Ral+Grad Vol. 4 & Hoshin Engi Vol. 13/14 - Manga Review

Myths are the basis of all pop culture. These two continuing series from Viz debate the structure of dream world versus the wonderment of Asian mythology steeped in the essence of war and redemption.Ral Grad #4 This story focuses on the battle between humans and shadows. The Queen in battle takes the auras of the women she meets. Ral wants to defeat the Queen but the Phoenix beast makes it impossible. The battle in the beginning of this volume is a little overdone because the progression of the battle becomes confusing and ultimately leads to no avail. When the battle is finally over and it is found out that the girl playing the Queen to the Phoenix is an unwilling participant, the fight is taken out of the advancing hoards. The tone change seems to point to something different but ultimately Ral Grad achieves total fusion. There is also an ongoing joke about Ral's immaturity with Miss Mio. What is interesting is that the ending changed from the manga to graphic novel in terms of only Ral going away which is not as mythologically intense as one would think.Hoshin Engi #13 This manga is also based on a battle of two worlds hidden within Chinese Myth. Like Ral, the key is distrusting one world to save another. Here the conflict exists between a floating island and the realm of the mountains. The leaders of both have a perspective of loss but nonetheless argue over weapons. The island in question takes off but the mountains themselves lie in an odd reality plain. It reminds me of something out of Mongo from “Flash Gordon” which also featured floating worlds independent of each other. The battles continue with each side inflicting and sustaining heavy casualties. A shield over the island must come down for the final attack to commence much like “Star Wars”. There is also a MacGuffin in the form of a Cheshire Cat/Gollum type who only lives to manipulate the situation for his own selfish reasons. One really neat aspect involves his cracking of dimensions into other lives. There is one dimensional portal he creates that is reminscent of Saturn in “Beetlejuice” but with sand demons which are quite cool.Hoshin Engi Vol. 14 As the battle for Kingo Island continues, this entry into the series examines the treachery of the mind. Certain beings within the world can create their own dimensions to confuse and bewilder their enemies. The most chicanerous trickster is a goth influenced power lord (highlighted in the earlier volume) who works both sides of the equation. He is on the side he is always on: his. The first entry has some warriors trapped inside a toy dimension where they must win games or be turned themsleves into a toy. What the game eventually reveals is that the "master" always wins since he can completely manipulate elements in his own dimension. This volume seems more dominantly involved in the mechanics of the mind than the physical battle. The raining blood sequence using an internal subconscious metaphor is quite vivid. Towards the conclusion of this volume, the narrative changes to show the actual physical changes going on in the real world. One of the sisters involved in the ground war can blow herself up using bubble gum (think a female version of the air guy from "Big Trouble In Little China") and rockets more soldiers t0 the island. The problem is she falls off because she is chasing food. This volume has a wide berth of different ideas with the toy dimension being the most interesting in terms of narrative possibilities.