Disgaea 2 Highly recommended

Publisher
Broccoli Books
Writer
Hekaton
Artist
Takehito Harada
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2007

Disgaea II Volume 1

By David Rasmussen
1st Mar 07

We’ve been suffering a tad bit through the doldrums of bad video game to comic translations, haven’t we. And by suffer I mean, of course, Warhammer 40K : The Manly Men Adventures… or whatever it was called, Damnation Alley or whatever it is. Yeah. For joy, just what I need, more bad game to comic translations. Wait, wait a minute, maybe the PSP adaptation of Warhammer 40K will change my opinion of the whole sorry thing… Warhammer 40K : Battle for Atluma (or whatever it’s called) is a game which brings back the golden age of the … collectible card game… and… oh goddess give me a break. A game of card shuffling and collectible card combat that, oh wait maybe I can at least go online via WiFi and play against Warhammer fans from… what? There’s NO WIFI FUNCTION ON THIS GAME?!? Local only? Yeah… good luck by the way on finding someone else tricked into buying a copy of this game.

Well since I have nothing good to say about Warhammer 40K the Manly Men Card Battling No WiFi Online Function Adventures… so let’s talk about something I do like, Disgaea.

As if to bless you for your patience in holding out as long as you did (which happens to only have been a few months since Disgaea the original One Shot), Disgaea II Volume 1 comes to you to give you what you want… a video game to comic adaptation that doesn’t suck. Maybe it’s the change of creator from the last Disgaea book to this one, but somehow this comes off as being (heaven forbid because I so love the original Disgaea) better than the original. Happy. Happy. Joy. Joy.

It’s been awhile since Laharl united the Netherworld and the heavenly world of Celestia, but as of late he’s fallen into abit of a slump as he’s only been fighting so called “champions” (between postcards from challengers challenging him and the general hate mail he’s been getting from Princess Tutu fans… oh, wait, I’m the only one who gets hate mail from Princess Tutu fans, my bad) and that’s not sitting so well with Etna who’s (lately) gotten a sugar addiction (seemingly) and become rather unhinged of late. Between killing a Prinny (by Prinny tossing) over missing pudding (Laharl looks rather guilty over it), and whining about food from pudding to yakisoba she makes a bad mistake by quitting her job.

Bad because she has plans to overthrow Laharl as Overlord and, apparently, you can’t do that while you’re “The Unemployed Etna”… ouch. Getting a “job” as an Overlord, however, is not the easiest thing and Etna will be lucky to scrounge up work as a Beauty Queen… yes, in the Netherworld (with the harsh way the Netherworld/Disgaea games gives out promotions) it’s hard to even be a Beauty Queen.

It looks like Etna, however, is going to say adios to Lahrael (despite the fact she and he seem to really have a thing for each other… eck, lover’s spat) and the recently “fallen” angel Flonne (who lost her old angel wings, grew demon wings and a tail, and fallen off the wagon of sanity by dressing like Etna to fill that part of Laharl’s life in a rather disturbing manner) for her own kingdom to rule. Good news, it seems there is an Overlord she can overthrow who’s defeat will give her great cred in the Netherworld… bad news, he lives in the world that is the setting of Disgaea 2.

Oh, right, we had to come to the world of Disgaea 2 sooner or later, didn’t we. Hence we finally, halfway through the book, reach the land of Disgaea 2 where the last human on this Netherworld altered reality (Adell) is charged with destroying the very Overlord that (yes) Etna has set her eyes on. A bearded nasty looking dude named Zenon. How do I know this? His mother (who is tired of being a demon herself) is trying to “help” him, which can only go badly… especially when they accidentally summon the Overlord Zenon’s heftily chested daughter who ends up being tied to him via a contract until Adell meets Zenon (wonder if a romantic thing happens between Adell and his daughter Rozalin?).

Not that she wants to help him or anything but as their story goes along it looks like she might be forming a crush on him, anyway for now he has to return her to daddy dearest, which is complicated when she somehow talks him into beating up a has been actor named Axel in order to save Etna’s Prinnies who try to kidnap Rozalin in order to bring her to Etna for some reason… that fails and they end up going back to Adell’s house for the night for a titaling bath scene with Rozalin and an ending which may put Adell’s family at risk in the form of daddy dearest’s overtly protective minions who are going to take back Rozalin so she is untouched by the “filth” outside (too late) even if they have to kill everyone around her to do it… yeah, that’s so nice. And where the hell is Etna? The Prinnies show up during this story but she’s nowhere to be found… unless you count the next episode previews that is, then she’s there a whole lot, just not in the main story and all… will she ever bury the hatchet with Laharl? Will Adell ever get Rozalin back to her daddy and then proceed to kill daddy? Will Axel ever stop being near death or illrelevant? And, come to think of it, will Etna ever actually appear in the actual story of Disgaea 2 and not just be kinda sorta hinted at during the story?!? As the book ends with a… I don’t know if you can call this a “cliffhanger” but it’s an ending… we look forward to Volume 2 and what comes next. Oh, and this book has a nice smathering of bonus content in the back featuring translator notes, Volume 2 preview and character notes.

OK, breakdown time.

Disgaea II Breakdown the 1st
There, that was good wasn’t it? What? You don’t know because you didn’t buy this yet? Do so.
Surpassing even the original Disgaea, this new volume takes us into the sequel while still bringing along (at least in the first half) what we loved from the original game/manga/anime series.
Let me put it to you this way, what would you rather read… a cookie cutter paint by numbers snore fest of manly men shooting things and not really making much impact or a finely written title with a nice wicked little humor (and a wee bit of titillation here and there) which really satisfies (and does it in a fine way)? Your choice should be clear, wouldn’t you say? From it’s fine writing, nice artwork, and a series that hasn’t disappointed yet? You can’t go wrong here. Disgaea 2 Volume 1 gets 5 exploding prinnies out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 1st Mar 07