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manhwa: Saver Vol 1-4
Apr. 30th, 2009 10:45 amLena is the androgynous captain of her school’s kumdo (think kendo, only adjusted for Korean swordsmanship and martial arts) team, and is often mistaken for a boy. Since childhood, she’s bitterly resented a half-brother she’s never met, knowing that her father neglects her and her mother and favors him and his purely because of their genders. Hyun-min is a transfer student from America who initially mistakes Lena for a boy, but they quickly fall for each other. Naturally, Hyun-min is actually the despised brother she’s never met. When his mother finds out about them, she orders both Lena and her mother killed, and Hyun-min is hurt protecting Lena and falls into a coma. Lena vows revenge, but before she can get it, she’s injured and falls off a pier, waking up in another world.
Lena and Hyun-min’s story is tragic, but as they do not appear to be reincarnated lovers or enemies and neither is a reincarnated angel or had their soul sold to the devil before they were even born, I can apparently sympathize with their story, but not really be interested in it. The main story, however, is Lena’s adventures in the other world. There, she has to actively pretend to be a boy due to women with dark hair being slaves due to a prophecy, instead of just being mistaken for one while not caring. So far, her main goal is to save a young woman who fell for her (thinking she was a man) and was taken away to be a slave, but it will clearly eventually become “crossdressing heroine gathers army and overthrows evil ruler,” especially since she’s already gathering friends and a sidekick inclined to do just that.
I like Lena because she’s cold and stoic and detached and angry and very much not like your normal shoujo heroine. Actually, she’s probably one of the more successful cases I’ve read of a text giving a heroine more masculine qualities without seeming to try to make her masculine. Many of her poses and “heroic” moments are those traditionally associated with male heroes, yet he rarely comes across as male or female in them, just as a troubled person. While many of her problems come from her father’s devaluing her because of her gender, she doesn’t really seem to identify herself as male or female. Also, I may be a bit giddy about how obsessed she is with her sword, especially when she talks about how she’ll use the sword used to kill her mother to get her vengeance.
The rest of the cast has the standards-evil villains, prophet, cute sidekick with hidden depths, nobleman out to reclaim kingdom’s honor, son wanting vengeance for his fathers death, mysterious cadre of warriors, possibly untrustworthy handsome swordsman, etc. Actually, for only four volumes, this already has a fairly large cast. So far, most seem to be interesting.
Unfortunately, while I think a few more volumes were published, this seems to be one of the series Tokyopop has cancelled.
Lena and Hyun-min’s story is tragic, but as they do not appear to be reincarnated lovers or enemies and neither is a reincarnated angel or had their soul sold to the devil before they were even born, I can apparently sympathize with their story, but not really be interested in it. The main story, however, is Lena’s adventures in the other world. There, she has to actively pretend to be a boy due to women with dark hair being slaves due to a prophecy, instead of just being mistaken for one while not caring. So far, her main goal is to save a young woman who fell for her (thinking she was a man) and was taken away to be a slave, but it will clearly eventually become “crossdressing heroine gathers army and overthrows evil ruler,” especially since she’s already gathering friends and a sidekick inclined to do just that.
I like Lena because she’s cold and stoic and detached and angry and very much not like your normal shoujo heroine. Actually, she’s probably one of the more successful cases I’ve read of a text giving a heroine more masculine qualities without seeming to try to make her masculine. Many of her poses and “heroic” moments are those traditionally associated with male heroes, yet he rarely comes across as male or female in them, just as a troubled person. While many of her problems come from her father’s devaluing her because of her gender, she doesn’t really seem to identify herself as male or female. Also, I may be a bit giddy about how obsessed she is with her sword, especially when she talks about how she’ll use the sword used to kill her mother to get her vengeance.
The rest of the cast has the standards-evil villains, prophet, cute sidekick with hidden depths, nobleman out to reclaim kingdom’s honor, son wanting vengeance for his fathers death, mysterious cadre of warriors, possibly untrustworthy handsome swordsman, etc. Actually, for only four volumes, this already has a fairly large cast. So far, most seem to be interesting.
Unfortunately, while I think a few more volumes were published, this seems to be one of the series Tokyopop has cancelled.
