The Heroic Legend of Arslan vol. 15

I was looking forward to this volume in a way that I haven’t for previous volumes in this series for a while now.  Though “Arslan” continues to be quite readable, its storytelling has fallen into a predictable groove where it’s easy to see how the major conflicts and character arcs are going to play out.  The exception to this being Andragoras’ genuinely badass escape from prison and Ecbatana a few volumes back.  I did not see that coming and I wanted to see what kind of chaos his return would sow in the ranks of the army that his “son” Arslan had gathered in his absence.  What I wound up getting were some mixed results.

Andragoras’ return begins in an imposing fashion as he gets a double-page spread to announce his arrival at Peshawar Castle.  From there, he sets about letting everyone know that he’s in charge now.  This includes his son, who he charges with raising an additional 50,000 soldiers and not to return until he has done so.  With the countryside picked clean of available recruits, the order is exile in all but name.  Arslan, being the dutiful son that he is, agrees to this and takes off without complaint even after his father denies him the chance to speak with his mother before he goes.

It’s clear that mangaka Hiromu Arakawa wants us to dislike Andragoras as his actions here are unnecessarily harsh towards the title character.  It didn’t work for me, though.  After Arslan was dismissed and sent on his way, I thought that this represented a promising new direction for this series.  Our protagonist’s success up to this point hasn’t necessarily stemmed from his own actions, but rather his choice of allies who are either more capable fighters (Daryun), strategists (Narsus), or both (for the sake of argument, let’s say Gieve) than he is.  Seeing Arslan deprived of them all and forced to recruit a new army using his own skills struck me as a gutsy move on the mangaka’s part and just the kind of shot in the arm this series needed.

This lasts for… one whole chapter.  Without giving too much away, the major complications with this setup are resolved quickly and the story gets back to business as usual.  Maybe I was expecting too much for Arakawa to ditch the majority of the series’ most distinctive characters just like that.  The end result is that their efforts building up an army over the course of the past fourteen volumes are wiped away just like that.

This is disappointing for two reasons.  One is the obvious loss of progress in regards to Arslan’s goal of driving out the Lusitanians and retaking his homeland.  The other is that this series of events makes it look like Arslan’s personal growth isn’t the goal here.  In seeing all of his comrades risk life and limb to return to his side, we’re meant to assume that it’s his judgment of character and the loyalty he inspires that are his real defining qualities.  While I won’t say that it’s impossible for something like this to be done, the person who’s doing the inspiring needs a lot more charisma than what we’ve seen from Arslan up to this point.  In short, it feels like this reunion happened because the narrative demanded it and not because Arslan is the hero it deserves.

As for everyone else who’s not part of Arslan’s army, their stories continue on in much the same way they have before.  Hilmes does get a whole chapter to show that he used to be a decent guy before he let his desire for revenge utterly consume him.  He’s also committed to working with Guiscard for now, as the latter’s constant scheming to usurp the Lusitanian crown for himself.  We also get to see what happens to Etoile and the Lusitanian refugees she brings with her back to Ecbatana, and it’s fine.  All of this is to say that while none of the storytelling in regards to the characters not currently in Arslan’s orbit is bad, it’s not really all that exciting either.

Which is why I was so disappointed to see so little come of Andragoras’ reunion with Arslan.  It had the chance to really re-energize the series and it wound up being used only to wipe away some of the progress the main character had made up to this point.  I’m honestly with Guiscard here as he was upset at learning that a fight hadn’t broken out between father and son regarding who would lead the army.  It’s possible that’s still in the cards, and may even wind up being the ultimate clash in the series.  Until that happens, “Arslan” is going to have to find some other way to re-ignite my interest and get me to think of this series as something more than readable comfort food.