Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, The Recommended

Publisher
ADV Manga
Writer
Sakura Kinoshita
Artist
Sakura Kinoshita
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2003

The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok V. 2

By David Rasmussen
10th Sep 06

If the reviewing of manga and anime has a particular mantra to keep in mind it’s this… always start your reviews from the FIRST VOLUME of the series! That failing of mine comes back to haunt me in this review of ADVManga’s The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok (Volume 2).

Admittedly having missed Volume 1 of this series was a mistake, as without it I am mostly in the dark about the series and what’s going on. Sure, I could research other reviewers notes to see what I missed but it just makes me not want to get volume 1 if I do that (so I better bite the bullet and go get that missing volume as well as volume 3). Here’s what I do know, however.

So far the pantheon of the Norse gods has not exactly gotten a lot of spin out there. Sure, we do have Dark Horse’s whole Ring of the Nibelrung which is supposed to be part of the inspiration for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (according to some) and MARVEL’s favorite violent mythic god slash super hero THOR to talk of (for instance) but for the most part Norse gods have not been wandering about the visual media known as comics or manga for the most part… except here.

Norse deities get a nice redress as we find ourselves staring down a good Loki (maybe) in the form of a banished Loki who has been made into a kid and stranded on Earth for some offense that only people who’ve watched the series fully knows of. This series, as you guessed, features that Loki who now is a detective of Holmes like quality… why? I guess the first volume explains that but I missed it, which means I should really dig in to get it soon. But, for those of you who’d like to see something of this taste that doesn’t make Loki a typical villain or have Thor going about occasionally shrieking “I SAY THEE NAY”… (I say thee NAY oh MARVEL! NAY… bleah.)… let’s take a look at what’s going on here.

First off after passing by a street performing Freyr, Freya (a normal looking schoolgirl form female) quickly drops in on Loki (now a hot blonde type) with flowers… but that quickly gets derailed as a friend drops in hiring Loki to play Ghostbuster as there seems to be the spirit of a cat in a house Loki’s friend’s dad is trying to sell… lots of misdirection, much ado about nothing and the occasional rantings about hooking cats up to a sleigh and making them mush (giddyup!)

After that Loki has to housesit for the God of Thunder (formerly known as Thor but now named Narugami, but who Loki teasingly called Narukami) who does NOT work as a doctor in this form, but has a job at a noodle shop now which is now being robbed by a family member (which somehow ends up involving Loki as a bad “hostage negotiator“). Oh, and Loki’s assistants Yamino (Midgar-Sormr) and Fenrir seem to be playing matchmakers trying to hook Loki and the character Spica up… why? I don’t know, but it may have to do something with them supposedly being the “parents” of this unlikely duo (one, Fenrir, being in the form of a dog).

This isn’t good since next episode the moon vanishes, Spica falls into a coma, and the guilty party seems to be a silver haired Loki that is the present Loki’s past, and who is looking to merge with the Detective Loki to become one… well, now I guess I really need to review Volume 3 to find out what happens next.

Cutesy, interesting, a solid read, if you haven’t read this yet (and it’s been out for awhile so you should have) now is as good a time as any to check this out. Breakdown.

The Mythical Breakdown Loki Review-rok.
What’s Hot?
If you would like to see a different spin on the whole Norse thing that doesn’t have a musclebound He-Man guy of legend and lore running about occasionally spouting things like (and I keep saying this despite the fact I don’t know how Thor is being played up now, or if he’s still around today) “I SAY THEE NAY!!” and so on then here’s your taste of something different. A new spin on the Norse god things where Loki isn’t evil, Thor isn’t a studmuffin, and we have other characters worth looking at… and that’s a good thing. Add to that the Anime version of this series and you got two tastes of a different thing in the Norse mythology to give a chance on (if you don’t want the same old same old slice of beef forever).

What’s Not?
I can’t think of much that is bad about this. It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad.

Moments to Remember?
Quite abit here actually, but mostly the fact it’s more of a solid read by being more intellectual than a book about whacking things with giant hammers and whatever.

What to Ignore?
Well… it’s not the MARVEL way but whatever. Ignore it.

Overall?
If you want to get a different opinion on a title featuring the Norse gods of myth in a way not before seen then here you go. Norse god things that look like NORMAL people, getting into sometime strange situations (like the shrinking of Freyr by the evil silver haired Loki which leads to some awkward stuff) and overall a read that is worth checking out if you can get ahold of this for being a different slice of Norse.
A four… out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 10th Sep 06