Hiromu Arakawa
A Bat in Blue Sky
Review
- unique setting for Arakawa
- great atmosphere
- convincing characters
- a little cliche
| category | manga |
| genre | shonen |
| author | Hiromu Arakawa |
| published | 2006 |
Just half a year after Raiden-18, Hiromu Arakawa made another break from her routine Fullmetal Alchemist work. This time, it was much shorter though - enough time just for a one-shot.
A Bat in Blue Sky tells a story of Henbukumaru, a girl with bat tattoo under her eye, which is found traumatized inside a pile of corpses, and taken over to Tadahide Chiyozuru's court.
Chiyozuru is also young, but of much higher social standing - he is soon to be crowned as the new emperor. He has great character, is sincere, has moral integrity and big heart, as opposed to his uncle, who as the second in line to the throne would gladly get rid of the little bugger. On paper, it looks like the bat girl couldn't have been more fortunate.
She becomes deeply troubled though and Chiyozuru's right hand man sniffs that something is not quite right with the seemingly innocent orphan child. As it turns out, she has been raised and trained to kill by the assassin clan that answers to Chiyozuru's uncle's orders. And that very same clan is sent on a mission to kill her savior.
Finding herself by pure accident at the spot, Henbukumaru now has a moral dilemma to solve: should she fulfill her clan's wishes and pay homage to her roots, or should she follow her heart and defend the good kid who is about to become a victim of political scheme?
Great sense of humor is one of the best qualities manga fans can find in Hiromu Arakawa's works, and she injected some of it into everything that she made. Even Stray Dog, a very serious early work from Arakawa, had some lightness to it, but that lightness is nowhere to be found here.
A Bat in Blue Sky is serious to the core, the mood is too heavy for any kind of silliness. Because of that, it feels like something dedicated to a much older audience, even though its two main characters are kids.
The subject is very problematic, but because of that it is also interesting. Every main character (and even characters of lesser importance), is presented with a dilemma which he is forced to find solution to as soon as possible. What's worse, all the options are confusing, there is no clear answer, the good and the bad.
Evil uncle seems like the exception to that rule, but even he might be able to rationalize his behavior. How many people will have to suffer if an inexperienced child is to rule the empire?
Traditional Japanese setting is instantly visible and it's a nice thematic break. Even though it has been covered well by thousands of mangas, animes and movies, when it's properly executed, it always works great, people love it! Not without a reason Yasuo is League of Legends' most popular champion and generation after generation kids are drawn to the Japanese culture moths to the flame.
Known for including everything but Japanese culture influences in her works, it's good to see Hiromu going back to her roots and doing it so well. Because the subject is already so well-covered, there is nothing in the story that would really stand out, but the overall high quality compensates for it.
Because A Bat in Blue Sky is so serious, it probably is the most manly manga she has drawn. Not many women will be interested in this one, and looking at the way she has done things, it's definitely a work in which she doesn't need to camouflage her female identity under a male-ish 'Hiromu' pseudonym. If she would be an unknown artist, she could just be Hiromi and nobody would believe that it was done by a woman anyway!
The only thing that betrays her as a woman (and as Arakawa) is that once again the mentally strongest character which nevertheless has a good moral spine is a woman. Arakawa's trademark.
Because it is a one-shot, there is no great immersion, but the manga doesn't seem rushed either. The pacing is good, each character is presented well enough to make it seem real and invoke emotions while the reader finds about about his fate. Just like in Stray Dog, satisfaction awaits after completing A Bat in Blue Sky. It feels like a complete story.
Comparing it one last time to Stray Dog, it is easy to see how much progress she has made in storytelling. While the former was already very good, now it seems completely effortless for the mangaka to get the reader hooked.
Of course for anyone familiar with Fullmetal Alchemist, it is no surprise, but it is good that she puts so much effort into making her side-projects work well as much as she does her main franchise. Well worth the read for both Arakawa fans and for manga fans in general.
