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Senjutsu Chou Koukaku ORION

The Masamune Shirow Hyperpage Presents:

::: MASAMUNE SHIROW'S :::

Copyrights Masamune Shirow / Seishinsha
Kidding! ^_^ It's Masamune Shirow's 仙術超攻殻 ORION!

"Tonight, somewhere on the Planet Lurie, flower of civilization, a malevolent deity is about to appear...." - Orion Notes opening by Masamune Shirow, August 1990

A digest of the classic Shirow Manga Orion [仙術超攻殻オリオン]!

Background

Masamune Shirow's Orion was set at a time before human's evolution, when dinosaurs roam the earth. It did not take place in the Solar System either, rather at the far far away Orion Nebula. It was here that the Galactic Empire was established, a vast empire covering the Galaxy at the peak of its power and glory. However, all is not well due to the excessive negative karma constantly being generated by the empire's total population threatening to be a catalyst to the mighty empire's decline.

The Planet Lurie... Notice the "Octopus" Pattern! ^_^

The Yamato People's Empire on the Planet Lurie where our story takes place was a part of the Galactic Empire under the rule of a certain Emperor Zokoku. A group of Tendai Naga ritual experts were sent to this Planet with the purpose of activating a Naga Reactor to collect all the negative karma from the entire Galaxy into one place and destroy them once and for all. After some time however, the Tendai Naga experts started to conflict with each other's methods and started taking their own routes to achieve the same means.

While one faction stuck on to the traditional means of rituals and spells to get things done, another faction of experts developed a field of study called Psycho-Science. Psycho-Science relies on studies, theories and development of technological equipments with Naga rituals as its basis. Both parties often clashed head on and tried to outdo one another in the race to save the empire from being devoured by the increasingly overwhelming negative karma.

The story of Orion took place when the traditional Tendai Naga faction got impatient and decided to expedite the activation of the Nine-headed Naga to save the empire from its impending doom. This of course led to a major squabbling with the Pycho-Science believers and set off a chain of events that would change the Galaxy forever...

Note: for more detailed explanation on the Yamato People's Empire and other interesting stuffs please read Masamune Shirow's Orion Notes, Appended in the English Darkhore Editions TPB and in Appleseed Hypernotes for the Japanese version.

The Cast of Orion

Introducing the main cast of the Orion story, the major players who played prominent roles in this extraordinary tale of sorcery and fate...

	Susano Orbatos- Warrior God of The Black Dragon-Eye Susano Orbatos, Vajra Arhat, The God Of Darkness and Destruction, was summoned by Master Fuzen, head of the Kurama Tendai, to stop the Nine Headed Naga from devouring planet Lurieh. Wild and arrogant Susano proves that he is indeed Destruction- plowing and destroying with little regard to human life. Sensing the threat and power of the Naga, Susano is out to undo the mess. In his mission to salvage Lurieh, Susano has to quash the nuissance of the Evil Seska and face various psycho-science nonsense. Susano at last found his equal counterpart in Princess Kushinata, source of the Naga, and in the process enlightened on the nature of his true self. Although quite far from the original Susano in the ancient Shinto Myths of Japan, he retains the vital characteristics- wild, upstart, destructive. Is this the only hope of salvation for humanity? Experience the wrath of heaven! Susano's weapon: A ten-pan sword, and much later in the story, acquired Tsumukari, the Sword God.
	Seska Fuzen - Bratty Sorceress With Attitude Daughter of Master Fuzen, head of the Kurama Tendai. Seska works as a First Navigator, guiding ships such as the Military's Nubatama to other planets and is also a skilled sorceress. She gets into endless troubles... pursued by the Imperial Police Force, swallowed by Susano, almost dinnered by Octopots but worst of all she manages to make a fool of herself every time in front of her secret love, the charming Commander Ronnel.... That is until she was possesed and became the Malevolent Deity of The Tenth Element. After manipulating the Emperor for power over the Nine Headed Naga and getting even with Susano she proclaimed herself the Future Empress of the Greater Galaxy Empire (That's a pretty clear indication of her character!). However, Susano is out to foil her plans..... A violent, rude, shameless brat, she provokes everybody- a fellow transnav, Ship Captains, Daddy, and even the God of Destruction himself.
	Kushinata Hime (Princess) - Female Deity A semi-deity, with crystalline vision, and Kannon (one of the two Bodhisattvas attending to the Amida Buddha) powers. The Princess acts as the source of the Nine Headed Naga, sacrificing herself to become one with the Naga which will eventually consume all of Lurieh's bad karma. To purify the world and mankind of evil karma, the Princess weaves and activates the Naga. However, she did not realize that the Naga is doing more harm than good, and finally compromised with Susano to disintegrate the Naga.
	Master Fuzen- Head of the Fuze Clan, Sorcerer Of Tendai Naga Rituals Master Fuzen is the Head of The Fuze Clan, which specializes in Tendai Naga Rituals with the Kurama Tendai as its main temple. An anti-psycho-science, Master Fuzen predicted that activating the Nine Headed Naga would wreck havoc upon the Yamata People's Empire, he stole the Dharmaquation from the Imperial palace to stop the process. However, Kurama Tendai was attacked the Imperial Police Force led by Dr Hebime, Master Fuzen's arch-rival. Fuzen transferred the Dharmaquation to Seska's body and managed to summon the God Of Destruction, Susano Orbatos, to deal with the Nine Headed Naga before dying. Susano revived Fuzen as witness to his greatness and wrath- to behold the power of an angry God.
	Dr. Gyoun Hebime- Military Counselor To The Imperial Court On Dr. Hebime's Security Pass: Gyoun Hebime, Age: 72, # of years without a girlfriend: 72...... Doesn't look very good here...... Dr Hebime is a firm believer in Psycho-Science and plays a significant part in the activation of the Nine Headed Naga. Once friends with Master Fuzen, they have turned into bitter rivals. His Psycho-Science techniques -including the dreaded Cubular Warheads and summoning of the Monkey-God, proved ineffective against Susano. Dawned with the realization that the Nine Headed Naga is anything but good, Dr. Hebime finally came to his senses and tried to stop the Naga. However he is outsmarted by the Evil Seska, before Susano finally saved the day- and Hebime's butt. At the end of the story Dr. Hebime was finally enlightened on the truth of Psycho Science by the Deities Susano and Kushinata.

Nine Headed Naga - Good Intentions Manifested as Evil! Activated by means of Dharmaquation utilising a pure "sacrifice" (Princess Kushinata), the Nine-Headed Naga manifests physically as a monster feeding on the negative Karma of the Greater Galactic Empire. The Naga was meant to absorb all negative Karma from the galaxy into one convenient mass and then destroyed, purifying and cleansing the empire - or so says the theory of Tendai Naga. As Susano rightly pointed out, the idea of such a "convenient" way to destroy negative energy in the first place is already impure the Nine Headed Naga will destroy rather than save the population. It seemed fated that the God of Darkness and Destruction were to confront and destroy the Nine Headed Naga, thereby sparing the Yamato People's Empire (and the greater Galactic) for the next 5.67 billion years...

The Orion Books

Orion was first serialized in a Seishinsha comic anthology publication- a bimonthly collection titled Comic Gaia. Comic Gaia's run included the full Orion story, Appleseed Hyoernotes (unfinished) and Dominion Conflict 1. Comic Gaia has since been discontinued but fortunately, most of the Shirow material published there have been compiled into convenient tankubons/TPBs for our enjoyment. Us English readers have it good with the Dark Horse / Studio Proteus Orion TPB which included the Orion Notes originally published under Appleseed Hypernotes (The Japanese Orion Tankubon does not include Orion Notes). These footnotes and essays by Shirow relating to Orion are an added bonus to the depth and understanding of this somewhat tricky but enjoyable manga. Also take note that the book info I posted here might be outdated as my copies of Orion are early editions and Comic Gaia is out of print. As always, check with your import sources and Dark Horse Online for status and latest editions of Orion.

	Comic Gaia (Manga Anthology) Author: Collection Art: Various artists Publisher: Seishinsha Price: 890 Yen (#1 - 8) / 680 Yen (#9 - 16) Current Status: Discontinued / Out of print A 16-issue run (somewhat bi-monthly) manga anthology published by Seishinsha from late 1990 to mid 1993. The first Orion episodes were serialized in issues 1 to 6. Also, most covers for this anthology were done by Shirow. More information at the Comic Gaia section (To be posted later- sorry!).
	Senjutsu Chou Koukaku Orion (Japanese Tankubon) Author: Masamune Shirow Art: Masamune Shirow Publisher: Seishinsha ISBN4-87892-007-6 C0079 P950E Price: 950 Yen (Recommended) Release: December 1991 Where to buy? Try your local Japanese book-chain. Most of them (e.g Kinokuniya) does special orders for customers. Armed with the Title, Author, Publisher and ISBN, there should be no problems getting it if its still in print. Else, try some online manga mail-order companies.
	Masamune Shirow's Orion (English Edition TPB) Author: Masamune Shirow Art: Masamune Shirow Translation: Frederik Schodt, Toren Smith Publisher: Dark Horse Comics/ Studio Proteus ISBN: 1-56971-148-8 Price: US$17.95 Release: September 1994 Collecting the Direct Editions #1- #6 Where to buy? Any good comics shop that stock/sell Dark Horse titles, or have a reasonable selection of manga titles should have it in stock. If this is not an option, try online mail-order stores, or visit Dark Horse Online where you can get the book (and other Dark Horse titles) through Things From Another World (TFAW). Very reliable. Highly recommended.

Other Merchandise

For information, Orion re-surfaced some years after the original manga as an online Network RPG Game for Japanese gamers. Shirow Sensei contributed to the character design, and I suppose also somewhat to the general setting of this RPG. This NRPG had also ended its service many years back. I will do a separate, more detailed post for this Orion NRPG next time.

posted by: Lucas at 03/31/05 16:45 | link | comments | Category: orion

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