Bastard!! (1988)

[BASTARD!! -暗黒の破壊神-]

Volume 1

Author/Artist: Kazushi Hagiwara
Publisher: Jump Comics

Synopsis:
When threatened by the forces of evil, the Kingdom of Metallicana in its desperation seeks to revive the sorcerer Dark Schneider to fight for them.

Story/Characters:
I can remember the OAV for this series standing out on the shelf. How could it not to a prudish teenager? "U~m... They've got a bad word on the cover." I never ended up watching said OAV, but I suppose with the remake set to come out this year, I may have to check it out. I happened to see the collection of these volumes at the Book Off for cheap, so I decided to pick it up. Now, I only have some passing experience with DnD and limited exposure to heavy metal (mostly from watching my battle buddy play Brütal Legend), but the author is a big fan of both and weaves them together to make this story. For reference, I'm not going to be using the lawyer-friendly versions of the names from the official translation back in the day because I'm not particularly worried about getting sued, unlike the distributors at the time. So manga has changed quite a bit over the years, so going back to an older series like this is really quite the experience.

One thing that struck me from the start was both the physical and mental difference between Yoko and Lucien. You'd never believe they were supposed to both be 14 by looking at them. Yoko seems older than that and Lucien seems considerably younger. I suppose making them the same age was meant to emphasize how their fates are intertwined, but their dynamic is that of an older sister and (significantly) younger brother. I suppose part of the reason Lucien is made to be so childish is so that the contrast between him and Dark Schneider that much starker. Speaking of our boy DS, he lives up to the title of the series, but it is funny to see him be so thoroughly whipped by Yoko. (There are shades of the relationship between Inuyasha and Kagome if you replace "Osuwari" with sound beatings.)

Given the naming convention, I was surprised that Osborne would be the jobber starter villain. (Maybe Hagiwara isn't a fan of Ozzy. That or he's such a fan he wanted Osborne first out the gate.) We quickly establish Dark Schneider's personality as being an arrogant archvillain with the sole redeeming quality that he's inherited Lucien's soft spot for Yoko. We also learn that while a kiss from Yoko can bring him out, it can also seal him again, so he can't be too forward with her. (Give the kind of person he is, you'd think that since "a maiden pure" can control him, remedying that situation would be his first priority, but he's apparently not that much of an embodiment of the title.)

We get a brief view of two of our big bads, Dark Schneider's former companions Kall-Su and Gara before we cut back to Yoko dreaming of ol' tall, dark and bastardy. She doesn't relish the thought of Dark Schneider making another appearance, but a new jobber villain with a hydra in tow forces her hand. Her dad demonstrates that he's not so helpless when DS tries to act on his threat of revenge. (He was the one who sealed DS in the first place, after all.) DS then unleashes a golem of his the kingdom rather foolishly decided to squirrel away under the castle, or it would have been foolish if DS was left to run amok and didn't have the jobber's hydra show up. Dark Schneider's golem makes mince of the hydra while he gibs the jobber and only Yoko's intervention keeps him from picking up his rampage where he left off.

Next we get a little more serious opposition in the form of Ninja Master Gara. As he's moving in on Metallicana, we cut to Kall-Su and the dark priest Abigail (who's a dude, by the way; don't let the name fool you) and see what their goal is, destroying the seals of the Four Kingdoms to revive the evil god Anthrasax. When Yoko retires from the evening after arguing with the cowardly officials who just want to continue to exploit Dark Schneider's power, she gets attacked by Gara. She puts up a bit of a fight, but then he grabs her wrist and you know that grabbing a lady by the arm drains her of all her power. As Gara is a massive pervert, he plays with his food a bit, only to awaken the sleeping Lucien and Dark Schneider's personality manifests without a bodily transformation. If not for the timely arrival of Gara's wyvern, things might've gone very bad for him. With Yoko kidnapped, Princess Sheila steps up to the plate to awaken Dark Schneider. While not quite on Yoko's level, Sheila proves to have some iron in her when she stands up to DS as he's starting to go off in villain mode. Not only that, she gears up and goes with Dark Schneider to rescue Yoko along with a small contingent of knights, lead by the lovable Bon Jovina. While they're infiltrating Gara's castle, he and his ninja boys are making sport of poor Yoko, teasing her about Dark Schneider's notorious way with women and siccing the obligatory clothes-melting slime on her. While Yoko silently pleads for DS to save her, guess who's busy blasting apart Gara's front door? And there's our cliffhanger.

Art:
The 80s hair... So much 80s hair... You can definitely tell the era in which this was made. Given the inspiration of the author, it's no surprise so much of the setting looks like it belongs on an album cover. You contrast the dark fantasy moments (that on occasion have a bit of the old ultraviolence) with cartoony wild takes for some massive mood whiplash, but it does make it clear that you shouldn't be taking things too terribly seriously. There is occasional wonkiness to be had in faces, poses and proportions, but I suppose it's better than things appearing to stiff. Monster design is cool, especially the Gigeresque Anthrasax. Battle scenes are suitably flashy as well.

Other:
A few things worth mentioning about Hagiwara's style is that he likes to make little snarky comments in the margins between panels and little trivia boxes to provide extra details on monsters and spells when they're introduced. We also get the occasional 4-koma that I don't know if they're new to the tankoubon release or if they appeared in the original serialization.

Conclusion:
For those of you familiar with the scene back in the late 80s and early 90s and want to remember those good old days, this is a fine way to do it. Not everyone may be game for a villain protagonist, but Dark Schneider's brashness may appeal to people who are tired of the everyday vanilla protag. They certainly don't make 'em like this anymore. If you share the author's love of DnD and heavy metal, you'll be sure to get an extra kick out of it. Give it a read.

Rating:
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