Bastard 8
Posted: April 8, 2009 Filed under: Bastard 3 Comments »Now, it seems like whenever I remember that I’ve got a couple volumes of Pastel lying around to read, I remember that I’ve also got a couple volumes of Bastard left to read. Again, I bought through volume 10 before I decided there was no redeeming this series, so I promise I’ll stop reading it when I finish up with what I have.
But… yeah, there’s a lot more of the same thing here. Dark Schneider fights Abigail in one epic last push to save the world from the awakening of Anthrasax. Of course each continuously talks about how strong they are (this time the boast was mostly on Abigail’s side), both throw “final” spells at one another, background characters react, Arshes Nei cries about her poor Darsh, et cetera. It was fast reading, at least, because you sort of know where all this is going.
There is a curveball thrown in, however. Dark Schneider finishes the fight as just a torso with one arm attached, but somehow alive. While Yoko is chastising him, Abigail comes back to life and grabs up Yoko, and… I wasn’t too clear if Dark Schneider wasn’t fighting back because he was just a torso, or because he was out of magic, or because he didn’t want to hit Yoko, or… what. I think it was the latter. Yoko is the one that takes Abigail out, and I had to admit his death was pretty spectacular. There’s a weird (dream? sex?) sequence between Yoko and Dark Schneider, and then the storyline ends. Hmm.
Things pick up a few years down the line, this time Kall Su is still terrorizing the public in the name of Anthrasax. No heroes are in sight initially, and they are presumably dead since Abigail’s death wiped out the castle where they were all fighting. Kazushi Hagiwara managed to ruin the rest of Cipher for me by drawing Kall Su as the titular character, thus reminding me of this horrible series every time I try to read a volume of Cipher. I just… can’t I read shitty shounen manga without it ruining my good classic shoujo? Please?
[...] Brienza on vol. 2 of Akihabara@DEEP (ANN) Billy Aguiar on Anima (Prospero’s Manga) Connie on vol. 8 of Bastard (Slightly Biased Manga) David Rasmussen on vol. 2 of BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo (Manga Life) Ysabet [...]
Even though the review is negative (and I take your word for it) ,I can’t help but think that this book sounds completly badass. I mean…fighting as a torso with one arm?!?!?!?! How can I read that and not drool all over myself?
That was my logic when I started, too. I mean, it’s really hard not to like a series where big muscled dudes throw spells named after heavy metal bands at one another that sometimes disembowl. It does a bunch of things that would be awesome if it wasn’t trying so hard to be funny, or if it wasn’t the laziest comic I’ve ever seen. You’ve got problems when your characters make jokes about how poorly drawn they are, especially when these jokes are frequent.