From Far Away

By Rebecca Buchanan
April 1, 2007

I have come late to the manga craze. The art can be a bit of a turn-off for me, as can the sappy dialogue — okay, I'm generalizing. But that is how manga often appears to an outsider. But than I saw my first Miyazaki film and fell in love, read Nausicaa, and decided to give manga a chance. The folks at Viz were kind enough to send me the first few volumes of Kyoko Hikawa's From Far Away, and I liked it right away. Sadly, after fourteen volumes, the series has come to an end.

Noriko Tachiki is an ordinary Japanese school girl; the daughter of a science fiction author, she often wanders around in a daze, daydreaming. When a bomb explodes at her feet, Noriko is magically transported to another world, an Earth of seers and mystical warriors. One of these warriors is Izark Kia Tarj, a tormented and powerful young man with a terrible destiny: he is the Sky Demon, and whoever controls him will rule the world. Thrown together by fate and chance and their growing affection for one another, Noriko and Izark make a dangerous trek across the land, gathering friends and followers as they go: Gaya of the Gray Bird Tribe and her twin sister Zena; the child-seer Geena and her father Agol; the exiled noble Lord Jeida and his family; the thuggish Barago, who is so impressed by Izark's honorable behavior that he joins the adventurers; slow-witted Doros, who wants nothing more than to raise and care for the magical chimos; Irk and the other spirits of the White Mist Woods; and so many more.

As they make their way towards the sacred desert city of Enna-Marna, Noriko and Izark are constantly pursued and tormented by the ambitious and utterly amoral Lord Rachef; the seers Gorya and Tazasheena; and the ferocious warrior Keimos. Each, for reasons of power or glory or fear, has chosen to serve evil. Kidnapping, torture, murder — anything to serve their master and further their own ambitions.

At Enna-Marna, good and evil face one another in a final showdown. While Izark faces Keimos and the armies of Rachef alone, Noriko lies ill in bed. Only then, as her mind wanders over all her adventures and all the people she has met, does her destiny as The Awakening come to fruition ....

As a fantasy geek, I suppose that I was predisposed to enjoy the series. But there are many reasons that I came to enjoy From Far Away so much.

1) The Land. As described by Hikawa, the far away land in which Noriko finds herself is both beautiful and terrible. Rabbit-horses, gigantic flower insects, the Sea of Trees, the White Mist Woods, golden grass; the city of Enna-Marna itself, carved out of the interior of a mesa. I would love to see some color images; and I can only imagine what an anime would look like!

2) Noriko. She starts out a pretty ordinary, if slightly absent-minded, teenage girl, but as the story progresses she discovers within herself a deep well of strength and courage and caring. She learns the native language. She comes to see the honor and nobility within Izark, and so brings him to see it, too; simply by caring, she saves him.

3)Izark. Far, far too many romances (and assorted other genres) feature male protagonists who are absolute boors — even cruel. And yet the heroine still falls in love! Argh! Drives me bonkers. Izark is different. He's not a boor; aloof, yes — understandable considering his own mother rejected and tried to murder him and he's got this whole Sky Demon prophecy hanging over his head. But he is never, never cruel to Noriko; from the very beginning he tries to protect her, even from himself. He runs to her rescue more times than I can count. And, when she saves his life, he comes to trust and rely on her as well. As far as action heroes go, Izark is a nice change of pace.

4) The Theme of Redemption. Izark may not need to be redeemed so much as saved: he has to be convinced of his own worth and right to be loved. Other characters, though, do need to be redeemed, enough that the theme is an important element over the entire arc of the story. Barago, for instance, is introduced as a thug in the employ of the corrupt Lord Nada; but he is shown the right path and chooses to help Izark and Noriko. Doros breeds the teleporting chimos for Lord Rachef; when the latter kills some of his beloved animals, Doros abandons his master and saves Noriko. And then there's Banadam, Lord Jeida's retainer, who falls in love with Noriko and gets between her and Izark; yeah, he has to make up for that.

5) The Escalation. Despite the bomb in the first volume, From Far Away begins as a fairly gentle, all-ages fantasy. As it progresses however, and we see more and more of the evil which has infected this magical world, the tone and artwork become progressively darker — and gorier. It starts out as a G and moves steadily into the PG-13 range. That escalation in darkness and violence worked for me: it slowly ratcheted up the tension; it slowly revealed just how big and nasty this evil was that heroes were fighting; and it allowed Noriko to grow and show her strength of character as she faced greater and greater dangers.

6) The End. From Far Away does not end like your typical epic fantasy. There is usually a big gory battle in which the hero emerges triumphant after gloriously slaying the Big Bad. Well, that's only partially true in the case of From Far Away. There is a big battle; Izark does have to face down the warrior Keimos and hordes of monsters. But Rachef and Tazasheena — the end for them isn't quite what you would think. Remember the theme of redemption that I mentioned above ...?

From Far Away is a terrific epic fantasy with themes of love and friendship and loyalty and perseverance and (of course) redemption. The Epilogue in the final volume hints at what became of the adventurers after the battle at Enna-Marna; here's hoping that Hikawa tells us a little more of that story.

Viz