In recent years there has been a lot of talk of mixing heavy metal music (or the heavy metal ambiance) with Dungeons & Dragons. James Edward Raggi, founder of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, has said in interviews that mixing the two was his goal with his RPG company. People are even saying now “that’s so metal!” when a game or supplement hits their preferred high notes for the mixture.
I can’t see how Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal music could have anything to do with each other. Any mixture of the two I can imagine would just be a confused mess. Still, people these days are calling themselves geniuses for thinking of it. There’s just one problem. You guessed it – it’s been done before. Not only that but done better than I can imagine anyone doing it.
In 1988 Hagiwara Kazushi started a manga called Bastard!! in the pages of Shonen Jump. It tells of how the arch wizard Dark Schneider (still a cool name 30 years later) is released from magical imprisonment just when an army of orcs is marching on the city of Metalicana. Dark Schneider wants to take revenge on those who imprisoned him for 15 years and then resume his brutal conquest of the world. The trouble is, his 15 years of imprisonment inside a sweet-natured boy exposed him to the influence of that boy’s soul. Now the evil wizard is showing embarrassing signs of… decency. Although he won’t admit it to anyone, he’s developed something of a conscience and helps the remnants of civilization defend itself from the ravaging armies of Kal Su. Not only that, but Kal Su and his cohorts are bent on releasing the Goddess of ultimate destruction, Anthrax, upon the world. Is Dark Schneider thwarting their plans because he wants to save mankind? Or is it because he doesn’t want the goddess of destruction horning in on his conquest?
The manga is a lot of fun. Great humor, excellent art and heavy portions of fantasy action make it worth reading. There are constant references to heavy metal and hard rock and roll bands. Spells, cities, characters and other things get their names from the Western music scene. The fact that a wimpy, ineffective knight is named after Bon Jovi is just perfect. There are frequent racy scenes with attractive women which fits heavy metal well. The fact that it would offend people with politically correct sensibilities fits heavy metal perfectly.
The influence of Dungeons & Dragons is seen everywhere in the pages of Bastard!! The author’s edition of choice was 1st edition. Many monsters from the first monster manual of 1st edition D&D show up in dramatic fight scenes. There are even side bars with text giving details of the monsters to the readers that match the write ups in the monster manual. Dark Schneider tells a sidekick how he prepares his spells each day and it’s clear Hagiwara had a Japanese translation of the game. Magic items, spells and many other things from Gary Gygax’ masterpiece are right there in the manga. Not since Record of Lodoss War have I seen Dungeons & Dragons so clearly in Japanese entertainment. Later on the manga starts showing the readers how the world of Bastard!! isn’t Middle Ages Europe but actually hundreds of years after the fall of a technologically advanced human civilization. Those who have been diligently reading their Appendix N books will know this once again brings the manga back to the roots of D&D.
If you’ve got the guts, Bastard!! is a fun, over-the-top manga that’s just perfect for anyone who find themselves saying “That’s so metal!”
0 Comments