Arion, Vol. 1

アリオン [Arion] #1

by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Fabiano Bertello (Translator)

All'alba dei tempi, tre fratelli si divisero il mondo. Al più piccolo di loro, Hades, toccarono le terre delle tenebre eterne. Molti anni dopo, la sua ira per questo destino lo spingerà a rapire Arion, un bambino dal misterioso passato. Il suo piano è renderlo un guerriero perfetto e lo strumento della sua vendetta... In una terra dilaniata da guerre tra umani e divinità, questa è la storia di un ragazzo che diventerà un mito!

Genres: Manga, Adventure

408 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (安彦良和) is a Japanese manga artist, animator, character designer, anime director, illustrator, and novelist. He was born in Engaru Town, Monbetsu District, Hokkaido, and currently resides in Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ended up skimming before I hit the halfway point. To be fair, this was first published in the 80s, and accordingly a lot of it is quite dated: the art is very reminiscent of Tezuka (Astro-Boy), protagonists are all attractive (that's how you know they're protagonists) and antagonists and side-characters are all ugly (that's how you know they're unimportant or bad -_-), except for female antagonists, cuz girls gotta be sexy -_-

Characters are all pretty cardboard. This is more a story for people who like sword-fights than a story for people who like character depth/development or deep plot.
Though it may be pitched as a Greek mythology retelling, it's not at all true to the original myths: instead of Hades kidnapping Demeter's daughter (by Zeus) to marry, Demeter has a little boy (by Poseidon) whom Hades kidnaps to trick him into going after Zeus. Both Hades and Poseidon are apparently trying (separately, I think?) to overthrow Zeus. The boy Arion is almost immediately found and taken prisoner by warlike Athena, who works for Zeus; strangely, Olympus must have a human/commoner town attached to it, cuz he's marched past the gawking populace at one point...? It's unclear whether they're going for 'mythology but with the gods just being powerful humans' or if they're just really awkward at dealing with the whole divinity thing - I mean, there are a few monsters, so it's not *completely* mundane...?! There's a love interest in Athena's mute doormat servant/slave girl who helps him, and everything is pretty generally muddled with escape attempts, more imprisonments, etc etc.

Too muddled to complete or to recommend.

Content concerns: occasional glimpses of nudity, one attempted SA, fantasy violence (sword/arrow battles, fighting monsters), a couple of monstrous animals are dismembered, one scary decayed body

[Valérie Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arion est un chef-d'oeuvre. Si vous aimez la mythologie grecque avec ses dieux remplis de failles qui se soucient peu des soldats qui les servent, les histoires complexes où les combats et la politique s'entremêlent, c'est pour vous. J'ai été surprise par la qualité de la narration, aavec des révélations qui arrivent juste aux bons moments, des inspirations puisées dans différents personnages de la mythologie, avec lesquels le mangaka joue habilement.

Dans l'une des entrevues en bonus (très intéressante), Yoshikazu Yasuhiko raconte qu'il voulait montrer la violence de ces mythes, que le Japon a eu tendance à vider de leur côté sombre. C'est fort réussi: les batailles sont sans pitié, les morts se comptent par dizaines, et les retournements sont nombreux. Pensez à God of War en version dessinée, avec un héros adolescent qui fait de son mieux pour ne pas être manipulé dans cette histoire qui le dépasse.

Les dessins sont magnifiques. Ce mangaka explique qu'il utilise la plume, n'étant pas à l'aise avec les crayons habituels des mangakas. C'est d'une puissance redoutable, qui colle magnifiquement bien à cette histoire mythologique. L'édition grand format de naBan permet d'apprécier vraiment ces oeuvres, avec de nombreuses pages couleurs, pages en bichromie et des illustrations. Un excellent travail de l'éditeur, qui me donne le goût de se procurer Venus Wars, du même mangaka, qui sortira bientôt.

[Schlafi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5/5