Slightly Biased Manga

I forgot to mention that the full title of the series is Bastard: Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy.  Any series with the subtitle “Heavy Metal Dark Fantasy” should be something that appeals to me.  I was sort of wrong here, but again, I really want to like Bastard, so I’ll probably keep reading it.

Once again, only one adjective comes to mind after reading the second volume, but it changed: now it’s “vulgar.”  Now, it is vulgar in the traditional sense of being rather naughty (there is a really bizarre sex scene where… a second body intermittently appears and disappears), but it’s also just loud, annoying, violent, and over-the-top.  Unfortunately it doesn’t succeed as well at being over-the-top as, say, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but it does it in its own way, and it seems to have gathered itself and started down its own path.

The plot this volume is that the kingdom of Metallicana is using Dark Schneider to head off an attack by a ninja clan.  He agrees only because the ninjas have kidnapped the main female character, his possible love interest at this point.  The volume focuses almost solely on the task of getting through the ninja hideout and confronting the head of the clan.  Many things happen here, including scenes where clothes are melted off and arms are severed.  Dark Schneider appears naked more than once.  I love it, but there’s still something really, really off about the pacing and plotting through this volume.   Also, there is no way character relationships could be more awkward and painful to read.  I think it’s getting better though.

I don’t quite understand the note posted about the art.  From what I understand, there is an “Ultimate Edition” of Bastard, which is probably not kazenban, but the artist redrew the art for it, at any rate.  It must have had a high page count, because there is a note in the back that mentions where “Ultimate Edition” volume 1’s art switches over to the original art for the series.  The most noticeable difference is character design, but it feels like things get cleaned up quite a bit too.  My question is… was only volume one of the Ultimate Edition available when Viz published their version of Bastard?  Was the art redrawn only for the first volume of the Ultimate Edition?  It’s just kind of weird that the new material only appears for the first volume and a half.  I guess there’s a few explanations that would make sense.

Oh… my.  Still not very good.  I want to like it though, so like I said, I’ll probably keep plugging away.