ORPHEN (Majutsushi Ofen), based on the light novel series by Yoshinobu Akita & character designs by Yuuya Kusaka, with art by Hajime Sawada. First published in 1998, and first published in North America in 2005.
PLOT:
Orphen is a runaway sorcerer working as a sort of magical mercenary for hire, doing odd jobs at the behest of the mysterious Childman. He's constantly chasing the next job, if simply in the hopes of keeping his landlord at bay and shaking off annoying hanger-ons like the diminutive Volkan and oblivious Cleao. Eventually Orphen's dark past with a former classmate catches up with him, threatening not just himself but Cleao's family.
STORY:
Fantasy manga tends to be a very trend-driven genre. Today it's the likes of Sword Art Online and Re:Zero that inspired most new stories. In the 80s, it was driven by tabletop game-inspired tales like Record of Lodoss War. Through the 90s, the trendsetter was Slayers, a series that started as a parody of stories like Lodoss, but soon took on a life (and fandom) of its own. Thus, the pages of Dragon Magazine were full not only with the latest adventures of Lina Inverse, but countless other manga and light novels trying to ape her style. Orphen was one of the last of that type, and like most late-comers to a trend it suffers from a lack of original ideas. It feels a bit exhausted from Page 1, and that feeling only grows as the story goes on.
Orphen is perfectly fine as a protagonist, one who plays at being grumpier than he truly is and keeps his distance for Dark Dramatic Plot Reasons. His backstory is easily the most compelling part of the story and it's clearly where all the plot went to. Sadly, that's not the focus for 3/4ths of this first volume. Instead we have to tag along with Orphen & co. as they investigate magic rings and missing pet dragons. That wouldn't be so bad if anyone else in the cast was the least bit interesting or funny.
What a lot of Slayers knockoffs forget is that part of what made Slayers work in the first place was the dynamic between the main cast. It wasn't just Lina Inverse who had any effort put into her: Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, even quasi-antagonists like Xelloss and Naga the Serpent had distinct personalities, unique gags, and relationships with one another. They weren't just Lina's hangers-on, but an actual adventuring party. Meanwhile, I'd be hard-pressed to tell you anything of Orphen's associates beyond their primary schitck and I understand less why he even tolerates them. Cleao is ditzy and insists on inserting herself into every situation; Volken is an arrogant little troll. Worse still, between Brendan Frayne's mildly garbled translation and Sawada's occasionally disjointed paneling, I suspect that a lot of the original jokes are simply lost in translation, be it the one from light novel to manga or from Japanese to English.
ART:
It's a real shame because Sawada does a good job translating Kusaka's original designs to manga, avoiding the worst of late 90s anime excesses and bringing with him a knack for good faces and bold, confident inking. It's a shame that they are so bad at composition, though. Both the comedy bits and the action are confusing and cluttered, and the transitions between punchlines or action beats could be so jarring at times that it felt like a panel was left out.
RATING:
It's just as true then as it is now: it's rare to find a fantasy light novel that transitions well into manga form, and Orphen is no exception to this. Maybe now that J-Novel Club has licensed the original novels, people can experience the story as it was meant to be and not through this awkward, disjointed, and disappointing adaptation.
This series was published by ADV Manga. This series is complete in Japan with 6 volumes available. All 6 were published and are currently out of print.
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