The Silvery Crow – Chapter 1
11 July 2007
Random browsing on OneManga while waiting for Zombie Loan to finish downloading, I came across this new manga. Main reason I stopped to read was because it was only one chapter, which means I won’t spend half my life trying to catch up to chapter three million and a quarter.
So anyways, the Silvery Crow, from the creator of Samuria Deeper Kyo (I’ve yet to read, or watch, this) did not disappointed. In fact, it was pretty damn good. I liked it. I like a lot of things, but this was worth blogging about.
The prologue Once upon a time, a king of a war ravaged land entered into a contract (heh, Darker Than Black) with a demon lord for peace and prosperity of his kingdom. Made from strands of his own hair, blood and breath, the demon lord created a magical gem and gave it to the king. After the king died, the gem was broken into thirteen pieces (heh, Inuyasha, at least we know how many pieces we need) and the kingdom fell once again into violence and poverty. A child, a spawn of SATAN the demon lord, was born into the land, a ‘crow’.
The plot, as of chapter one Reminiscent of Hei from Darker than Black and Goku from DBZ’s inhuman appetite for food, with a slight hint of Naruto’s inspirational stupidity and determination, is the protagonist of The Silvery Crow, John Elegadine, curry lover and ‘professional thief’. The talk of the town, apparently, is the King of Thieves (Bandit Jing!) The Silver Crow, capable of stealing anything (Bandit Jing!!) However, too distracted by his curry, John pays no attention to the rumors.
Falling asleep at the restaurant bar after consuming uncountable bowls of curry, the ‘professional thief’ looses his wallet to a pickpocket. Left penniless, wandering the streets grumbling about his misfortune. While walking through a bazaar, John encounters a fat man stealing ruthlessly from a poor shop owner. A hooded man appears and bumps accidentally into the fat man, grabbing his wallet at the same time. Fleeing the scene, the hooded man bumps into John before taking off. Slightly puzzled, John notices that the thief dropped the wallet he was trying to steal. Being a kind and generous soul, only slightly sarcastic on this one, John gives the wallet to the victimized shop owner. To the shop owner’s bewilderment, the fat man’s desperation and John’s glee, the wallet is full of money, almost as fat as the owner.
The pickpocket from before returns, demanding that John return what was rightfully his. Then John is attacked by a yoyo. The attacker misses but is persistent, forcing John to leap up into the air, grabbing and crushing a steel bar with his bare hands. At this point in time, I’d like to note that his hand is not just any hand, the pickpocket notices as well. Telling the man that playing with that yoyo is dangerous. John lands awkwardly on top of the pickpocket, one hand on her breasts. That’s right, it’s a girl. After squealing and screaming at John from being a dirty pig, she threatens him for the money. John tells her that he gave away all of it.
This does not sit well with the girl, she reveals that she’s Lu Larue, in fact the legendary King, rather queen, or thieves, Silver Wing, armed with a feather and a yoyo. However, John (the Naruto side shining through) tells her that she should put the knife away and touch his own breasts in return for what he did earlier. Naive and ever clueless, John does not know who this Silver Wing is, either, much to Larue’s dismay. John confesses that he was robbed and haven’t a penny to give to her no matter how much she threatened him. Confused, Larue asks him how a pickpocket gets, well, pickpocketed. He replies furiously that he was distracted by a large bowl of curry and tofu and proudly announces that he’s John Elegadine, professional thief!
Taking into account the stupidity and gaiety with which John acts, how he dodged her yoyo, how he crushed steel with his bare hands, Larue decides to enlist him in her quest to find the 13 shards of the Demon Stone. It just so happens that a military commander in town has a shard. However, John’s still not interested. Before anything else happens, a bunch of rowdy soldiers are heard grabbing women from the town for the commander, presumably the one that has the gem shard. Larue steps in, but before she can intervene, the commander himself shows up and tries to lure the women away regardless. This time, it’s John that steps up, saying that the commander reeks of lies. The soldiers charge at him with swords, but John stops them with a brilliant flash.
After the incident, Larue berates him about how stupid he acted. Larue is after the stone, apparently, because it’s hers (descendant of the king, eh?) and that there are two cards, one for good luck, one for bad, laid out by the gods and her goal is to grab one. John dismisses the cards thing and declares that he is a thief, he will steal everything with his own hands.
Seeing John’s display of determination, Larue refers to her horoscopes, which tells that she will find a new partner. John catches her and asks if she really believes in that stuff. Well, he concludes, she’s a girl, she’s cute, and well, yeah. Surprised, and turning on the offensive, Larue yells at him.
John’s ingenious plan for entering the commander’s castle is to be captured and placed in jail. Well, at least they’re inside. Despite the fact that John’s a thief, he is unable to pick the simplest of locks and he also looses accidentally his curry coupon through the jail bars, leaving him in tears. This irritates Larue beyond reason, forced to pick the lock herself though with ease.
His curry coupon saved, John and Larue head for the commander’s treasure room. Upon locating the room, they are baffled by the collection of richest, most of all a dazzling stone sitting upon a pedestal, the Demon Stone. As Larue reaches for the stone eagerly, John flicks a rock at her, saving her from a trap and also, much to John’s amusement, breaks the fake Demon Stone.
The commander reveals himself, saying that they’ve come just as expected. John goes bananas when he sees the real stone, shouting that it will be his. However, the commander’s soldier quickly encircle them, their only option left is to run! Larue suffers a wound but John ditches her. As the soldiers creep closer to her, as John runs off, Larue finds herself cornered. Just in the knick of time, John drops an antique stone Buddha on the soldiers. Surprised that John saved her, Larue stares in vexation. Then John is suddenly smacked across the face. The commander’s soldiers turning into giant monsters, which he calls crows.
When all appears lost, John rises from the dead (Naruto, the guy screams Naruto, or does the shonen genre require their protagonists to scream Naruto?) He easily stops all of the commander’s crows with his one hand.This perplexes Larue even more. Through a mind blowing show of power, John defeats all of the crows.
In the aftermath of the attack, John’s hair turns into white feathers. It dawns on Larue that John, is in fact the king of thieves, Silver Wing!!
Impressions Well, I thought it was good. It’s pretty generic shonen, the over eating, the hidden powers, the girl even. It’s interesting though. Nothing really thought provoking, heart wrenching or dramatic really. Just a fun, quick, read when you need something to drag you out of a hole or just cure a bit of boredom. The art’s great, not as detailed as Takeshi Obata, not as cute and adorable as CLAMP, but it hits the right spot for shonen. Like I’ve been saying, John screams Naruto. He is like Naruto incarnate. Silvery Crow reminds of so many things, Jing, Darker than Black, Naruto, a bit of DBZ and Inuyasha even. Regardless, I’m enjoying Larue and John’s budding romance. He grabbed her boobs in the first chapter! You know it’s coming! Any case, the first chapter’s got me hooked. Cute, naive king of thieves, pickpocket, yoyo wielding love interest, a nice, albeit cliched story line? I’m in!