Jun 28, 2010
Manga review of Sorcerer Hunters Volume 10. Story
by Satoru Akahori. Art by Ray Omishi. Translated by Anita Sengupta.
Adapted by Mike Wellman. Orignal Publisher: Media Works. US
Publisher: Tokyopop, $9.99, Rated OT 16+.
The opening of Volume 10 is an exercise in meta-fiction as the cast
of the series tries to decide what genre of manga fans this
installment will cater to. Will it be shojo, shonen, magical girl,
etc? After these few brief arguments the rest of the book tells a
story about Carrot and Marron's parents, Onion and Apricot. From
what I can tell, its set about 20 years before the current
storyline. In fact, Onion and Apricot aren't even married. They're
just fellow Sorcerer Hunters. Even Lord Sacher, the Hunter's main
nemesis for much of this series, is still a good guy, though he's
already showing some Anakin-like moments.
Apricot is having second thoughts about being a Hunter, even if the
sorcerers she's hunting deserve to die. For instance, the one she
kills at the beginning of this tale was hunting parsoners for sport
and murdering them in cold blood. Apricot feels there has to a
better way to handle the problem and voices her concerns to Mother.
In response, Onion and Apricot, along with Haz Knight Mille Feuille
are sent to the valley of Galna-Galm, with no idea of what their
mission is, but it might have to do with the mysterious origin of
the Sorcerer Hunters.
The best description of Ray Omishi's art is economical. He doesn't
waste a lot of time drawing things that are unneccesary to the
story he's illustrating. Don't get me wrong, Omishi is a good
artist, but for instance, while his characters have a lot of
detail, his mostly absent backgrounds seem to fit more in the shojo
style. He can flip from chibi-style comedy to drama to action at
the drop of a hat. This makes him well suited to illustrate
Akahori's manic and sometimes bi-polar writing. Again, don't get me
wrong. Akahori has no problem transtitioning among all the
different moods of the work. When the characters interact in a
comedic way you laugh, but your heart also goes out to Apricot as
she struggles to reconcile killing sorcerers with her notions of
what is right and wrong.
Tokyopop orignally published this series in those old huge $17
manga editions flipped. It wasn't until later that they started
re-releasing Hunters in the smaller unflipped editions.
Unfortunately, out of 13 volumes, they stopped printing the new
editions with this volume, which was printed 2 years ago. So I
doubt Tokyopop will ever finish putting the other 4 books out. So
you're left to your own devices finding the original versions.
My Grade: A