Arm of Kannon 7
Posted: December 3, 2009 Filed under: Arm of Kannon Leave a comment »Masakazu Yamaguchi – Tokyopop – 2005 – 9 volumes
My roommate is reading this along with me, and I think he has it right: the story doesn’t feel like it was scripted in advance, but more like it was made up as it went along. There’s nothing wrong with that, and the point of the series seems to be to simply put as much ridiculous violence on display as possible. I mean, to kill off your entire cast and reintroduce all new characters four volumes in for no apparent reason, and then to introduce characters and kill them off within a volume or so, and then have characters that have random powers for no apparent reason that don’t quite fit in with the nature of the story… well, yes. But it works in Arm of Kannon, because everything is so goddamn ridiculous you can’t help but smile as you go along for the ride.
This volume was better than the last. The Brightring priest takes offense to the Magician’s use of power, saying that his mathematical way of looking at the world and fixing things like a life comes too close to God. Later, we find out the Christian interpretation of the arm of Senju Kannon, that it is an Angel Fist that inhabited the body of Christ, and the Bright Ring family are actually the descendants of Judas drafted to protect both the fist and its power. They are called “Bright Ring” because of the halo that Jesus wore.
Yes, Jesus was a character in this manga for a little bit. When was the last time you saw that happen? Saint Young Men doesn’t count.
Anyway, several people are killed and one or two are brought back to life by the end of the volume. Messy fights occur involving gigantic swords and summoned dragons, as well as severed heads that can regenerate and live without a body. I got a big kick out of the ridiculous Christian imagery, and am looking forward to if or how the two storylines will overlap or relate to each other. Vague hints about how they are related were dropped, but hopefully we’ll get something more concrete.
