Banya : The Explosive Deliveryman V. 1

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it. Since the last time I reviewed a Korean Manhwa.
Not to be confused with Manga (Japanese), Manhwa (Korean) is a flavor all it’s own (with it’s own favorite genres and story types). Action (with a dash of weirdness), however, does seem to be one of the favorite archetypes of the standard Manhwa publication, which we got here in Banya : The Explosive Deliveryman.
According to title creator Kim Young-Oh, it was the sight of a sweat laden postal worker delivering the mail (on a beat-up motorcycle) during a hot day that inspired this book, dedicated to South Korea’s mailmen… how this exactly is a tribute to postal employees when it seems all the postmen in this book are half mercenary living in some dark age (possibly post apocalyptic future) world is not too clear to me.
Don’t ask how the world neded up like this, the book doesn’t seem to want to tell you, and believe you me I looked! Yes, the world does seem to be in the middle of a war between humanity and this strange monster race called the Torren (it’s like the Dark Ages went and pissed off J.R.R. Tolkien, only to have Tolkien retaliate by ripping open a can of Lord of the Rings all over the Dark Ages’ rear), but nobody goes into WHY there’s a war between humans and the blatent “Urukai” (forgot how to spell it… darn, it’s not like Lord of the Rings was only finished a few years ago so why did I forget how to spell that anyway!!) warriors (complete with ripoff weapons and costumes as if they were hired right off the set of Lord of the Rings)… nobody even goes into whether this is the past or the future, while I’m at it.
All you need to know as the book opens (according to the book) is that there’s this LOTR epic battle going on over this castle (it’s like it’s Helm’s Deep all over again) and this postman named Banya (who will, thankfully, not give you Kevin Costner from The Postman flashbacks… blessed aren’t we…) who smashes his way through a legion of these LOTR ripoff creatures to deliver the mail… then blackmail the commander of said castle to deliver a message for reinforcements back to their main forces. Nice guy.
Then he goes off back through the forces and that’s it for this scene.
You never find out what happened to all these humans. Did reinforcements arrive in time? Did the monsters win or lose? Did the commander of this castle ever hire another postman to slit Banya’s throat? Who knows! We cut to the female lead of this book, Mei, as she runs into Banya and forms a friendship with him over her insistent screeching and crying over every mutant monster animal (and not so mutant monster animal) that is killed in this book by Banya for food (or survival). She then becomes a homicidal basket case and screams, beats Banya and the book’s young male sidekick Kong (no relation to the large primate of the same last name) around a lot, and acts like a stereotypical female lead character (violence = results).
After that a mysterious courier delivering a vital message (surprise surprise) is saved by Banya and his small gang, and Banya takes on the task of delivering the message… only for the guys who were hunting said courier to find him, cut him in half, and then get talked into taking Mei with them to “deliver” them to the message Banya is carrying (with Kong following behind them).
Story ends with Kong catching up to… eh? Banya? How the hell did he get AROUND Mei and the guys she’s with to somehow get ahead of them… anyway cliffhanger ending as Mei is still in their “guard” (but they’re not threatening to kill her or anything… yet…) and Banya still has that message they seem so hot to get ahold of. Guess I need to order the next volume to tell you what happens next, something for my must order list, but for now let’s break this down.
Banya Breakdown the 1st
What’s Hot?
Well… it’s not horrible. I mean as an action spiel it’s an OK read, and I kinda liked it. Mei’s an OK character and it has some action to it, that’s good.
What’s Not?
However the “World” of Banya is not laid out very well. Without a backstory (yet), history of how the world came to be, or (in fact) anything to really make Banya, Mei and Kong stand out as really intense and interesting characters (besides their sadly cliché personalities that you’ve seen before) I can’t recommend this more as a mild read for that next plane trip or train ride (plane trip since you’ll probably not be allowed to carry your PSP or NDS into the plane, or use it, due to restrictions on stuff like that).
It’s not like this is a horrible title, it just that it’s not really leaping out as this great wonderful read either!
Moments to Remember?
I guess Mei’s first appearance is memorable, and the stuff right up to her being “captured” (voluntarily) by the mysterious men (who don’t seem to have much personality but are quite violent -- sometimes).
What to Ignore?
Nothing yet, let’s just see what that message Banya is delivering is and why it’s so important that it has to be delivered, and that’s going to be next review… so stay tuned.
Overall?
In the end, at this first volume? Let’s split the difference. I am hopeful (fingers crossed) that this book is going to take off at Volume 2 (and things will really start to pick up it’s pacing once things start rolling) but for now let’s give this an even keeled 3 and call it a day.
I kinda liked it, but it wasn’t the best thing I have ever read, Manhwa or Manga-wise.
Now it’s my turn to deliver something to Banya, as I bring his a package that is 3 Special Delivery points out of 5... Now gimme my 350. Pay! Pay! Pay!