Souma and Ryuu-ou join Yasha and Ashura's journey. Led by Kujaku's advice, they go to Kusumapura, the destroyed city in the west-end of heaven, in search of the Shura Sword. It's the key to find the six stars.
CLAMP originally began in 1989 as a twelve-member dōjinshi circle, but by 1990, the circle had diminished from twelve to seven. Of the remaining seven, Tamayo Akiyama, Sei Nanao, and Leeza Sei left the group during the production of the RG Veda manga. Other former members of CLAMP also included Soushi Hishika, O-Kyon, Kazue Nakamori, Yuzuru Inoue and Shinya Ōmi. Currently, there are four members in the group.
In 2004, CLAMP's 15th anniversary as a mangaka group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. The August 2004 issue of Newtype USA, a magazine specializing in events of the anime and manga subcultures, reported that the members of CLAMP simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people commenting that her name was the same as Mick Jagger's. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well.
In 2006, they made their first USA public debut at Anime Expo in Anaheim, California. They were well received at the convention, with 6,000 fans in attendance at their panel.
Admito que me gustó mucho más que el primero. Conocemos más dr la historia del protagonista, y también descubrimos nuevos personas que se unirán a esta increíble historia.
Me hace recordar un poco a Akatsuni no yoona por todo el tema de los elegidos y de cómo se van sumando los personajes a la aventura. Pero no lo digo como algo malo, ya que amo la historia de yoona 💖
Taishakuten has murdered the Heavenly Emperor and conquered his throne. The once peaceful kingdom falls into a long period of tyranny where rebellion against the new Heavenly Emperor means the destruction of whole tribes. The legendary Ashura tribe was the first to fall, yet the young Prince survived and prophecy has it that he will gather the six stars who will be the downfall of Taishakuten.
Although RG Veda isn't CLAMP's first work, it is their debut manga. It is loosely based on the Veda Hindu scripts, but as I am not very familiar with those, I really can't say how much freedom CLAMP allowed themselves with this one.
RG Veda is not an easy manga to get into, and definitely not one I would recommend to someone who is new to reading manga. It has a very slow start with a lot of information getting thrown at you. This also leads to a somewhat rocky flow of the story. That being said, once getting through the first volumes, it turns into an emotional and complex story.
There are many characters involved and even though the length of this series doesn't allow us to know all characters in great detail, it is still very easy to feel their pain. What little we know of them looks very real and as the story progresses, one can find that there are many grey characters - even the most villainous ones have their good sides and there are many surprising twists towards the end. There is certainly a lot of drama and suffering in this one, despite the occasional comic relief, you really might not want to start loving these characters too much, CLAMP started early with killing off their characters.
Also typical for CLAMP is the stunning artwork and ambiguous relationships between characters. Although several of the male characters are a little too bulky for my liking, there's not much left to be desired when it comes to the intricate clothing, backgrounds, hair, weapons and general page layout.
Although he is clearly named as Prince Ashura, our young hero is said to be genderless and has fooled several potential readers, myself included, into thinking him to be a female. I've never felt comfortable with people romanticising his relationship with the god of war Yasha - yes, the two of them are very close, but I can't see it as anything other than a father-son kind of bond. However, there are other queer characters along the way and some of them really come around with a twist that I don't think many people would see coming.
So despite the slow start, this is a wonderful tale of gods, humans, age-long wars and family and love. For all who struggle with getting into this, give it another chance, the second half may very well prove worthy of your time and surprise you in ways you did not see coming.
Yasha and Ashura are on the run, surrounded by enemies, but they have allies, too. Such as the mercurial Queen Kendappa, royal musician, and her devoted companion, Sohma, last survivor of her people, and the spirited young Nahga, newly crowned Ryou-oh, King of the Water Dragon tribe. Yasha, Ashura, and Ryou-oh, trailed by Sohma set out for Kusampara, following the advice of the enigmatic Kujaku (who’s also stalking the party) to obtain the lost Shura sword of the Ashuras. Only Kumraten, the king of the underworld, is waiting for them with sinister plans of his own for Ashura…
The world expands as Yasha and Ashura explore the westlands, meeting some of its denizens, introducing readers to them as well. We meet Kendappa, whom is a dubious ally, and Sohma, whom seems eager to help the protagonists. Kendappa appears to be quite devoted to Sohma and vice versa, giving an added layer of complication to the royal musician. Readers encounter the flying citadel Kendappa commands, along with their secret link to Kendappa. The beautiful water realm is a visual treat, along with Ryou-oh’s retainers, plus we get to visit the dark, tragic realm of Kusampara, catching another peek at Ashura Castle, which is a reflection of Zenmi Castle, the enemy’s fortress. Readers meet Kahra, former priestess of the Ashuras and her twin sister, Shashi, whom is Ashura’s mother, getting another piece of the puzzle which lead to the fall of the Ashura tribe. This fantasy epic becomes all the more intricate and detailed while moving swiftly forward in one of the most stunning art styles I’ve ever been fortunate enough to behold. For all of this, I give this five stars.
Desainnya Varuna mirip kaya gaya rambut tokohnya Jojo's Bizzare Adventure. Was that a tribute? XD
Sashi, is the worst mother and wife of the century. Kira-kira kenapa Ashura-ou mau nikahin dia, ya? Gak bisa detect kalau cewek ini enggak beres, ya?
Terus Kendappa, si musisi kerajaan, kan menampung Ashura dan Yasha. Kok Taishaku-ten yang selalu ngawasin mereka berdua lewat cermin air nggak tahu dan nggak nyerang mereka? Ada kekkai di kediaman Kissho-ten?
Begitu juga waktu mereka di kediaman Ryu-ou. Taishaku-ten kok bisa gak tahu kalau Ryu-ou gabung ama mereka? Plus Ryu-ou tuh egois banget. Masa orang kayak gitu layak jadi raja? Apa pedang naga cuma ngukur orang berdasarkan kekuatannya aja?
Le tome 2 de RG Veda est un chapitre de transition crucial qui enrichit l'univers, approfondit les personnages, intensifie l'action et complexifie l'intrigue, tout en maintenant le voile sur les révélations majeures à venir. La quête continue, et les alliances se forment et se fragilisent dans un climat de plus en plus tendu.
La etapa de reclutamiento y las videntes me recuerdan a las de X, obviamente. Màs las espadas y los ataques, que se ven de fantasìa èpica. Por lo demàs no hay gran cambio ni giros de trama por ahora. Solo lo de los padres de Ashura.
Warning: if you haven't read any other CLAMP works this review will confuse you. Because I will also talk about stuff that happens in other series. I regret nothing.
First off all, hooray, Souma and Kendappa finally appeared. And they are... to be honest, Kendappa surprised the hell out of me. She is bubbly, she has a cruel streak but her career as a musician shows that she has a softer side; also, that woman nows how to rock the infamous "Ohohoho" of Doom. (I can understand why in Tsubasa they made her Tomoyo's sisters. I can only imagine how much fun they must have had trolling Kurogane all day. Kuro-trolling is the best sport ever. I bet he had to wear girl's kimonos at least once a year.) As far as I recall, Souma and Kendappa are the only obviously lesbian pairing who actually got together, most of the affections are either one sided (like Sonomi in Card Captor Sakura and well, Tomoyo of course) or implied (Sai and Kaede from Angelic Layer), so I just have to enjoy this, although unfortunately there is not much of them so far. And I'm afraid they'll die. (Because this is CLAMP, so they're all doomed anyway.)
Naga/Ryo, on the other hand is just like his alter ego in Tsubasa... ah, why do I even bother! I love them all! Little Ashura is still so cute, it's giving me toothache. 8D
I am not impressed so far. Though the artwork looks cleaner in this volume than in the previous one, the characters feel incredible flat and stereotypical. Apart from one person, nobody intrigues me. The story tries to draw people in but feels boring to me. As in the previous part, almost all developments seem forced to me.
Lord Yasha and Ashura continue their quest to take down the evil ruler Taishukuten, going to a flying castle, gaining a female warrior and a young dragon king along the way. The story reminds me a little too much of their other series, X-1999, which I know came later but was the one I read first. However, it has the lovely CLAMP artwork, so that will cover for a lot of bland plot sins. (Library, 04/06)
Trebby's Take: I'm going to pick this one up again.
The next project is to read every single thing CLAMP wrote because I really want to read the new Cardcaptor Sakura continuation. I've attempted this before but did not follow through to the end, and this 1st series it the hardest to read. There are just so many characters and backstory and we are thrown right in the middle and I don't know what is happening even though I've read it before. I just need to hold out and finish the series and move on to better things.
I tried. I just couldn't get into this series. It starts off really slow and does nothing to capture my interest. Being 10 volumes long, I'm not sure I'm willing to put anymore time into reading this. I might try again later, but right now I'm putting it on my could not finish shelf.