Ahora que la sacerdotisa Farangis y el "trovador errante" Gieve se han unido a su causa, el ejército de Arslan para reconquistar Pars está compuesto por un total de seis personas. ¡Necesita aumentar su número cuanto antes para hacer frente a los 300000 soldados al mando del hombre de la máscara de plata!
Hiromu Arakawa (author: 荒川弘) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師 Hagane no renkinjutsushi). Her real name is Hiromi Arakawa (荒川弘美).
Arakawa was born and raised on a dairy farm in Hokkaidō. She thought of being a manga artist since she was little. After graduating high school, she took oil painting classes while working on her family's farm. During that time, she also created dōjinshi manga with her friends and drew yonkoma for a magazine. After eight years she moved to Tōkyō and started out as assistant writer for Hiroyuki Etō. Her debut as manga artist is in 1999 with STRAY DOG. In 2001 she started working on her famous and award winning series Fullmetal Alchemist, that soon gets a successful anime adaptation. Other works include Silver Spoon (銀の匙 Silver Spoon, Gin no saji Silver Spoon).
4.5⭐️ How does a young prince lead with morality when the lines are so blurred? Love the gang, and getting know Elam more. Sooo much throat stabbing!!!!
My rating of 3/5 is perhaps a tad unfair, as I do feel Volume 4 is more interesting than the previous one, at least for the first half certainly. On the run from the Lusitanian forces, Arslan turns to Lord Hodir, ruler of Kashan Fortress, home to 3,000 cavalrymen and 35,000 infantrymen. However, Hodir is a greedy man who realizes this is his chance to manipulate the young prince to further his own lust for power. As such, it is quite the learning experience for Arslan, who's also confronted by the reality that freeing the Gholam (the slaves) may not be such a simple task as he had originally envisioned. At the same time, he's shown to have taken an interest in learning more about his enemy's religion in the hopes of better understanding them. I value these quieter moments where the story takes the time to teach Arslan by posing questions he'll have to find answers to.
After this point, and having decided on reaching the citadel of Marzban Kishward (the double-bladed badass from Volume 1) a long chase begins that won't stop until Volume 5, if memory serves. Meanwhile, back at Ecbatana, the priests are in uproar 'cause the Lusitanian king fancies marrying the Parsian queen, leading to the beginning of a schism between government and church. Frankly, given their zealotry, I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner. All of this transpires alongside Silver Mask's plotting to eventually overthrown the Lusitanians and rule Pars himself.
This had a lot of politics and action, almost too much of it in some ways. I’m not a giant fan of endless fights and even less of politics. The scarred villain has a good bit of character development. He becomes vaguely sympathetic and his motives clear (important for a villain).
One of the more interesting bits happened when Arslan and company killed a slave holder, only for him to learn that some slaves like their masters and that it wasn’t as clear cut as he thought. I’m not saying slave holders are good but in history, sometimes it’s not just as easy as saying ‘you’re free’ and in the end leaving them homeless with nowhere to turn. It’s much more complicated so there are realistic nuances to the story. He thought they'd rejoice not understanding they know nothing else and would need help.
There are a lot of characters in this so it’s easy to get lost. The art is lovely.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Bueno, algo más movidito que el tomo 3. Tampoco han pasado demasiadas cosas, pero ahora los protagonistas ya tienen objetivos más o menos claros, la cosa se encauza y dan más información y eso siempre es bueno. Además ya se va viendo cómo puede llegar a ser Arslan como rey, los problemas que puede tener con el pueblo, lo que hay detrás de Máscara de plata y su obsesión... Es como estudiar historia.
Wir begleiten weiter Arslan, und nehmen auch die Sicht anderer Charaktere ein. Dabei wird nicht zu wenig aber auch nicht zu viel preisgegeben. Dabei erfahren wir auch ein bisschen was aus der Vergangenheit.
Die vielen politischen Intrigen finde ich spannend. Auch wenn die ganze Charaktere Spaß machen und unterschiedlich sind, komme ich manchmal durcheinander. Wer war das nochmal? Aber so macht diese blutige, politische Reihe aber sehr viel Spaß
I'm a sucker for character driven stories. So now that the rushing took a slight pause, we get to see more of Elam and Arslan, especially. Narsus shines, and so does Daryun, as always. I'd love to see more about Daryun. He's certainly a hero, but he's a little flat. We don't know as much about him as we do the others at this point.
Now, off to the library to get the rest of the series!
Although we find out a lot about lord silver mask’s background, it was no surprise to me since I have watched the anime. The Knight Templars and the Bishops of the Yaldabaoth faith are just as cruel as I remember. I really enjoyed the last chapter which you find out more about Arslan’s childhood, explaining the strange behaviours that Gieve perceives about Arslan.
The story keeps developing: we see flashbacks of the past of both Arslan and Hilmes, while Kashan Castle has taught a had lesson to Arslan about reality and slavery. While Arslan journey keeps going we see entrance of new characters and the others (like Andragoras and Tahamine) hasn’t shown everything about them. This story it’s moving slowly but with progression, making you wonder how it will develop later.
Things slowed down a bit for me in this volume, but I can see the threads coming together nicely. We got some good background on the conflict, and Arslan learned more about the difficulties that need to be overcome in the future. Can't believe there's only two more volumes right now!
Arslan encounters the seduction of pragmatism, and then the fact that not all Gholams may want to be freed. Some interesting history on the royal lineage.
Après avoir découvert que la chute d’Ecbatâna, de l’armée parse et de son roi était le fait du neveu de ce dernier, Hilmes, caché derrière un masque d’argent, ce tome nous présente à l’aide de flashback la raison derrière la haine de ce dernier pour le roi Andragoras. On comprend mieux ses agissements, même s’il paraît toujours très risqué d’avoir tenté une telle alliance avec les Lusitaniens et les yahldaïstes.
Au milieu des poursuites de l’armée lusitanienne, Arslân et ses comparses de voyage trouvent un bref refuge chez un allié mais la situation est loin d’être simple. J’ai beaucoup apprécié ce tome pour la place qu’il laisse au prince – qu’on a finalement peu eu l’occasion d’entendre jusqu’ici. Quand c’est nécessaire, il n’hésite pas à se faire entendre et à s’imposer, mais surtout on a la preuve à nouveau qu’il ne considère pas les autres comme inférieur malgré son rang et sa position royale. Même si le souverain ou la souveraine proche de son peuple et souhaitant l’égalité est un lieu commun, je le trouve personnellement tout à fait plaisant et bien exécuté ici. Je suis impatiente de voir ce que cela peut donner après le règne d’Andragoras qui s’entourait d’esclaves, et la tyrannie du roi Lisutanien.
Malgré toutes ses bonnes volontés d’égalité, le prince va se rendre compte que parfois ces dernières ne suffisent pas et qu’un travail en profondeur et sur la durée doit être fait pour changer les mentalités et les traditions ancrées depuis tant d’années. Pour autant, il ne désespère pas et continue à vouloir apprendre comment faire. J’ai trouvé le discours sur les esclaves qui ne « savent pas quoi faire de leur liberté » très caricatural et assez problématique en revanche.
Bodin, le grand prêtre de l’église yahldaïste, n’hésite pas à aller toujours plus loin dans la cruauté et la folie pour se venger ou tout simplement exterminer les « hérétiques » et les « païens », en faisant appel à « L’ordre du temple » (oui oui les templiers). Ces derniers semblent encore plus extrêmes que tout ce qu’on a pu voir de la part des adorateurs de Yahldabôth – c’est dire. Finalement, j’ai l’impression qu’aucun personnage portant cette foi ne soit présenté sous une lueur positive depuis le début du récit, à l’exception d’Étoile. Il n’est pas permis de douter que les yahldaïstes sont les méchants de l’histoire.
It looks like Kodansha finally changed Himez's name more to what it should be than "Hermes" which was outright wrong.
The expressions on some of the characters this go around are hilarious, especially since most of them are on the bad guys.
Also, INB4 Avatar: TLA because people are certainly going to say this manga ripped off Zuko when the novels to this were written WELL BEFORE Avatar: TLA was even a thing.
So what is it? Hermes or Hilmes! Well, whomever Lord Silver Mask is, this was another exceptional volume! Arslan’s hunt for allies is getting mixed results. Hodir really got “a head” of himself with his ambition (har, har). Though she’s still dreadfully exposed, it was nice to see Farangis in slightly more sensible attire. Brilliant art, impossible chase scenes (literally, I mean what’s the body count for these six, eh?), back room dealing, mysterious notes, and perilous cliff jumps! Tally-ho!
4.25 stars. This volume was so much more enjoyable than the last, and managed to pull me straight back into the series. I'm still not sure how everyone knows where they're going all the time and Arslan's crew is pretty OP, but I think I might just have to keep on reading.