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Yamato Takeru (1994) the movie is a curious creation, following a peculiar formula—take an old legend/fairy tale, and modernize it with some sci-fi particulars. The film is not alone in such an endeavor, even amongst Japanese films; just the previous decade Toho had released The Princess from the Moon (1987) which crossed The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (a Japanese folk-tale) with space ships. In Yamato Takeru, it feels like we are getting Japanese myth by way of Power Rangers, transforming famous god-like characters into veritable Zords plunked into an old-Japan setting. As I mentioned in my review of the previous volume, the manga adaptation of this film departs in drastic fashion from the already eclectic film and likely took inspiration from the similarly-themed DragonBall (which was adapted from Chinese folk tales about the Monkey King, often called Journey to the West… which has inspired a variety of sci-fi retellings both in the East and West)—and I really enjoyed the balls-to-the-walls first half. It added talking animals, floating islands, a dinosaur sidekick, cyborgs, freeze rays, and monsters galore while kicking aside many of the main plot points from the film and the original mythic tale. That book had its flaws (particularly with confusing panel layouts and undercooked story elements), but it also possessed a genuine sense of adventure and joy matched with hard-edged violence that gave it a feeling of grit and urgency. The book ended on a cliffhanger, and I was looking forward to seeing what wild directions the narrative might zig or zag next. Unfortunately, the second volume is inferior to the brazen original, squandering the established cast, losing some of the universe-trotting vim, introducing a new set of arguably less interesting supporting characters, and generally feeling rushed and broken.
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Yamato Takeru and Jura guided by Kiita to the Tabernacle of Light, with an inscription of their destiny to come |
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The overall story follows Yamato Takeru, a young warrior and member of the Sun God Tribe. In the first volume, he was selected to become the Warrior of Light and fight against Lord Tsukuyomi, a dark god who controls the universe with pitch blackness and silence. Takeru travels with his best friend Jura (a theropod dinosaur with tiny bat wings), twin Oni brothers Akamaru and Aomaru, feisty cyborg lady Oto Tachibana and others through various feats of daring do. At the end of one of these feats, a mysterious individual approaches Takeru to shake his hand in congratulations—and in the beginning of the second volume, we learn who he is. The newcomer is named Hayahi—a ludicrously powerful henchman of Tsukuyomi and a fellow member of the Sun God Tribe. Hayahi sucks away most of Takeru’s power via handshake and proceeds to easily defeat (and seemingly kill) all of Takeru’s entourage. Our hero is barely saved by his magic amulet, that Magatama thing that serves as a deus ex machina device both in the movie and in the manga. Soon, Takeru teams with Hayahi’s older brother, Kiita, who looks like a baby and chatters in a thick Osaka dialect. Navigating a series of convenient prophecies which are quickly fulfilled in the midst of endless fight sequences, Kiita and Takeru visit their “mom” (a sacred tree) and a special temple of the Sun God Tribe while Takeru progressively levels up in strength and Hayahi pursues them whilst augmenting his own body with cyborg machinery of dark evil. With Lord Tsukuyomi dwelling ever in the background, and Takeru constantly beaten down even with his rapidly shifting power levels, is there hope for the light to triumph, or shall the universe remain in dark silence forever?!?!
One of my biggest frustrations with this second volume is the immediate sidelining of Takeru’s supporting cast. Oto, Akamaru, and Aomaru—whose loyalty was hard-won in the first volume—are just destroyed in the first few pages of the second, and while they return (nobody ever really dies in this series), their repartee never recovers. Replacing them is the maniac Tsukuyomi-devotee Hayahi and his snot-nosed older brother Kiita—neither of whom have great character designs, and they don’t possess overly compelling stories or personalities either. Hayahi is meant to be a tragic character like Oto Tachibana, but he feels like a pale imitation—Oto already filled the role of manipulated Sun God Tribe member whose body was replaced by a robot in order to defeat Takeru. Hayahi is practically the same, and given the manga’s breakneck, non-stop fighting, we hardly get a chance to get to know who he is as a person. He doesn’t even display the rudimentary spunky personality traits Oto exhibited in the previous book—he is just extremely proud or extremely angry all the time. Kiita is a poor replacement for Takeru’s entire crew—though he has a somewhat interesting hook insofar as he has somehow suppressed his aging for twenty years (thus his absurdly comic appearance). The payoff for this stunted growth is weak (when he “cashes in” on those twenty years, it functions as a temporary energy buff for Takeru), and his Kansai dialect is a fragile swap for a personality.
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Hayahi absorbing the Darkness Machine Bugs into his body, becoming a mechanical monstrosity in the process |
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Speaking of rotten substitutions, focusing on a parade of power upgrades does not a compelling story make. Most of the second volume concerns Takeru pumping up his strength (generally by a ghostly version of a compatriot lending him their own energy), then an enemy loudly bellowing “impertinent” and proclaiming that our hero is yet not strong enough to defeat them, and then Takeru upgrading again, and a baddie yelling “impertinent” again, repeat, repeat, repeat. Takeru does regain his armor and sword as he gets power, which adds some visual flair, though sometimes he just seems vaguely stronger with little to show for it visually. This progression does eventually pay off in a big way when Utsuno Ikusagami finally makes an entrance, and the mega mech takes on new weapons and abilities vaguely themed after Takeru’s allies. Given that most of the fights rely heavily on the theme of teamwork, such direct physical manifestations of teamwork are obvious but appropriate for the subject matter. At least it’s better than simply stating that Takeru is stronger in the text accompanied by speed lines or shining light.
There are other issues. I loved the variety of original monsters that appeared in the first volume, often with their own names and battle sequences—but the monsters in the second volume are far fewer, may barely make an appearance, or are just a variation of Orochi. The art takes a step down, with even more confusing panel progressions and hard-to-follow illustrations, less interesting character designs, and downright lazy pages devoted to low-detail spirit versions of our heroic band. The script is just terrible, with the same lines spoken over and over again. One gets the impression that Takaya lost interest and was forced to scribble out something quick on a soy-sauce-stained napkin to meet his deadlines.
Still, there were a few highlights I really did appreciate. Hayahi’s robotic transformation hearkens back to Tetsuo the Iron Man (1989) or Akira (1988) with grotesque body-horror and self-sacrifice, plus a decent splattering of detail. Though the additional monster appearances are slight, at least we get SOMETHING—I particularly liked the phantom turtle creature that briefly appears. I also learned a new insult in Japanese—“goldfish turds,” which means something like “a person or people who mindlessly follow a powerful leader figure.” Hayahi repeatedly uses this term when referring to the Oni brothers, I couldn’t help but develop an unhealthy fondness for it. The final fight is over too fast, but at least it does have some sense of excitement and scale. If you like action, too, that’s almost all you get!
As a weird alternate take on the movie, the Yamato Takeru manga as a whole provides something unique and energetically frivolous, but the second volume squanders much of the positive vibe with a blander story progression replete with worse art, more boring character moments, and recycled drama. At least it’s a quick read—everything goes extremely fast, and I was able to translate the whole comic in a fraction of the time it took me to work through the first half. A disappointing conclusion, but it’s all so slight that I can’t hold a grudge against this flash-in-the-pan adaptation.
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Oto and the Flying Dragon Oni Brothers combine their power to thwart Tsukuyomi! But will it be enough? |
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Andrew Sudomerski
Whew boy, this was certainly something. Before Nick got around to translating, my impressions of the second volume I could just tell were going to be lukewarm. While there were many "what on earth is going on" moments and what I personally found to be a fun final confrontation with Tsukuyomi and Orochi, the sudden shift away from the main crew and doubling down on new characters left me uncertain. I was cautiously optimistic that there'd be something to draw from, but after reading what Nick translated, it's sadly as lackluster as my initial gut feeling made it out to be. Even some of my personal hunches turned out to be wrong; particularly a point where Kiita uses (I believe) one of Takeru's magatamas and summons an Orochi-like dragon head that burns Hayahi's arm, which I assumed was going to be a purified Beekon from the previous book (since Volume 1 had alluded to the fact that evil beasts in the magatama could be purified). But nothing is ever mentioned of it, and only serves as a forced visual to fulfill an arbitrary prophecy. It was so disappointing.
There's fun material here, but nowhere nearly as substantial compared to the first volume. I personally can't help but mentally compare it to the Attack On Titan live-action duology in terms of story structure and, to an extent, execution. Mostly in that the first part somewhat follows the original narrative, changes a lot of things, but is generally at least a fine story, even if imperfect. Then the second part shifts away from the initial plot, focuses on a brand new subplot for most of the story, then quickly resolve the main story by the end of it. But Shikishima these new support characters are not, and a massive hit against the second volume of Yamato Takeru is the fact that Hayahi and Kiita feel like they don't exist or are even alluded in the first volume. It's weird to say they feel like filler just to extend the length of the story. For being as long as it is, it doesn't feel like it amounts to as much compared to what the first volume had to offer.
That isn't to say there aren't highlights. The final battle against Tsukuyomi I found myself jiving with. Everyone giving their part and the awakening of Utsuno Ikusgami was exciting to see, even if the actual clash between the sun warrior and Orochi isn't the longest. But the new transformation of Utsuno makes up for it, and I think is a cool idea for the character. And as Nick pointed out, Hayahi's nightmarish robotic transformation is a sickeningly delightful sequence that carried a certain energy both in my initial read and in the post-translation efforts that was a really fun scene. It's something I wished permeated throughout the rest of the book. But as-is, the second volume leaves a lot to be desired. It's a shame, because I did legitimately enjoy the first volume a ton, so the fact the second volume drops the ball in the way it did leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
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| The clash between the shining light and the darkness! Utsuno Ikusgami vs. Orochi |
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