cover image Louie the Rune Soldier: Volume 1

Louie the Rune Soldier: Volume 1

Ryou Mizuno, . . ADV Manga, $9.99 (171pp) ISBN 978-1-4139-0085-9

Stop us if you've heard this one: a feckless antihero finds himself beset by a handful of sexy, powerful women who, for vague reasons, insist on accompanying and "serving" him through a series of absurd adventures, rife with male-female badinage and sexual titillation. This boy-and-babes formula is a familiar one in manga, seen in such hits as Tenchi Muyo! and Love Hina . Here, the setting is a thinly sketched sword-and-sorcery milieu, played strictly for laughs, while the protagonist is Louie, a brawler chosen by divine intervention to become the "hero" for three female adventurers. The trio recognize Louie is a clod, but are nonetheless fated to serve him. Louie, an amoral loser of faint prospects, is the kind of ne'er-do-well so popular among role-playing gamers; predictably, though, the story hints at his hidden depths. one of several new entries from the recently-launched ADV Manga line, this work was originally published in Japan in 2000, and ties into the anime series Maho Senshi Riui (known here as Rune Soldier ). The manga adaptation is the work of artist Sasameyuki, whose compositions are nigh on illegible and whose sense of atmosphere is nil (he gives no attention to creating a distinct world). Despite odd flashes of visual wit, the story is bankrupt and the storytelling confused, though manga diehards may stay the course. (Mar.)