Jadou 1

Author: KAWAHARA Tsubasa
Artist: OKI Mamiya
Imprint: Asuka Comics CL DX
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten
ISBN4-04-853269-3

Reviewed by Jeanne

A liking for linear plot of course is a western prejudice. What's *wrong* with a series of high emotional points thrown at you randomly? Appreciate the exquisite feelings of the moment and don't trouble your western head looking for a coherent narrative thread. Think of it as opera highlights. You get to hear Un Bel' Di without having to sit through the indifferent whole of Madame Butterfly.

Yes well. Nice, but no can do. I hacked my way through Vartrag, intrigued by the action of the individual chapters but wondering how all these random events fitted into the over-arching story. They didn't, basically. I gave up on Demian. Nothing happened, and it took forever not to happen. So I was pleased to hear that Oki was doing a manga where someone else had written the plot. And then I was frustrated to find that the plot was as confusing and 'Who are these people and why?' as anything she had done herself.

As it happens, this is a manga based on a novel. (For a review of the sidestory of said novel, full of spoilers, look here and scroll down.) That's partly why the manga feels the way an OAV based on a novel does. (Disjointed. Not making sense. Think AnK or Fish in the Trap.) We don't tell you who these people are because we assume you know already. That's one part of the problem. The other is that the manga's plot is the result of a collaboration between Oki and the novel's author, and is 'based on' the novel's action and characters. I don't know what the novel is like, but I can only say Oki's preferences for 'Here it is, live with it' narration won the day.

I'd guess that the manga probably works beautifully as an adjunct to the novel-- as kind of an illustrated side story or even doujinshi running off of the main action. Which may be what this series was meant to be in the first place, rather than a straight manga-ization of the novel itself. Going from the afterword, the manga action is about several of the lesser novel characters doing things that don't happen in the novel. (The last story here is about the same god & demon couple that appears in the novel side story.)

This dj feeling applies most especially to the first story, which takes up a good half of the manga. Oki tells it from the point of view of a non-novel character, Alan, who has come as assistant to the guy on the cover, Ashray, son of the king of southern Heaven. Ashray is older than his assistant, for all he looks like shota bait. There's a confused plot, which probably isn't confused if you know the novel, about demon attacks and a certain aphrodisiac plant whose suggestively-shaped dew Ashray inhales. And we all go OK good, aphrodisiac plant, growing friendship between master and servant, yaoi opportunity everybody, yes? No. Aphrodisiac'd Ashray has a wet dream about his childhood friend, the womanizing Tia (full name: Tiarandear Fei Gi Emeroad, their romanization, not mine.) Tia is now a Big Noise in the heaven these guys inhabit. Uh, yeah? How come? If this is a story about Ashray and Alan why do we suddenly get Ashray and Tia? or is Tia a red herring? or are you *really* trying to tell us about aphrodisiac plants?

And then, as the relationship between Ashray and Alan heats up, and Alan swears he won't disappear or be killed the way all of Ashray's previous assistants have been-- the story winds up in two pages with (highlight for spoilers)  "The report came that Alan was killed by demons who tore him apart. Those who witnessed it from a distance said he was saying something as he died"  the end. Now sorry, you're not allowed a half-book buildup just to do things like that, and then to follow it with a vague story of vague ansgtings on the parts of other characters. So, as I say, read this manga as doujinshi to a series you don't know. (Or be an optimist and figure she'll deal with this character in another volume. Go ahead. I double-dog dare you.)

This is all a pity, because the settei sounds fascinating. We have the usual three worlds, the demon one, the heavenly one and the human one. Demons are constantly attacking celestials in an attempt to get at the human world. Heaven is divided into four regions, for the compass points, each under its king; and in the centre is the Protector Tia, whose title Shuten actually means Protecting Heaven. I'm still not sure what he does- holds the balance or something. Can veto actions on the part of the rulers, and does, but can't initiate them. Is one of those gorgeous long-haired sad-eyed bikeis, who unlike other semi-BL bikeis spends his time making it with women, which is certainly a wrinkle.

But as an example of the confusion happening between main novel and side story novel and manga-- we meet Teiou and Keika, the side-story's heaven-dweller and demon, in the course of the first story. We're told Keika assists Teiou, which he does in a rather snotty subordinate-who-bullies fashion. These two go through a couple of demon attacks together, but no-one bothers to mention that Keika is a demon himself. Then much much later we get the Teiou and Keika story. 'It had been the fashion in the Eastern Kingdom to hire demons as servants.' Say what? These guys who've been hacking people to pieces get taken on as butlers? 'But after the many instances of theft and homicide by the demons'- yes, I'll believe it- 'the demons were sent packing, with the exception of one- Keika.' Now, all of this information should have been given to us before; and for that matter, we still aren't told how Keika feels about all this or why he's chosen heaven over his homeland or anything like that. That gets dealt with in the sidestory novel, and you're just supposed to know it here. Or possibly think it doesn't matter, because I believe this manga predates the sidestory novel by a few years.

Is how it's done in Japan, where 'never explain, never apologize' is an aesthetic principle. But it drives us rikutsu bakari ('nothing-but-linear-left-brain-reasoning') westerners buggy. Oh well. The pictures are pretty. Read the pictures, and don't worry your pretty gaijin head about the plot.