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Disgaea 2 Vol. 2 – Manga Review

disgaea-2-manga-cover.jpg

Disgaea-branded anime and manga were doing pretty badly for a while there. But then came Disgaea 2: The Manga! This, folks, is how you make Disgaea manga!

disgaea-2-manga-cover.jpg

Disgaea-branded anime and manga were doing pretty badly for a while there. But then came Disgaea 2: The Manga! This, folks, is how you make Disgaea manga!

Story:
The plot of the manga follows the game’s plot pretty closely. This is what I’ve been suggesting since like, forever! Adell and Rozalin are still looking for Zenon. Adell’s trying to kill him, and Rozalin’s trying to be reunited with her dad. Seems like a conflict of interest to me, but somehow it works…

Along the way, they meet up with Tink, the bipolar ero frog. He’s kind of annoying. Think Jar-Jar Binks except slightly more interesting. Oh, and Etna makes a sort of appearance right at the end.

There’s also a bonus manga at the end which amounts to a very long commercial for the PSP version of Disgaea. I actually bought the Japanese PSP version a while back, but I haven’t really played it much.

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Don’t worry, archer, I love you just the way you are!

Analysis:
Seriously, this manga is awesome. It’s pretty much what every Disgaea fan wants: a faithful manga retelling of the game’s story. Luckily the game’s story is interesting enough without major revision. I thought the first game’s story was still stronger, though.

Another reason this manga is awesome: the author understands the fans of the game. He offers fanservice upon fanservice. Rozalin’s dress basically amounts to instant fanservice. So any panel that Rozalin appears in has fanservice! Yay! In addition to that, we get to see the popular series characters. The archer character (many peoples’ favorite) shows up as two characters! One in Veldime, and another in Laharl’s castle.

There are other fanservice things too. Haven’t ever wanted to see a Rozalin Pantyshot? Check. How about an archer pantyshot? Check. Were you ever mad that there’s some character classes that can’t be female? They drew the samurai, the gunslinger, and (ahem…) the heavy knight as girls! Also, that drawing of the female thief is way hot. They still need to take advantage of the siscon aspect of Hanako not being blood related to Adell. Oops, spoiler. I should stop anyway; I’m fanboying.

I guess the only complaint I can think of is that there’s a bit too much blushing going on. I like blushing as a charm point as much as the next guy, but seriously, tone it down!

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Poor Adell, he didn’t even get one last peek…

The Actual Book:
Broccoli keeps stepping up their game of releasing sick quality manga. I think the cover has some weird UV coating goodness happening. And there’s also color inserts in the front and about halfway through the book. Very nice.

The only complaint I have is showing Harada Takehito’s illustrations on the cover while leaving Hekaton’s art inside. It basically amounts to false advertising. Hekaton’s art is by no means bad, but it’s nowhere near the level of Harada-sensei’s.

Conclusion:
Disgaea 2 (volume 2) was a treat for me to read through as a Nippon Ichi and Disgaea fanboy. It’s nice to finally see an adaptation done right. Isn’t there any way for the original Disgaea manga to be redone by Hekaton?

Many thanks to Broccoli Books for sending me a review copy of Disgaea 2 Volume 2!

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