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thuviaptarth) wrote2010-10-16 04:32 pm
thuviaptarth) wrote2010-10-16 04:32 pm
Yuletide Fandoms #1: Nabi
Hi! It is the time of year for Yuletide nominations and therefore it is the time of year when I attempt to persuade you to watch or read or listen to my favorite obscure fandoms. I am going to go from most obscure to least obscure, as determined by my very scientific polling of two or three friends, and therefore I am starting with Nabi.
Nabi is an ongoing manhwa (Korean comic) by Yeon-Joo Kim with eight or nine volumes out, depending on whether you count the prequel, Nabi: The Prototype, a collection of stories set in the same world and featuring some of the same characters. It is the only part of the series that has been published in English; unless you read Korean, the rest of the series is only available in scanlations.
Nabi is set in a world where everyone wears gorgeous Korean clothing and lives in gorgeous Korean houses from some era I assume people who actually know anything about Korean history can identify, but where there are also airships and pistols. A lot of people still fight with swords, though, presumably because it is more fun to draw. In the troubled, war-torn kingdom of Mu, Lady Howori has created an academy where she raises twenty or thirty orphan children. When the academy is attacked by mysterious fighters, four of the children flee to the neighboring, not-quite friendly kingdom of Su, where they become unwillingly involved in contentious domestic politics and power plays which may be related to their own pasts.
That makes the plot sound very complicated, but this isn't a series about plot or background; there is so little emphasis on the background, in fact, that I couldn't find a good scene-setting panel to clip for you. This is a series about mood and character. Interwoven with the present day events are the characters' memories and dreams and in one case visions of the future. Often, the import of thoughts or images takes pages or volumes to become clear; we receive images in fragments and flashes which only slowly coalesce into meaning.
The main cast (includes images)
One day, Lady Howori brought home a deeply injured little girl. When the child recovered enough to speak, she had no memories of her previous life. Lady Howori named her Myo-Un.
By the time Nabi begins, Myo-Un is a quiet, thoughtful seventeen-year-old who is beginning to worry about her future outside the academy.
This is Ryu-Sang, a reticent, bad-tempered boy who briefly became Myo-Un's best friend.
If Myo-Un's contemplative, protective nature is indicated by the umbrella she often carries, it is just as pertinent that the combative Ryu-Sang is most often seen holding a sword.
Naturally, he fights with a sword--
--and guards doors with a sword--
--but not everyone climbs trees with their swords--
--or can hold a sword and a baby at the same time.
Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un's friendship broke up during a fight in which Ryu-Sang threw a vase at Myo-Un; it's typical of Nabi that, eight volumes in, we still have no idea what this fight was about. Nabi: The Prototype contains several stories about the two set before the main series, setting up the dynamic that pertains for most of Nabi: each is convinced the other hates them and still pines desperately after their friendship and is obviously although possibly obliviously passionately in love with the other.
Since they hardly speak to each other, they are reduced to signalling theirnot-so-secret affections by saving each other's lives--
--refusing to leave each other when they are in mortal danger--
--exchanging long supposedly impassive looks across hallways--
--and giving each other medicine or coats in significantly framed moments.
Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un escape the slaughter at the academy with two younger children, Aru and Jerc-Young. (One of the stories in Nabi: The Prototype is about Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un's journey to retrieve Aru for the academy after her father dies.)
Aru is there to be adorable.
Jerc-Young is there to be optimistic and to give Ryu-Sang someone to talk to.
Sometimes hindering, sometimes helping Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un is Harim.
Sometimes Harim dresses up as a girl called Lady Han-Ah.
Undoubtedly, this has something to do with his Secret Pain, but since I don't like him, I don't care. He has met up with Myo-Un and Ryu-Sang before, in the guise of Lady Han-Ah, in Nabi: The Prototype.
Harim turns out to be working for a Su noblewoman named Syo-Ryu.
Syo-Ryu has the ability to see the future and has a mysterious interest in Myo-Un and Ryu-Sang. She has carefully maneuvered around her ambitious and tyrannical father in order to save their lives. To do this, she has called upon the aid of Isana, one of her prospective husbands.
Isana is dying of a mysterious wasting illness. He spends a lot of time in bed reading, which is why I like him.
He despises Syo-Ryu, partly because her family is nouveau riche and partly because she's kind of blackmailing him. A short story, "The Door," is also about him.
In conclusion: Pretty! Angst! Amnesia! Repression! Swords! Pistols! Airships! Lost heirs! Flying swordsmen! Pretty!
Nabi is an ongoing manhwa (Korean comic) by Yeon-Joo Kim with eight or nine volumes out, depending on whether you count the prequel, Nabi: The Prototype, a collection of stories set in the same world and featuring some of the same characters. It is the only part of the series that has been published in English; unless you read Korean, the rest of the series is only available in scanlations.
Nabi is set in a world where everyone wears gorgeous Korean clothing and lives in gorgeous Korean houses from some era I assume people who actually know anything about Korean history can identify, but where there are also airships and pistols. A lot of people still fight with swords, though, presumably because it is more fun to draw. In the troubled, war-torn kingdom of Mu, Lady Howori has created an academy where she raises twenty or thirty orphan children. When the academy is attacked by mysterious fighters, four of the children flee to the neighboring, not-quite friendly kingdom of Su, where they become unwillingly involved in contentious domestic politics and power plays which may be related to their own pasts.
That makes the plot sound very complicated, but this isn't a series about plot or background; there is so little emphasis on the background, in fact, that I couldn't find a good scene-setting panel to clip for you. This is a series about mood and character. Interwoven with the present day events are the characters' memories and dreams and in one case visions of the future. Often, the import of thoughts or images takes pages or volumes to become clear; we receive images in fragments and flashes which only slowly coalesce into meaning.
The main cast (includes images)
One day, Lady Howori brought home a deeply injured little girl. When the child recovered enough to speak, she had no memories of her previous life. Lady Howori named her Myo-Un.
By the time Nabi begins, Myo-Un is a quiet, thoughtful seventeen-year-old who is beginning to worry about her future outside the academy.
Myo-Un's first memory is of a boy reading to her.
This is Ryu-Sang, a reticent, bad-tempered boy who briefly became Myo-Un's best friend.
If Myo-Un's contemplative, protective nature is indicated by the umbrella she often carries, it is just as pertinent that the combative Ryu-Sang is most often seen holding a sword.
Naturally, he fights with a sword--
--and guards doors with a sword--
--but not everyone climbs trees with their swords--
--or can hold a sword and a baby at the same time.
Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un's friendship broke up during a fight in which Ryu-Sang threw a vase at Myo-Un; it's typical of Nabi that, eight volumes in, we still have no idea what this fight was about. Nabi: The Prototype contains several stories about the two set before the main series, setting up the dynamic that pertains for most of Nabi: each is convinced the other hates them and still pines desperately after their friendship and is obviously although possibly obliviously passionately in love with the other.
Since they hardly speak to each other, they are reduced to signalling their
--refusing to leave each other when they are in mortal danger--
--exchanging long supposedly impassive looks across hallways--
--and giving each other medicine or coats in significantly framed moments.
Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un escape the slaughter at the academy with two younger children, Aru and Jerc-Young. (One of the stories in Nabi: The Prototype is about Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un's journey to retrieve Aru for the academy after her father dies.)
Aru is there to be adorable.
Jerc-Young is there to be optimistic and to give Ryu-Sang someone to talk to.
Sometimes hindering, sometimes helping Ryu-Sang and Myo-Un is Harim.
Sometimes Harim dresses up as a girl called Lady Han-Ah.
Undoubtedly, this has something to do with his Secret Pain, but since I don't like him, I don't care. He has met up with Myo-Un and Ryu-Sang before, in the guise of Lady Han-Ah, in Nabi: The Prototype.
Harim turns out to be working for a Su noblewoman named Syo-Ryu.
Syo-Ryu has the ability to see the future and has a mysterious interest in Myo-Un and Ryu-Sang. She has carefully maneuvered around her ambitious and tyrannical father in order to save their lives. To do this, she has called upon the aid of Isana, one of her prospective husbands.
Isana is dying of a mysterious wasting illness. He spends a lot of time in bed reading, which is why I like him.
He despises Syo-Ryu, partly because her family is nouveau riche and partly because she's kind of blackmailing him. A short story, "The Door," is also about him.
In conclusion: Pretty! Angst! Amnesia! Repression! Swords! Pistols! Airships! Lost heirs! Flying swordsmen! Pretty!
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I love the artist's earlier work, Little Queen - unfortunately, the 8th/last volume was never released in English and I can't even find it online, ;_;
I wasn't sure if I should try more of the artist's work after Little Queen, but now I definitely, definitely want to read this!
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I so want this to be licensed! I do not have much hope, alas.
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I just need to buckle down and learn Korean, too. You will recall I tried to read this in Korean once and managed to understand the bits where they were talking about hair and food.
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