Turmoil in the conquering ranks.
Creative Staff
Story: Yoshiki Tanaka
Art: Hiromu Arakawa
Translation/Adaptation: Amanda Haley
What They Say
INTERNAL CONFLICTS
Princes Arslan and his companions face a long journey to Peshawar Citadel, a fortress surrounded by treacherous mountains. While a chance encounter leaves Narsus with a new comrade and admirer, Arslan’s group must face the bloodthirsty son of Kharlan, Zandeh, who is eager to avenge his father’s death. Despite creating constant setbacks for Arslan, matters on the enemy’s side are far from a united front. In the Lusitanian-occupied capital of Ecbatana, King Innocentis VII and his advisers are at odds with the radical ideas of the Holy Knights Templar. Behind it all, Silver Mask is slowly carrying out a plan that threatens to shake both sides and even call Arslan’s right to the throne of Pars into question.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The title of this story might be called Arslan, but the majority of the spotlight in this volume focuses on the opposition to his legitimacy as the prince of Peshawar. The scene quickly shifts back to the conquering Lusitanians and the silver-masked Hilmes, plotting and scheming, and surprisingly it makes for a far more entertaining story than that of the fleeing prince.
The Lusitanian forces are fractured politically. King Innocentis is the symbolic head of the church and the empire but is doing a poor job at being both. The Templar’s are at odds with the King and the King’s brother Guiscard, who is likewise plotting his own schemes. Watching the drama play out is great fun. The dramatic shifts in tension as characters are one-upped only to have their plans foiled, combined with exaggerated facial expressions and bloody back-stabbing. I found it far more interesting than the hand-to-hand combat interludes of Arlsan still fleeing for his life across the countryside.
Meanwhile, Hilmes is still at the beck and call of the Lusitanians while he begins to gather his forces so that once Arslan is gone he can reunite his people and drive out the invaders. Hilmes is still an unsympathetic character. They’ve tried to install a bit of justice to his blind revenge tale, showing him sparing a blind peasant from rape at the hands of a templar. Yet he remains mostly an angry, one-dimensional hunter tracking his prey.
The supernatural elements of the story step it up in this volume, with Narsus coming across one of the mysterious sorcerers which we’ve glimpsed in previous volumes. The strange cult uses dark magic to assassinate their foes, but why did one slaughter an entire village of peasants? The situation makes no sense, and when Narsus and his new companion, the bandit princess Alfarid, end up passing through nothing is clarified. It just ends up being an excuse for an action scene. Alfarid, however, is a welcome new recruit to Arslan’s cause. She is a tough fighter who unlike Farangis is dressed more realistically for horseback combat. Spunky and upbeat, even in the face of her entire bandit family being killed, she is happy to accompany Narsus into the unknown. And it is the unknown, as he didn’t tell her who he is or what he was doing fleeing Silver Mask and his men.
Back to Arslan, the boy who would be king manages to reunite with Daryun and the entourage, who quickly split back up again in order to find Narsus. Daryun and Farangis spend the volume rematching again and again with Zandeh, who was too zealous for his own good. By the end of the volume there are yet more glimpses of supernatural magic, by the way of a dark enshrouded mountain spoken of only in legend. It probably won’t be long before Arslan is tasked with heading there to cement his status as the rightful future king.
In Summary
A good, solid volume filled with political backstabbing, dark magic, assassinations, and over-the-top duels. Arslan remains the most uninteresting character in the lot, with the bad guys proving to be endlessly entertaining to watch with their bickering and vices. Arlsan is within spitting distance of finally meeting up with countrymen who might actually support him and give him a staging area to mount a counterattack, but things are still looking grim. Maybe the infighting among the invaders will slow down efforts to truly take over the country, rather than just loot and pillage.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B +
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: August 23rd, 2016
MSRP: $10.99