Basara volume 1 review
“This is a child of destiny…”
Sometimes ago I bought Basara volume one, attracted only by low price that it had. Having seen only the cover, i didn’t expect much from it. Anyway, it cant be so bad, can it? The cover doesn’t say anything really, it is just a cover. After I opened the volume, i wasn’t very pleased. The art is…. i may say special, you need to love manga a lot to like it. The art of Basara is a kind of art that flows free, its a romantic style i may say. It may be not much at a first glimpse. At the half of the volume i was OK with it, even beginning to think that a more handsome art wouldn’t fit with this manga. The artist and writer of Basara is a woman, Yumi Tamura. And her shojo stories are special I may say. I think they can be easily read by both boys and girls. They will all find something in this story. Well, its the attributes of a shojo to aim both at male and female readers anyway.
Basara won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shojo in 1992 and it was adapted into an anime as well. After i finished reading the first volume, i thought: Heck, its more than OK! I like this style.
The story, the story catches you in its meshes, and by being a shojo, it gives a little of that soap-opera feeling, but just a little. As it says on the back of the cover, Shojo are “exciting stories with true-to-life characters and the thrill of exotic locales” Indeed, it is a beautiful old style adventure! After a few pages, you will hate it or love it. Throw it away or buy the rest of the manga as well.
Very popular in the 90’s in Japan, Basara is taking place in a post apocalyptic world. The royal family is keeping an iron hand over Japan, and everyone is suffering from this oppression. Now we see that a part of Japan has been reduced to a desert, probably due to the nuclear catastrophe. But in the Byakko village, the people are hoping that one of their own will save them. Tatara, so called the child of destiny, is a young boy with huge responsibilities on his shoulders. Being looked upon like the one who will lead the people to a bright future is not easy. It is hard for his sister, Sarasa, as well. Being born in the same day as her brother is not easy, when most of the villagers think only at them savior and disregard her. She can only hear questions like… “Sarasa, is your brother ok?” Or “Sarasa, is Tatara doing well?” She is always in the shadow of Tatara.
Anyway, after the royal family finds out about Tatara, the son of the king (called The Red King), goes to the village and kills the boy. Seeing the villagers in despair, and in danger of dying, Sarasa takes action, for them not to loose their hope. She dresses up like Tatara, she takes his horse and goes to draw the imperial troops upon her, giving the villagers an opportunity to escape. As she takes the role of Tatara, she makes a silent oath to protect her people as much as she can. She manages to make the imperial troops rally after her, while the villagers destroyed the village and escaped. Fearing an ambush, the Red King redraws his troops but he takes with him Tatara’s head and his sword, The White Tiger. He displays both in a fortress, showing them to the villagers, saying that if Tatara is alive he should reclaim back his sword. Now we find out that the Red King was also called “boy of destiny” by the prophets. Is just he doing his duty or he is obsessed with destroying any other that is called like that? He is cruel enough to kill, no questions in here.
Sarasa is forced to take back the sword, thus keeping the fate of the people alive and hoping to unite them. She makes a plan to overun the imperial troops and to sneak close enough to grab the sword. The plan involves one thousand cows, who cause a stampede in the fortress. Sarasa manages to get the sword, but the Red King wounds her with an arrow. She barelly manages to escape, dragged under the belly of a cow. Now she must gather all the people and start the war against the empire. And the story goes on…
There are more characters involved in the story and you will discover them. Some bad, some good, some between. This is not a manga that wants to be ideal, so the main characters will suffer, some will get hurt pretty bad, and some may make acts of pure desperation. But in the boundaries of a shojo, where the good characters don’t die so often, remains to see where Basara will shine and where will falter. No manga is perfect. I also want to see how Sarasa’s dual identity aka Sarasa/Tatara will evolve. She assumed the role of savior and leader very abruptly, so she will be ready for the upcoming battles and obstacles? I guess i need to visit my manga shop soon, because this is a very pleasant manga to read.
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