RG Veda, Vol. 05

聖伝 ‐RG VEDA‐ #5

by Clamp

The Sky Castle is shrouded in darkness as Lady Karura grieves over the death of her beloved sister. But she places herself in great danger by staying there...will she live to see Taishakuten pay for what he has done?

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Graphic Novels Manga, 漫画, Shounen Ai

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 1993

About the author

Ōkawa Nanase 大川七瀬
[born: 2 May 1967; Ōsaka, bloodtype: A]

Mokona Apapa もこなあぱぱ
[born: 16 Jun 1968, Kyōto; bloodtype: A]

Nekoi Mick 猫井みっく
[born: 21 Jan 1969, Kyōto; bloodtype: O]

Igarashi Satsuki 五十嵐さつき
[born: 8 Feb 1969, Kyōto; bloodtype: A]


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.

Reviews

[MaguiWorld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bueno. Pequeño plot que me gustó bastante y me dejó un toque sorprendida. Admito que me gustó.

Algo que no voy a comprender nunca es esa obsesión por los personajes poco proporcionales que hacen CLAMP. Tanto este manga como xxxHolic y las guerras mágicas tienen unos personajes bastantes particulares.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for complete series


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.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lady Karura struggles through her period of mourning over her sister, Karyoubinga. Not that Taishakuten helped. I wondered if he wasn’t deliberately pushing her to rebel. To flush out the Six Stars? To test her loyalty past the point of self-destruction? He claimed he had to hold Tenkai, but he seemed to be goading powerful people to test his own strength. The smile on his face when he spoke to Kendappa recalling her mother hinted that he was thinking of something else. He seemed to want something. He didn’t show any sign of caring too deeply for anyone, not even his son, but he cared about something. There was a parallel in how he pushed Karura to how he pushed Yasha. Equally creepy were some of Kendappa’s moments when she scared the opportunistic bullies of Taishakuten’s court, her motives for serving Taishakuten. At the same time Kendappa was a good friend to Karura in her grief, doing her best to look after her. There was a sweet scene when she revealed her feelings about Sohma, paralleled by an equally sweet scene where Sohma confessed her feelings about Kendappa to Ashura. Ashura’s response was both beautiful and awkward. I wonder if there weren’t some translation issues. More eloquent was Lord Ryuu, talking about his mother, the previous Lord Ryuu. Delightful bit of character development where he talks about how strong she was, how much he looked up to her. This made Ashura’s sad smile all the more heartbreaking when Ashura remembered their mother. Overall, this was another exquisitely beautiful volume; fleshing out the world of gods, its rebel king, and those who rebel against the rebel. What happened before builds in time with what is happening. The story playing out is mysterious, emotionally and physically brutal, wrapped in enough beauty to keep me enraptured.

[Kyla Sixkiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lady Karura grapples with grief after her sister's demise, fueled by Taishakuten's seeming indifference. His motives remain suspect - is he pushing rebellion, testing loyalty, or pursuing a hidden agenda? His unsettling smile hints at something beyond control. The parallel between his manipulation of Karura and Yasha sparks further intrigue. Meanwhile, Kendappa emerges as a complex figure, both frightening and a source of comfort to Karura. A tender scene reveals her feelings for Sohma, reciprocated by Sohma's awkward confession to Ashura. Lord Ryu's touching tribute to his strong mother deepens the characters' emotional landscape, contrasting with Ashura's sorrowful reflection on their own. Exquisite artwork complements the rich world-building, exploring themes of rebellion within rebellion and the complexities of loyalty.

[Harumichi Mizuki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taishaku-ten ini bajigur tenan kok. Nggak cuma membuat Karyoubinga menyanyi sampai mati, dia bahkan memberikan mayatnya untuk dijadikan makanan hewan-hewan peliharaannya. Wong edan. Taishaku-ten ini Dewa Indra ya katanya? Masak di mitologinya cerita Dewa Indra juga sampai segininya sih? Hih!

Gara-gara itu Karura-ou pun memutuskan untuk bergabung dengan Yasha-ou. Tapi demi agar klannya tidak dibantai, dia berpura-pura bunuh diri dengan melompat dari jendela kamarnya. Lalu dia suruh pembantunya untuk mengadakan upacara pemakaman untuknya. Nice move actually. Much better than Yasha-ou yang nggak mikirin nasib para klannya sama sekali.

Tapi sekali lagi, kok bisa Taishaku-ten nggak tahu kalau Ryu-ou gabung sama Yasha-ou? Aku menuntut jawaban logis atas kondisi ini! Hiiiih.

[Adrian Santiago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Medio aburridas historias, medio interesantes.

[Freya Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

RG Veda (Japanese: 聖伝-RG VEDA-, Hepburn: Seiden: Rigu Vēda) is a manga created by Clamp, consisting of ten volumes in all.

[Jody Mena]

Very sad and bittersweet! Poor Karura, losing her sister really shattered her. But I guess if something's not right, sometimes you have to break it so you can fix it, and Karura serving the Tentei was definitely not right, especially after the way he treated her sister. I wonder if he was intentionally trying to make her rebel against him; I feel like there must be some reason for his wanton and destructive malice, aside from the fact that he's a frigid, power hungry sociopath. I'm very interested to see what he's got up his sleeve. I feel a littl bad for his son, he really likes Kendapa, and she just doesn't have the time of day for him! Yasha and Ashura are so very cute, their father/son relationship is adorable! The art in this manga is so stunning, I never get used to it. The detail, imagination and scope are all larger than life, its truly a visual feast!

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to start at the beginning and read more before I decide how I feel about this series.