Disgaea 2, vol. 1

Disgaea 2, volume 1
By Hekaton
Publisher: Broccoli Books

Adell is the lone human being in a world of humans-turned-demons, made by Overlord Zenon. It's Adell's task - and burden - to defeat Zenon and restore his friends and family to their normal selves.

But summoning an Overlord is not easy.

When Adell tries to call Zenon, he ends up with his daughter, Rozalin. Now, bound by contract, Adell promises to take Rozalin back to her father.

However, it will take much more than blind courage to defeat her all-powerful father and save the world. From Broccoli's website.

The manga starts out with Flonne talking about how the Netherworld is at peace now, and how Laharl is making the "heroes" of the Netherworld pay to fight him. So I guess this takes the good ending from the first Disgaea game, where Laharl survives and Flonne is reincarnated as a fallen angel. Etna, bored with Laharl not doing much, sets out on a quest to be an overlord, which involves going to the Dark Assembly, forming her army of Prinnies, those cute-but-exploding penguins, and fighting someone known as Adell, the human champion, and maybe after that fight the overlord Zenon.

About halfway through the book, we meet up with Adell, the primary hero of the second series. He's sworn to brake his family from Overlord Zenon's curse, which turned them part demon. His mother was trying to summon the overlord when Rozalin, the overlord's daughter, comes flying from the sky. Adell and Rozalin pledge to journey together to return her to the overlord's castle. Not much journeying happens in this volume, though. We get to see glimpses of Axel, the Dark Hero who is planning his rock-star comeback. Rozalin and Adell do some venturing in a forest, but they end up returning home for dinner and a good night's sleep.

I guess the manga will stick closely to the plot of the game, but I can't tell you at this point. I only have two of the volumes because that's all that came out here before Broccoli closed down. But this is very good as a video game to manga adaption. The characters aren't boring, cookie-cutter characters like most most of these conversions. Laharl is a spoiled brat, Etna is the strong, selfish, and feisty demon, and Flonne is the sweet and ditzy fallen angel. Adell is the caring hero, who wants to help his family and doesn't care that much about impressing girls, while Rozalin is the spoiled, busty daughter of the all-powerful overlord who makes Adell do most things for her.

And by busty, there is a lot of Rozalin fanservice. Lots and lots. Any panel with Rozalin=instant service. You can tell by opening the book, because the first thing you see is Rozalin, in full color, with her huge chest. I don't recall her having that in the game. :sweatdrop: There's also a three-page bath scene with her and Hanako, but it's not explicit or anything(It's only rated T).

Overall, this is very good. It's way better than the original Disgaea manga, also published by Broccoli. The art done by Hekaton sticks close to the original game art by Takehido Hatada, but it still has it's own style. The book overall is good quality, with nice, sturdy white paper and a non-flimsy cover. I'd recommend this to fans of Disgaea, and just to those who like action/comedy like this.

Art: 5 (Clean, and looks like the game's art)
Characters: 5 (Developed and likable)
Story: 4
Quality: 5 (Broccoli's books are very good quality compared to others.)

Total: 4.75/5 Very good! Or an A. Could be a bit higher/lower for you depending on your opinion of the game franchise.

One of the better video game-to-manga transitions out there. Likable, well-developed characters and a familiar franchise.

Originally published @ http://xxxprincess-cosmos13.deviantart.com/journal/25811408/