Hiromu Arakawa
Hero Tales
Origins
- doesn't drop below certain quality level
- cliche
- unmemorable
| category | manga/anime |
| genre | wuxia + shonen |
| author | Hiromu Arakawa |
| published | 2006 - 2010 |
Hero Tales came to life in the arguably busiest year of Arakawa's life - in 2006, which saw her three different mangas debuting. And all that on top of her base Fullmetal Alchemist work.
Its origins go way back to the times when Hiromu was still a fresh face in the industry and looking for her big break. Her fascination with Chinese culture has always encouraged her to find ways to insert it into her work.
In her early Tokyo years, she befriended another female girl fascinated with manga - Zhang Fei Long. Together, they formed a doujinshi group called Dennou Sanzoku Bukando and started sketching out ideas. Both were making the story and Hiromu was drawing. That is how Hero Tales was born.
Because her other works gained traction, this one had to be put on hold, but the year 2006 saw its resurrection. The initial plan was to release it as web manga, but since Arakawa was by then a cult status in the industry already, Square Enix was willing to release it in one of their manga periodicals.
The story revolves around Taitou and his entourage that travels to regain the stolen sword Kenkaranpu. That turns out to be just the surface of what is really going on.
During their travels, part of the crew finds out about their real identities - they are the legendary stars taking human form, who are foreseen to appear once the Ken empire is in shambles. There are seven of those stars and they form a constellation of sorts.
Two stars on the edges of this constellation are furthest away from each other and they are like fire and water - they oppose each other passionately and destiny so constructs their fates that they are not supposed to meet each other. But from time to time that happens, and then...
Characters
Taitou
Our main protagonist turns out to be Hagun, one of the two most powerful stars that is on a collision course with his equal, a repugnant evil-doer who is the villain-to-beat. Stupid, impulsive, but with a good heart, Taitou has to face his inner self and control what can easily destroy everything and everyone around him.
Laila
Taitou's half-sister. Even though younger, she still is much more mature than him. Also more intelligent, she compliments Taitou well. On the other hand, she is very emotional and reacts poorly even to short periods of time away from her brother. She is extremely attached to him. In the entire crew, Laila is the only one who is not a star, which puts her in grave danger. One uncontrollable outburst even from her beloved Taitou and she's dead.
Housei
Similar in his behavior to Taitou, Housei is also loud, always all over the place and not too bright. His general attitude makes it hard to believe that he is one of the seven stars. Instantly falls in love with Laila and follows her around everywhere flirting all the time. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't fit the profile of her knight in shining armor, and so a string of painful rejections unfold, which make for some of the funniest moments in the manga. He isn't willing to give up though.
Ryuukou
Summoned by a man who adopted Taitou, Ryuukou is asked to help the boy on his mission to regain the stolen sword (and something else, too). Therefore, he is part of the pack since the beginning until things complicate a little. Definitely the most mature one of the whole bunch, well-mannered and abstemious. Just as Housei seems to be the mirror reflection of Taitou, Ryuukou is the exact opposite of both.
Review
Fullmetal Alchemist required a lot of research on Arakawa's part to find and stitch together various influences. On her personal list of energy drainers, Hero Tales comes second for sure.
The artist went so far in her thirst for knowledge that she actually went to China to experience its culture first-hand and scout for things to include in her manga. So much effort should result in a polished and deep work. Not the case here, unfortunately.
The big irony is that Hero Tales doesn't capture the unique style of Chinese culture at all. Fascinated by it since childhood years and with direct experience at hand, Hiromu should be drawing specific objects and places left and right.
Instead, she made a manga whose action could very much take place in Japan, or any other spot on Earth for that matter. Chinese influences are mostly conceptual (Hero Tales is strongly inspired by wuxia - see side note), we don't get to see and feel them much directly. It is surprising that when Arakawa can finally dedicate herself to a project which expresses her lifelong passion, she stumbles so much.
The manga starts slow and gradually picks up the pace, but that doesn't necessarily result in growing interest and sleepless nights. Lack of interesting ideas is a problem, some pacing issues here and there add up to it.
Fights sometimes start and stop as if they were forcefully pasted and cut (and that includes the final fight), switches between the scenes also sometimes feel out of place.
Hiromu's trademark sense of humor is missing, or rather it is replaced with more generic one. Decent enough to laugh from time to time, but nowhere close to what we're used to seeing from the master artist.
Cringe jokes about old man touching his granddaughter's butt are definitely below her standards, not to mention that the idea is taken straight out of Dragon Ball (sans incest). Even the person at fault looks and acts too much like Master Roshi.
There are other ideas which recycle Arakawa's tried and tested concepts. Poor refugees tormented by the evil empire is the Arakawa classic. Kenkaranpu terrifying sword has a mind of its own, which is the artist's second flirtation with Elric of Melniboné's story.
Similarities to Fullmetal Alchemist are present, but only occasional. The clearest one of them all is probably Keirou, manga's main antagonist, which both looks and acts very similar to FMA's main antagonist King Bradley.
What drags the experience down the most is the fact that almost everything about Hero Tales is generic. It fails to go wild with the Chinese theme and instead settles for more neutral ground. Various characters have personality traits that are too similar to other ones.
They are not too memorable too. Taitou, the main character, has nothing in him that would particularly draw attention, or make him likeable. Throughout the manga, I found myself curious about the fate of supporting characters more than his, and the only real draw was what will come out when he "transforms".
Alfred Hitchcock's pictures are good examples of how to draw attention to seemingly less relevant characters and it complimented his movies well, but here it's just the case of main protagonist being too generic to force attention onto him.
There's very few positive things to say about the manga, but that doesn't mean that it's very poor. Disappointment comes not from the fact that it is of low quality, but that it is average, without anything that would make it stand out from the crowd. Hero Tales plays too safe to make any kind of impact. Given that it's Arakawa we are talking about here, much more is expected.
The problem might be that her main focus went onto making Fullmetal Alchemist great (which she succeeded) and Hero Tales consumed whatever time and inspiration was left in her, especially when she was starting the engine in 2006.
While remaining decent, Hero Tales doesn't really give a single reason to recommend it to anyone and even the unique wuxia setting doesn't save it.
Anime
Just as the Hero Tales manga was a project long in the making, so was the anime. Together with its creator Studio Flag, Arakawa held occasional meetings in which they slowly brought it to life. It took seven years of these sessions before the project was ready to go.
Huang Jin Zhou wrote the story for anime. Arakawa was given the job of character design and helped with other things occasionally. These characters were then put into motion by animation director Naoki Sōsaka (Gundam Seed C.E. 73: Stargazer, Naruto). Osamu Sekita, mostly known for his involvement with the Gundam series, took the director's spot.
Unfortunately, the anime suffers from the same problems that manga does and adds some of its own. The way the story is laid out is especially hard for many fans to digest, leaving them clueless and irritated. On the other hand, the art is good, so is voice acting and the final product feels polished.
Hero Tales is mostly faithful to the original manga, but there are some differences that some will enjoy, others not so much. The way Housei's and Kouei's journeys end differ, explanation of Shimei's existence is not the same, and anime's ending is slightly inferior to manga's.
