Mr.President, It's Time to Put on the Dog Leash

Seo : I see... Artemis-chan...

After watching Tenjou Tenge some time ago, I thought I'd check out some other works by the mind behind it.

Himiko-Den, a 12-episode anime based on the PlayStation game released around a decade ago [early in 1999], had the mangaka behind Tenjou Tenge put his spin on it. But much to my short-lived dismay, I had neither played the game nor watched the anime.

The story is said to be based on an old Japanese tale told by the official Chinese history book Sanguo Zhi [Records of Three Kingdoms], covering the times from 189 to 280 AD, written in the 3rd century. But that's just a fun fact to anyone who isn't familiar with ancient history and kinda likes the idea of revamping ancient stories.

When I started reading this, I felt similar to how I did about watching the first episodes of Tenjou Tenge.

I thought "Hilariously Cheeky. Refreshingly Ambitious. Aesthetically Brutal. A bit pervy." The art seemed fantastic. The story seemed to be awesomely ambitious. The characters seemed to have great potential, though a bit stereotypical of shounen stories (every female has double-D assets, impractical clothing, hero dweeb/main character, excessive pwnage of bad guys). I thought I'd enjoy it thoroughly and never forget reading this.

And much like when I came to the end of watching Tenjou Tenge, I had felt a bit...empty and lost. Sure, it had some excitement and some sort of depiction of emotional turmoil. Some battles won. But I have to say, I thought:

"Endings just aren't this man's forte.. beginnings, absolutely. But, it's as if I'm watching Leo DiCaprio's frozen body comically bobbing up and down, floating around the emotional young lover in Titanic - instead of slowly sinking into the depths and darkness of the cold Atlantic Ocean to reflect the coldness, forever lost feeling of death and despair."

It's that something that irks at you, and I think those who watched the anime I just can't stop mentioning, I think you know what I mean.

Personally, I'm a fan of good plots, twists, character development, some humbleness, and some sort of inspiring insight into life by the end. I don't quite think I found any of that from this manga. Though, I suppose I shouldn't be looking for those things in a shounen manga, no matter how ambitious it seems. My hopes were kinda up when there was fantasy and 'the end of the world' theme, I'll admit.

_re-reading this, my apologies if I sound a bit hostile. It just seems like I ought to have a say for the me-who-hadn't-read-it-yet, and the me-who-read-it-and-feels unsure if I should feel bad about not liking it.

The novel has been completed at 1073 chapters, but it seems translation has come to a standstill. Alas, we must hope for rain in times of drought, stay strong my fellow readers.

Say fk you and move on