How do you follow up the worldwide success of a tale of an extraordinary vampire? By bringing some of the world’s greatest warriors together in an epic struggle it seems.
Creative Staff
Story/ Art: Kohata Hirano
What They Say
Imagine a world of magic, full of elves and hobbits and dragons and orcs. Inside this world of magic and wonder there is a great war being waged, using warriors from human history on both sides of good and evil as chess pieces in a bloody, endless battle of madness.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The action starts fast and furious as the reader is introduced to Shimazu Toyohisa, a young samurai who is about to meet what legend says was his last fight at the Battle of Sekigahara. The young warrior chooses to make his last stand completely outnumbered in the hope he can buy his uncle the time to escape and thus win the battle in the grand scheme of things, though the small scheme of things will cost him his life. Amazingly, Toyohisa is skilled enough to drive the enemy troops back but the wounds he suffers in the conflict slow his pursuit of his retreating enemy.
As he walks through the forest filled with fallen soldiers and rain he suddenly finds himself transported into an odd room that has various doors streaching as far as the eye can see with a single desk set between the rows. At the desk a man with glasses sits quietly reading, a sign on the desk proclaiming he is at lunch. Before Toyohisa can gather his wits though the man changes the sign and addresses a very beligerant Toyohisa. Toyohisa doesn’t even have time to charge the man who makes a note on the paper before him and suddenly Toyohisa finds himself being dragged by an unseen force through one of the doors.
Toyohisa finds himself in a strange world as he is approached by two beings with pointed ears who recognize his speech and in their own language refer to him as a “Drifter.” Toyohisa passes out from the wounds he received in battle and the two take a chance and bring him to a castle where some other “Drifters” reside- and they are people Toyohisa knows of but also knows he can’t be seeing as one has been believed dead for more than a decade and the other for centuries.
As Toyohisa talks with the pair he starts to get a feel for this strange new world he has landed in and he also discovers that this odd world won’t let him leave his skills behind. When the village of the creatures (called elves by his companions) who saved him goes up in flames Toyohisa launches himself into action. He may discover though more than he bargained for as this world has become almost a dumping ground for some of history’s most feared fighters and sides are being chosen- but how does one fight without a cause, just who is behind this gathering in the first place and who is it that are watching the Drifters from a distance?
There is an old saying in sports that you never want to be the guy to follow the guy, meaning following someone who was very successful- if not a legend- can be a disaster as it is almost impossible to live up to what fans have built your predecessor to be. In some ways the world of art can be a bit easier at times but many authors still can be crushed when their follow up work seems to be a shadow of their previous achievement. Even the great Orson Wells found this as he spent much of the rest of his life trying again to capture the greatness that was his magnum opus Citizen Kane.
Now while Hellsing probably won’t go down in many annals outside of the world of manga and anime fandom there is no doubt it had a pretty powerful impact on its followers who devoured the stories with a ravenous appetite only matched by the one the title’s anti-hero possessed. But as is the way of things all tales must end and creators must continue to create if they hope to continue eating and in this environment Kohata Hirano’s latest creation takes the stage.
From an art stand point there is no escaping that this work follows on the heels of the style sharpened and lessons learned on the Hellsing run. Fans of that work will find that Hirano hasn’t lost his talent for action nor his ability to draw some fluid though violent scenes while also being able to add some dramatic still moments as well as including the occasional humor deformed characters he took such flourish in penning before. Visually any Hellsing fan who picks up the book will find there are coming home to not the same title they loved but what appears to be a close relative in that regard.
On the character front though things are a bit different as rather than create his own characters out of whole cloth as he did for much of the cast of his previous work, Hirano has chosen to take historical characters (granted after reinventing them to suit his tastes) and dropping them into a new world unlike anything they have ever know before and then placing them at odds with each other. In some ways this may be the greatest stumbling point for some readers as the use of historical figures (and two in particular from the Sengoku era of Japanese history) may leave them scrambling for encyclopedias or other online resources to try to figure out who characters are supposed to be and what events they are referring to at times. Likely the main characters are far more familiar to the Japanese audience that the series was created to appeal to but the lack of a Translator’s Notes section (at least in the digital format the book was provided in) is a rather large stumbling block. Still the book shows some measure of promise and even with a slow start the author has earned a good deal of rope in my book to see how events play out in the next few volumes.
In Summary
Drifters volume 1 starts off the next series from the creator of Hellsing by showing off a good number of the elements that made that title such a hit. That this title chooses to use more historical figures and makes a number of references to Japanese history (particularly the Sengoku era in this first volume) may serve as a bit of a wall to fans unfamiliar with the era and who are further left in the cold due to little help from the release in terms of translation notes. While the action, style and attitude are familiar to fans this historical bent combined with the fantasy world like setting and its mysteries leave up in the air just how well this setting will play with those who fell in love with the dark anti-hero from Hirano’s previous work. While the material here has potential, it really doesn’t give much hint as to where it is going which will determine if it is going to become another gem in the creator’s resume or it will become an afterthought when fans discuss his greatest works. What is here is a piece that is visually strong but story wise seems to be walking a bit of a fine line given all the different themes that have been brought together and which isn’t as immediately impactful as Hirano’s vampire tale was from the start.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: N/A
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: August 31st, 2011
MSRP: $12.99
