ever have the time/money.



Niko	Nov 8 2005, 11:02 PM Post #3
Traveller Posts: 418 Group: Henchmen Member #6 Joined: May 19, 2005	^ Yeah, I've felt sorry for the manga forums. I'm going to try to comment more on what I read, though I really have to force myself to do it. Reviewing only a volume or two of manga feels sort of like reviewing a book after only reading the first 100 pages or something... Combine that with the fact that I don't start NEW series very often, which means any reviews I do would actually be like reviewing, say, pages 160-255 of that novel, and it feels even stranger.



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