Otogi Zoshi Vol. #01

By Matthew Alexander     August 22, 2006
Release Date: July 11, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Narumi Seto
Translated by:Adrienne Beck
Adapted by:Jim O. Alexander

What They Say
For Hikaru, learning swordsmanship is far more interesting than thinking about marriage...and she won't let being the only daughter of a noble house in 10th-century Japan stand in her way! But one fateful day, Hikaru comes across a group of thieves who want revenge on her adored older brother Raikou for obliterating their village. Now Hikaru must sharpen her sword, as she is the only person who can prevent her brother's head from being served on a platter!

The Review
Packaging:
The front cover has three of the main characters in different settings and overlapping each other. The front character sets an interesting contrast by being fully colored, whereas the other two characters and all the background art is in black and white. The title is mostly white and overlays a black background with a yin-yang symbol and I like that the volume number is placed over a bluish magatama. The back cover has a story synopsis and a horribly pixilated picture of one of the male characters from the front cover. Unfortunately, the first few pages are printed in monotone and there are no extras. But the print quality is good and solid from start to finish.

Artwork:
I really enjoyed the art and the detail for this period story. For the most part the artwork is impressive with a lot of detail in the costumes and backgrounds, character designs that match the anime pretty well, and the shading is nicely done. The only reason I can't give this title an A for art is because of the times the artist gets lazy. There are many panels where a character's face only has a nose, which really threw me off considering how well everything else is drawn. My other complaint was with the numerous panels that have spot shaded backgrounds, I would prefer solid black or just plain white backgrounds.

Text/SFX:
The text is free of grammar errors and reads well for the most part. This story is set in the Heian era so dialogue has to have a certain feel to it. For the most part this is done pretty well with the exception of a bandit character named Takatoki. This character's language should be uncouth compared to the members of Hikaru's wealthy family, but Takatoki uses a few modern words like 'awesome' that felt out of the timeframe. This book is published by Tokyopop, but there were a few SFX translated into English here and there.

Contents: (Oh yes, there may be spoilers)
Hikaru is the only daughter of the wealthy Minamoto family living in Heian era Kyoto. She's a bit of a tomboy, very willful, in her mid-teens, and completely idolizes her older brother Raikou. If Hikaru had her way she would train with her older brother to be a warrior, but her father forbids it because she needs to be a proper lady and marry into a wealthy family. Hikaru despises this idea, so instead she usually spends her afternoons learning the sword from her one-eyed bodyguard, Tsuna.

Hikaru's brother Raikou is a strong warrior and because of his family's position he is sent out to take care of bandits and enemies of the royal family. One of his more recent conquests comes back to haunt him when survivors from the village Raikou razed, come looking for his head. Three of the bandits break into the Minamoto in search of Raikou. A bandit named Takatoki finds Raikou and the two engage in a battle that smashes through the house and across the inner garden. It becomes apparent that Raikou is injured in some way, and since Takatoki wants a fair fight and doesn't want to take advantage of his opponents' weakness, he and his companions kidnap Hikaru and make their escape into the night.

Takatoki is perfectly satisfied with waiting for Raikou to come in search of Hikaru, but Takatoki's companions are furious at his failure and act as if they will kill Hikaru for the slightest transgression. Being the willful girl that she is, Hikaru tries to fight her captors but Takatoki intervenes and probably saves her life. He pulls her aside and teaches her archery because he believes she is to small to wield a sword effectively. This sets up an interesting interaction between two characters of opposite sexes from opposite ends of the caste system. Will Raikou find his sister and defeat Takatoki? Will this turn into a tale of star-crossed lovers from different worlds? What is wrong with Raikou, is he sick or injured from an earlier battle?

Comments
Otogi Zoshi is a two book series that takes place before the events of the first episode of the Otogi Zoshi TV series. So for fans of the anime, this is a nice prequel to the series. For people unfamiliar with the anime, this is an interesting story about a young girl named Hikaru who is forced to grow up quickly when her older brother goes missing in 10th century Japan. Hikaru must pretend to be her brother and carry out dangerous missions for the royal family in her brothers' place, but it's paramount that no one learns her brother is missing. Hopefully people unfamiliar with the anime will enjoy the manga enough to check out the entire story continued in the TV series.

It is interesting to see the rambunctious Hikaru before she matures and goes through the adventures in the Otogi Zoshi anime. I'm very curious to learn more about the bandit Takatoki and his background because he has more depth than the average bad guy and maybe the line between good and evil will continue to gray in the second volume.