Manga Review: Basara, Vol. 1 by Yumi Tamura
In the early 21st Century, a disaster befell the Earth, drastically altering its climate and causing Japan’s civilization to crumble. But that was in the distant past, and the islands have become united again under a feudalistic society ruled by the Golden King. Fearful of being overthrown by one of his four sons, the Golden King has given each of them an area to administrate so they will vie against each other instead. The desert lands west of Kyoto are under the rule of the youngest son, the Red King. But not all of his subjects are loyal.
Byakko Village has a legend that one day a “child of destiny” will be born that will overthrow kings and restore justice to the land. When the twins Tatara and Sarasa are born, the sage Nagi proclaims that one of them is that child. Because sexism, the villagers assume that Tatara is the Chosen One, and he is raised to fulfill that destiny. Sarasa grows up in her brother’s shadow, basically ignored by most of the villagers except to chide her whenever she tries to share something of Tatara’s prestige.
Unfortunately, people outside the village know about the prophecy too, and when the twins are fifteen, the Red King’s men raid the village and execute Tatara. Thinking fast, Sarasa chops off most of her hair, dresses in Tatara’s spare outfit and pretends to be her brother to distract the soldiers from wiping out the remaining villagers.
Given her strong resemblance to Tatara, the fact that most of her people never really looked at her, and their desperate need to believe, the villagers accept Sarasa as actually being Tatara. Now she must take the place of the “boy of destiny” and lead her people in rebellion as the Red King will certainly finish the job otherwise. With the aid of the mysterious merchant Ageha, Sarasa pulls off the retrieval of her brother’s blade, the sword of Byakko, but is injured.
Meanwhile, the Red King has his own problems. He’s aware that his family is widely hated, and for good reason due to their misrule. He’s trying to be a decent king, but he cannot allow rebellion in his province, so must crush the uprising. One night he sneaks off to a hot spring in non-king clothing. There he meets a mysterious girl named Sarasa, and introduces himself by his given name of Shuri. The two begin to have feelings for each other, neither realizing the other is their mortal enemy.
This shoujo manga ran to twenty volumes in the 1990s, and was popular enough to spawn a short anime. It has strong themes of destiny and romance; while revenge motivates much of the early action, it ultimately turns out to be best to release the past.
The art isn’t as flowery as was common for shoujo of the time, and Sarasa is a tougher-appearing protagonist, but there are certainly some pretty men to look at.
There’s some good action, but Sarasa wasn’t trained in combat or horse riding the way Tatara was, so she has to avoid straight-up battles in this first volume. This was a monthly series, so each chapter is long enough to get quite a bit of character interaction into it.
Content note: Death of a child, sexism. Shuri acts forcefully towards Sarasa at the hot spring and steals a kiss because he’s been told women like that. (Sarasa is not impressed.)
Overall: Not really my thing, but will probably go over well with fans of mistaken identity complicated romances.
Here’s the opening for the anime, Legend of Basara:
