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meganbmooreI have spent a fair chunk of tonight reading the first three chapters of Akimine Kamijyo's(Samurai Deeper Kyo) Silvery Crow(it's the easier title to remember so it's what I'm going with)
This was a rather interesting experience for me as it's my first time reading snanslations before already being into the series, as every other scanslation I've looked into, I was already buying the licensed series(as I shall do here, too, should such a happy occassion arise)
Incidentally, ch 1 is roughly 80 pages, ch 2 50 pages and ch 3 30 pages, so basically, I read volume 1...and if I'm not mistaken, this is a monthly series. Either Kamijyo is killing him/herself(?) getting the early chapters out, or got a huge headstart.
Anyway, thoughts, story and a few pics.
ETA: I also read ch 72-74 of Full Metal Alchemist today, and they were excellent, but as it's licensed and I buy the books, I'll save my thoughts for when gets over here.
This was a rather interesting experience for me as it's my first time reading snanslations before already being into the series, as every other scanslation I've looked into, I was already buying the licensed series(as I shall do here, too, should such a happy occassion arise)
Incidentally, ch 1 is roughly 80 pages, ch 2 50 pages and ch 3 30 pages, so basically, I read volume 1...and if I'm not mistaken, this is a monthly series. Either Kamijyo is killing him/herself(?) getting the early chapters out, or got a huge headstart.
Anyway, thoughts, story and a few pics.
More high fantasy than historical fantasy, Silvery Crow is set in a world where, generations ago, a king entered into a contract with a demon lord in returns for his nation's prosperity. The demon lord created a magic stone that broke into 13 pieces after the king's death. The king's death also caused the kingdom to sink into Very Bad Things and created nasty monsters called crows. Except apparently there's one crow with Special Powers. Naturally, we will eventually learn that aid Special Crow is the hero.
The story takes place a few centuries or so after the silly king makes a pact with the demon lord, when two thieves, John Egelantine(I think I spelled it right) and Lu LaRue cross paths looking for pieces of the demon stone. They meet when she picks a corrupt officer's pocket and he accidentally ends up with the wallet, then gives it to the storeowner the officer was harassing. Lu LaRue, naturally, is Highly Displeased about this and they fight. Since she's dressed like a guy, he learns her gender the same way every lovably dumb shonen hero does in such a situation and accidentally grabs her breast. I was rather surprised he didn't die at that point. Depending on your interpretation, things either go uphill or downhill from there as John and Lu go after a demonstone and take out the corrupt local commander, and Lu learns that John himself is a crow (SHOCK!) but a silver one. And, you know, not evil. I don't think. Kamijyo is rather tricksy on the good/bad front.
Lu is all for dumping John at that point, but he does this:
Unleashing Giant Puppy Eyes of Doom always works.
So does doing a good job of immitating your far less sociable predecessor and leaping between her and certain death:
But mostly I think it was the Giant Puppy Eyes of Doom. And the fact that he can easily destroy anything that gets in their way.
A few more pics:
John:
While clearly much younger and sweeter than Kyo, he does have Kyo-like moments.
Like this:
And this:
When it's time to break things, he looks like this:
He also seems to have taken some cues from Fullmetal Alchemist's Scar in terms of properly accessorizing one's flesh:
Our lovely and rather temperamental heroine, Lu LaRue:
She yells at John a lot. Understandable, as instead of a brain, he has hamsters running very, very fast on their wheels trying to keep up in his head. Plus, yelling at the hero from the moment you meet is the standard for any good shonen heroine.
I also suspect she and Yuya are twins who were separated at birth. As both of Kamijyo's series are fantasy and involve heroes who are demon boys and such, this is entirely plausible.
There's also Fukurou.
In addition to sharing Light Yagami's hairstylist, Fukurou has A Past with John and is rather pretentious and superior. However, he also wears a dramatic yet subdued cloak and carries a giant sword that looks like a cross.
I believe this gains him many points.
This is the commander from the first story. He was basically there to be moderately creepy and get Thoroughly Trounced by John.
Then there's Agape.
She appears to be an aristocratic information broker and friend of sorts to Lu LaRue. She is also a very, very tiny woman. See?
There's also a bounty hunter who offers information about a demon stone to John and Lu LaRue in exchange for their stealing medicine for his son. Dunno how that turns out or if he hangs around, yet.
Finally, there's this guy. I have no idea who he his as he hasn't appeared yet, but as he used up valuable paint on the title page of the first chapter, I assume he's important.
Anyway, very fun series. I shall keep reading scanslations and hope it gets licensed so I can read it properly.
The story takes place a few centuries or so after the silly king makes a pact with the demon lord, when two thieves, John Egelantine(I think I spelled it right) and Lu LaRue cross paths looking for pieces of the demon stone. They meet when she picks a corrupt officer's pocket and he accidentally ends up with the wallet, then gives it to the storeowner the officer was harassing. Lu LaRue, naturally, is Highly Displeased about this and they fight. Since she's dressed like a guy, he learns her gender the same way every lovably dumb shonen hero does in such a situation and accidentally grabs her breast. I was rather surprised he didn't die at that point. Depending on your interpretation, things either go uphill or downhill from there as John and Lu go after a demonstone and take out the corrupt local commander, and Lu learns that John himself is a crow (SHOCK!) but a silver one. And, you know, not evil. I don't think. Kamijyo is rather tricksy on the good/bad front.
Lu is all for dumping John at that point, but he does this:
Unleashing Giant Puppy Eyes of Doom always works.
So does doing a good job of immitating your far less sociable predecessor and leaping between her and certain death:
But mostly I think it was the Giant Puppy Eyes of Doom. And the fact that he can easily destroy anything that gets in their way.
A few more pics:
John:
While clearly much younger and sweeter than Kyo, he does have Kyo-like moments.
Like this:
And this:
When it's time to break things, he looks like this:
He also seems to have taken some cues from Fullmetal Alchemist's Scar in terms of properly accessorizing one's flesh:
Our lovely and rather temperamental heroine, Lu LaRue:
She yells at John a lot. Understandable, as instead of a brain, he has hamsters running very, very fast on their wheels trying to keep up in his head. Plus, yelling at the hero from the moment you meet is the standard for any good shonen heroine.
I also suspect she and Yuya are twins who were separated at birth. As both of Kamijyo's series are fantasy and involve heroes who are demon boys and such, this is entirely plausible.
There's also Fukurou.
In addition to sharing Light Yagami's hairstylist, Fukurou has A Past with John and is rather pretentious and superior. However, he also wears a dramatic yet subdued cloak and carries a giant sword that looks like a cross.
I believe this gains him many points.
This is the commander from the first story. He was basically there to be moderately creepy and get Thoroughly Trounced by John.
Then there's Agape.
She appears to be an aristocratic information broker and friend of sorts to Lu LaRue. She is also a very, very tiny woman. See?
There's also a bounty hunter who offers information about a demon stone to John and Lu LaRue in exchange for their stealing medicine for his son. Dunno how that turns out or if he hangs around, yet.
Finally, there's this guy. I have no idea who he his as he hasn't appeared yet, but as he used up valuable paint on the title page of the first chapter, I assume he's important.
Anyway, very fun series. I shall keep reading scanslations and hope it gets licensed so I can read it properly.
ETA: I also read ch 72-74 of Full Metal Alchemist today, and they were excellent, but as it's licensed and I buy the books, I'll save my thoughts for when gets over here.
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Date: 2007-09-07 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 04:39 pm (UTC):-)
It is very fun so far.
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Date: 2007-09-07 06:10 pm (UTC)The stripey headcloth guy is Kazami (a/k/a Red Wind), and he is indeed becoming an important secondary character. His red zebra-striped headcloth makes me think of Benitora's red tiger-striped one ... his name too! (Red Tiger vs. Red Wind) I wonder if she'll have a future series with a red-leopard-print-headcloth guy named Red Somethingelse.
(I've been reading ahead in sanada's scripts at her hana-mi.net site ... you know that kuu-scans is using her scripts for the scanslations, right?)
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Date: 2007-09-07 06:50 pm (UTC)I noticed she was credited as being the translator. As scanslations are relatively new to me(been reading manga about 5 years and scanslations maybe a year) I'm patient enough to wait for the scanslations to be ready, as they're so much easier(easiest yet is printed books...if we're lucky, it'll get licensed and on a prompt publishing schedule)