Bastard!! (Hell's Requiem): Back in the Back of a Cadillac... #1 with a Bullet, I'm a Power Pack!

Previously on the Bastard!! review:
"Going off of the fact that The Dark Rebel Armies storyline does have something that could be treated as an "ending", even if there are still some loose ends left unaddressed, it's likely Hagiwara took a precaution, just in case his editor told him that the manga would end after this story finished up. However, Hagiwara was allowed to continue making Bastard!!... and it'd be treated as its own sort of special attraction."

After Issue #33 in 1989, which marked the end of The Dark Rebel Armies story arc, Kazushi Hagiwara's Bastard!! ran for three more chapters, introducing a new story arc, before it stopped appearing in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump; it lasted 72 chapters (73, if you count the Wizard!! one-shot). Normally, this would be your standard story of a manga getting cancelled right as it started hinting at the next part of the story, something that happens all the time in one of the most cutthroat manga magazines in the business. In fact, Bastard!! had generally maintained a lower "ranking" in Jump's Table of Contents during its entire run, and while that's not an end-all-be-all determinator of success, it does reflect a general idea of what readers are more interested in, & therefore what the editors want to promote more, compared to everything else currently running; everyone wanted to read Dragon Ball, so that was constantly near the top of the "ToC". Still, there was just something in the manga that Kazushi Hagiwara was making, & it was certainly getting attention (& likely was selling well enough), so it's not like the series could be simply dropped & forgotten about. Also, while Hagiwara himself was a talented artist, he was also a notorious perfectionist who had a habit of running himself ragged trying to constantly produce a serialized manga on a weekly basis, resulting in things like "extra panels" or blatantly unfinished spots, all of which Hagiwara would poke fun at; this would also often be the subject of the 4-koma gags Hagiwara included in every volume.

The solution was to give Bastard!! a magazine of its own to call home... Sort of.

In mid-1968, Shueisha debuted Shonen Jump, which was originally released biweekly until October of 1969, when it was renamed "Weekly Shonen Jump". The same year the magazine moved to a weekly schedule, a special issue of Jump was published during a gap that occurred, & once the main magazine became weekly this special issue became a quarterly publication, simply titled "Shonen Jump"; I'm absolutely, positively, definitively sure that totally didn't confuse people... maybe. In Spring 1985, these special issues were slightly renamed, as they were now being published alongside Japanese holidays every season, becoming the "Shonen Jump Winter/Spring/Summer/Autumn Special"; that specific order is how they came out in a calendar year. These seasonal specials were where newcomer mangaka had an opportunity to showcase their burgeoning skills via one-shots, and is in fact where two of Hagiwara's original three one-shots, Summer 1987's Binetsu Rouge & Winter 1988's Virgin Tyrant, were published; established mangaka also had the chance to test new ideas out here via one-shots. However, that's pretty much all these seasonal specials were good for, so I'd imagine that Shueisha wanted to try to spice things up (like sales) by including a regular serialization alongside the one-shots, & Hagiwara's series was the perfect choice; also, the longer time between chapters might help with his perfectionism (spoiler: it did not). So, starting with the 1990 Winter Special, Bastard!! entered quarterly serialization, becoming the only serialized manga to ever run in the seasonal specials; while Bastard!! wasn't the cover for every issue, Dark Schneider's face tended to always sneak in somewhere. This leads us to the second of Bastard!!'s story arcs: Hell's Requiem.

It's been two years since the final battle between Dark Schneider & Abigail, which resulted in the destruction of Castle Meta-Rikana, seemingly killing anyone in & around it. While the Dark Rebel Armies have collapsed, "High King of Ice" Kall-Su (the last of the Four Divine Kings) has kept his regiment alive & now rules over the remains of the four nations with a seemingly never-ending winter, all in search of (now) Queen Sheila of Meta-Rikana, the keeper of the final seal preventing the resurrection of Anthrasax, which Kall now sees as his "mother". The "God of Destruction", created by the "wise men" of old (in reality, scientists) in an effort to prevent war from ever breaking out again, had in actuality brought apocalypse to the old (i.e. "modern") world of humanity in just seven days, & was prophesied to revive 400 years after its defeat by the original Dragon Knight, which had seemingly come down from Heaven to stop it. To assist him, Kall has gathered his own force of mighty wizard-warriors, the 12 Sorcerer Shogun, but constantly fighting back against them are a new rebel force, one lead by Kai Harn, former Sorcerer General of Arshes Nei, & the Samurai of the fallen kingdom of Aian-Meide. Kai & the Samurai also have a couple of aces up their sleeve: Tia Noto Yoko, who has since become a full-fledged Cleric, & Lucien Renlen, Yoko's surrogate little brother & the vessel of Dark Schneider, who hasn't been seen since the battle with Abigail. The conflict between the Sorcerer Shogun & the Samurai of Aian-Meide will result in a "Holy War" at King Crimson Glory, the legendary home of the Elves who disappeared a century ago, as it's discovered to be where Sheila has been hidden. The resurrection of Anthrasax seems inevitable, at this point.

Hell's Requiem is the shortest story arc in all of Bastard!!, running from the second half of Volume 8 up through all of Volume 12; only ~4.5 volumes. Similarly, it also only totals 12 "chapters", though that's mainly due to change in serialization format. As mentioned, the first three chapters, which finish up Volume 8, come from the end of the weekly run, so they're of the standard, ~20-page format. The remaining nine chapters, though, come from the shift to a quarterly schedule, which results in each chapter being much, much longer, maxing out at just shy of 100 pages; at this point, a single volume contains only two or three chapters, at max. Those first three chapters, which ended the manga's original weekly run, are truly nothing more than an extended prologue, focusing solely on introducing one of the Sorcerer Shogun, many of the Samurai, & re-introducing both Kai (who was a favorite of Hagiwara's & wanted to bring her back in a larger role) & Yoko. Surprisingly enough, Dark Schneider doesn't appear in a single panel in any of these chapters, his name isn't even uttered a single time (the most you get is his "Lord of the Fiery Explosion" moniker), & the most we see of Lucien is at the end of the third chapter, via a flashback panel showing Yoko clutching a bloodied Lucien (due to the absolute mutilation D.S. took in the battle with Abigail), begging the Samurai for assistance. Without a doubt, it's an interesting way to hype up Bastard!!'s move to the seasonal specials for fans of the series; "Wondering where Dark Schneider is in all of this? Then read the upcoming Winter Special!"

Meanwhile, Hagiwara still plays around with expectations immediately upon the first chapter of the quarterly run, pitting the Samurai in a battle with two Sorcerer Shogun (& a ton of Sphinxes) that goes belly up almost instantly, showing many of the Samurai die visibly grotesque & horrifying deaths... Only for them to be brought back to life after D.S. saves the day because Yoko forces D.S. to find a way to revive "all the new characters introduced in this story arc" by beating the ever living crap out of him; to be fair, the way he does it is actually clever. After all of that, which covers up through Volume 9, the story truly hits its groove in Volume 10 with everything leading to a giant battle at King Crimson Glory, KCG for short, as the Samurai discover an ancient elven teleporter that can lead them to KCG, but only an unwilling-to-help D.S. knows how to read the ancient language to power it, while the Sorcerer Shogun take an airship fleet there, only to wind up getting assaulted by a dragon (the most powerful of creatures, of course). Finally, there's the two-part climax, pitting D.S. against his former "property" Kall-Su, who himself is as mad with evil as Abigail wound up being, followed by a final battle between everyone & Anthrasax, which absolutely delivers (& actually continues on into the next arc, but that's for next time). To both its benefit & detriment, which I'll detail below, Hell's Requiem is a briskly-paced story, wasting no time to go from the initial attack on the Samurai stronghold to the final battles on KCG itself. Without the shorter chapter restrictions, Hagiwara no longer has to segment his storytelling to always require constant ebbs & flows, resulting in much smoother & focused storytelling than the Dark Rebel Armies at points, but it also creates problems with some of the supporting cast, primarily when it comes to properly shining a spotlight on them.

When it comes to the Sorcerer Shogun, initially designed by Hiroyuki Hataike (a.k.a. Takehiko Ito, creator of Outlaw Star), they all feature their own unique talents, which is great. Leader Yngwie von Mattström is a talented swordsman, one who attacks with sudden & lighting-quick blows, though he does have a bit of a weakness for beauties. Hagiwara must especially be a fan of Yngwie Malmsteen, as he had already used the legendary guitarist's name for a deity wizards can get their power from in the previous arc, and the name Viz uses is actually a slight alteration, as Hagiwara originally called him Yngwie von Malmsteen; I can fully understand if Viz felt that was a bit too direct a reference, though the umlaut is a nice touch. Ran Di Rhodes Shutein Neubaten is a good friend of Yngwie's & easily the most straightforward of them all, being an expert of using a sword, whip, & shield. Zion Sol Vanderverg can't use magic, but his "demon blade" Soul Eater can negate most magic used against him, while also absorb the souls of defeated enemies. Zakk Walder is the requisite monk of the group, being a master of the legendary fighting style "Karate" (again, this series actually takes place in the far future), as well as twin short swords. Vlad Kills is a giant knight & the most powerful of them all, wielding both a broadsword & axe, in terms of pure physical strength. Bol Gil Bol is a "Shadow Master" who can manipulate shadows at will, using them to hide both himself & projectiles, as well as being able to summon a giant shadow demon. Ida Deesna is a master summoner who was responsible for the creation of the Dark Rebel Armies' forces, & even created D.S.'s demon army 17 years prior. Ross Zaboss Friedrich is a magic swordsman from "a faraway kingdom", who's so mysterious that not even Hagiwara or Hataike know what he's fully capable of! Sykes von Snowwhite is the strategist of the group & can distort the space around him so that he can penetrate any defense. Shella E. Lee is the (seemingly) token female of the group, a former bard who can extend her nails into giant talons, & is indicated to possibly have some specific feelings for Kall-Su. Macalpine Toni Strauss controls nigh-invisible iron threads that can silice & dice humans without much effort. Finally, Ba Thory is similar to Manji from Blade of the Immortal in that he has blood worms that allow him to survive normally fatal blows; in fact, Ba Thory actually predates Manji by about three years!

As for the Samurai, initially designed by Michitaka Kikuchi (a.k.a. Kia Asamiya, creator of Slient Möbius), there aren't nearly as many of them, thankfully. "Samurai Master" Joshua Berahia leads them all & utilizes Iaido to deliver attacks that look as though the blade itself disappears. Schen Karr is the #2 of the group, with his fighting style being that of the "Shadow School", with a dark sword in comparison to the other Samurais' swords of light; Zion is his brother who was "seduced by black magic". Vai Staeve is the youngest member of the crew, mixing swordplay with magic spells, & he has a strong crush on Yoko, who seems to be willing reciprocate, but only after the war ends & if Vai would man up a bit. Angus Yarn is a gentle giant, preferring not to speak, but is still plenty powerful, in his own right; his "true" identity is a cool surprise in a "how could I not see it?!" sort of way. Jorg Fisches is the commanding office of the Samurai, a man so resilient that he still managed to get back to the Samurai secret base after having all of his arms & legs cut off by Macalpine! Chief Operational Officer Hammett, in comparison, is effectively nowhere near a samurai, and plays very little importance in this arc, as he leads an assault on Judas Castle, which at that point is mostly abandoned, bar an almost-revived Anthrasax. There's also "High Master" Nills Schon Mifune, a former "Elder" of Aian-Meide who acted as an adviser to the King, before the kingdom was trampled upon by the Dark Rebel Armies. Finally, they all technically serve the current ruler of Aian-Meide, Prince Mercy, a sniveling young man who thinks only of himself, unlike his late father, King Harris (who had only been seen for a couple panels dying in the previous arc).

Admittedly, that's a crap ton of new characters to juggle around now, and I brought up all of them mainly so that I could link to the various musicians their names reference, because Bastard!! is fun like that. Unfortunately, the descriptions I gave for both sides come mainly from the info sections dedicated to them at the ends of Volumes 9, 10, & 11, as they only get so much importance in the actual storyline. In fact, Schen & Zion being brothers is just suddenly mentioned near the end of the arc, even though Schen's character description makes it sound like this was meant to be some giant reveal. Still, I can say that Hagiwara introduces them here so that they can grow in importance later on in the manga, and some of them aren't totally without merit in this arc, namely Shella, Macalpine, Ba Thory, Bol & (to a lesser extent) Yngwie from the Shogun, & Vai, Joshua, Jorg, & Angus from the Samurai.

You better hope D.S. didn't actually hear you saying that, Vai...
Because he's the type of guy who'd never let you forget about it.

Meanwhile, Kai Harn, in a new outfit designed by fellow ex-Kimagure Orange Road assistant Takeshi Okazaki (Explorer Woman Ray), becomes a full-fledged supporting character and it's nice to see her be given some moments to shine, both in combat & in simple conversation, as Yoko looks out for her as a sort of big sister (though Kai is actually older), while Joshua is shown to have romantic feelings for her, but is too afraid to admit them. Yoko also becomes more outgoing & self-sufficient, being able to both take advantage of D.S.'s weaknesses to make him for subservient at one point or another, while also being less forgiving of him when he tries being more sexual towards other women. As for her father Geo, he's nowhere to be seen here, except at the very end, with the most we're told being that he's rumored to be with the "Ten Wise Men of Europea"; hope you've been paying attention in class so far. As for the other "Divine Kings", Gara is revealed to have been teleported away by D.S. to a far-off country (the sight of pyramids looks like Egypt), which took him & his ninja two years to return from, a story that would actually be later told in the 2012 light novel Ninja Master Gara Gaiden by Hideyuki Furuhashi (My Hero Academia: Vigilantes); Gara saves Macalpine after he barely escapes with his life from a fight with D.S.. Finally, Arshes Nei is shown waiting for her friends to reunite with her at an old home of theirs, establishing her own major character flaw: She feels she needs her "Darsh" to always be there for her, to tell her that she's loved; she's terrified of being left all alone again, like she was as a child 100 years ago. This is expanded upon a bit in "Distant Thunder", a bonus chapter included at the start of Volume 11 that wasn't in the serialization. It also shows Gara & Macalpine rendezvousing with Nei, giving at least a hint as to how any of them get to where they wind up being at the end, without which I'm sure confused Japanese readers at the time somewhat.

Which brings us to Dark Schneider, our hyper-hedonistic main character... And how he shows his love for women changes slightly. You see, there's a sort of unwritten rule in that Shonen Jump's non-weekly sister magazines (the seasonal specials, Monthly Shonen Jump, Jump Square, etc.) are given more leeway & leniency when it comes harsh and/or sexual content, which allows for manga in those magazines to usually feature more violence, gore, fanservice... & sexual content; see: Claymore, To-Love-Ru Darkness, Kurohime, Kekko Kamen, etc. What this means for Bastard!! is that the move to the seasonal specials has allowed Hagiwara to depict his women topless, complete with fully drawn breasts & nipples, and D.S.'s sexual advances are now a bit more explicit & sensually drawn. Granted, D.S. never actually goes "all the way" with anyone, as Yoko pretty much stops D.S. every time, but our "hero's" advances now involve him wanting to compete in "sumo wrestling" with a nearly-bare Kai in her bed, trying to play hanky-panky with a buck naked Yoko in a hot spring, and Hagiwara blatantly shows D.S. wanting to play with each woman's respective "cherries", before constantly getting stopped with physical violence. Combined with the more violent & visible gore, orcs & hobgoblins are shown carrying around freshly decapitated human heads at one point (followed by D.S. shouldering a boulder-sized net of orcs heads), Bastard!! definitely starts holding less back with this arc, and that is something to be considered. I'd say that, instead of trying to weaken the women (who are still generally portrayed as tough & inspiring, in their own rights), Hagiwara instead upped the ante with D.S., turning him into more of a physical representation of pure, heterosexual, male libido, though he's still often showcased as a know-nothing, horny teenager; he even gets into a silly argument with Vai over how many "bases" each went with Yoko, at one point. At the very least, D.S. is now pretty much beaten up by everyone, especially the Samurai, any time he attempts these actions, but I can see if someone would see this as Hagiwara going too far. At the very least, these amped up moments are only really featured in two chapters early on, as it gets impossible for D.S. to do anything sexual when he's caught up in life-or-death battles in the second half of this arc, so at least it's not a regular thing.

In fact, speaking of "going too far", Hagiwara actually had to make brand new cover art for Volume 9, as the original was WAAAAAYYYY too risqué (& most definitely NSFW!!!); Viz uses the alternate cover, though German & French releases use the original cover. How Hagiwara (& Shueisha, for that matter) thought he could get away with something like that for a manga aimed primarily at younger teenagers (technically) is beyond me.

Now THAT is the face of something called the "God of Destruction"!

Luckily, this arc finally gives very much needed backstory for Kall-Su, the child of a human mother & a clan chief father of "non-human" origin, who was shunned by his village for his heritage before getting locked away in solitude for killing some kids in a sudden fit of rage when they bullied him too much. Not just that, but Kall's own mother tried killing him after she lost her mind from all that happened, resulting in Kall having to kill her too. Anthrasax has taken advantage of this mental weakness to gain control over Kall; it's also revealed that Abigail was similarly controlled, hence why he was so obsessively evil. The relationship between Kall-Su & Dark Schneider is also given appropriate focus, establishing that Kall is the second "recruit" for the Four Divine Kings, before Gara & Abigail joined up, & showcasing that D.S. took in him & Nei partially out of a feeling that they both needed some sort of guiding figure. Otherwise, both would have remained unwanted, mixed-blood orphans from both sides of the spectrum; Nei drowning in her sorrow of being unloved, Kall possibly being destroyed by his own sheer power. Not just that, but D.S. even tells the two in a flashback that he's missing his "other half", which makes Kall someone D.S. feels he needs to feel whole. While I do feel that Hell's Requiem does suffer a fair bit in terms of telling a truly engaging plot of its own, mainly due to a mix of introducing a crap ton of new characters at once & having an extremely accelerated pace (KCG's existence pretty much just comes from out of nowhere, as well as how everyone manages to get there), Hagiwara does make up for that with some really nice character development, both subtle & obvious; D.S., in particular, is definitely shown to be more multi-faceted than ever, even in his past. Lucien's mysterious influence over D.S. also plays some importance at points, too, like when Lucien shows D.S. images of his past with Kall to stop him from simply killing his old "other half".

Finally, I want to bring up the humor aspect of the series, which becomes more absurd & silly at points.  For example, when D.S. gets crushed by a falling airship shortly after arriving at KCG, everyone thinks he's died, only for a bunch of little "chibi-D.S."-es to crawl out of the wreckage, along with one chibi-Lucien, who then all seemingly merge back together to form D.S. proper; understandably, Yoko, Kai, & the Samurai can't fully comprehend what they're seeing. There's also a bit of humor in D.S. being such a jackass sleaze while also being completely selfless & protective of his allies, like taking the full force of one of Kall-Su's spells in order to protect the Samurai, as well as Bol, who Kall had determined to be worthless after having lost his fight; Bol then reprimands the Samurai for not seeing D.S.'s true feelings, instead focusing on his outward attitude. It's also at this point that Hagiwara starts adding in more & more referential humor into Bastard!!, though for this story arc it's focused more on visual gags than outright spoken references. For example, D.S. assumes Ultraman's Specium Ray pose for a spell, while the spell Venom now features D.S. creating the Ide symbol from Space Runaway Ideon with fire while casting. Later, when Gara & Nei enter the fray, Gara states that the two of them are "More powerful than Gundam!", which results in Nei asking "What's a Gundam?". Compare those to the previous arc, where the most egregious reference was Abigail doing an Ora-Ora Rush from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which Hagiwara immediately apologized to Hirohiko Araki for in the margins right underneath said panel; yes, Hagiwara made "A Mother F-ing JoJo Reference" while Part 3 was still being serialized. Volume 10 also marks the start of You Gotta Hagiwara!, a gag section at the end of each volume from here on out where Hagiwara generally thanks the fans for their support, promotes any new things coming soon (especially the various Wonderful Megadeath doujinshi he & his Studio Loud in School team make), & deprecates himself regularly, like bemoaning how his love for making manga may be extremely detrimental to his health, since he can't stop himself... Which in turn constantly makes him late with his deadlines, even when he now has three months to make a new chapter.

Also, as an aside, Viz's translation is sadly a bit all over the place when it comes to naming. For example, I can't tell if it's "Mcalpine", "Macalpine", "Macapine", or "Mcapine", because all four are used at various points (& continue to be seemingly chosen at random as the release goes on!). Also, is it "Vlad Kills", "Blad Gills", or "Brad Gills"? (The Bastard!! RPG for PS1 specifically uses "Blad Kills) Is Joshua's last name "Berahia" or "Belaira"? (The RPG prefers "Belahia") Even maintaining "King Crimson Glory" feels like a last-minute decision, because the back cover volume synopses all say "Glorious Crimson Kingdom". Hell, Volume 12 has the Four Divine Kings being named the "Shitennou", even though the translated name, that had been used for the previous 11 volumes, is also used at the start of the book's "The Cast" section, while Volume 12 now titles the arc "Hell's Requiem Mass". I fully understand that the translation team likely didn't have a style guide or "official" romanizations for the names, & editoral duties were sometimes split between Jason Thompson & Urien Brown, but a little consistency is all I'm asking for, people! While I said that I'd be using Viz's name choices following Volume 8, let me clarify that I'll specifically be sticking to the ones that look the best, in my opinion, even if it possibly contradicts a change Viz will make in later volumes; unlike Viz's Bastard!! translation team, I can make a choice & stick with it all the way through.

Hell's Requiem is not just the shortest story arc in Bastard!!, but also arguably the weakest, though it's not a bad arc, by any means. It's just that after introducing so many new characters via the Samurai & Sorcerer Shogun, the main focus of the entire arc really just boils down to just one thing: The battle between Dark Schneider & Kall-Su. For as much as the Samurai & Shogun are meant to feel important, the arc in general is really just a means to an end for D.S. to fight the last remaining Divine King & Anthrasax itself, though the two groups do get to show off a bit in a giant clash with Anthrasax in Volume 12. However, the arc as a whole feels more like a heavily expanded epilogue to The Dark Rebel Armies than its own story. Still, it's not like there's nothing of worth that is introduced in Hell's Requiem. The Samurai & Sorcerer Shogun both stick around & are given more to work with in successive story arcs, D.S. is made more lewd & foul while also becoming more mysterious & complex (as well as even really benevolent), & the mythos behind the world of Bastard!! is hinted at being more complex than ever in small ways.

In the end, Hell's Requiem is a transitional arc, one that allowed Kazushi Hagiwara to move Bastard!! from a simple D&D-inspired fantasy story to something with more meat to it... One with greater stakes & more apocalyptic consequences. Come back next time as the next part of the Bastard!! review moves on to Crime & Punishment, the story arc where Hagiwara showed just how much of an inspiration Go Nagai's Devilman was on him... And how Hagiwara might have possibly influenced a certain "Eclipse".

Manga © Kazushi Hagiwara 1990-1992