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Panchatantra: The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma, Concluded
I'm still basking the afterglow. This was a good one.
Warning: There are spoilers in this review.
So quickly, to recap the story so far: Evil Professor Shadow is murdering some story characters and convincing others to join his cause. Vishnu Sharma, apathetic video-game-loving teen, is called upon to protect the Panchatantra. His allies are the lion, the bull, the jackal, and the monkey, except that in this version the monkey is a woman and this is very awesome. Professor Shadow backs Vishnu into a corner and strong-arms him into making a Very Bad Decision for All the Right Wholly Understandable and Sympathetic Reasons.
The final two acts of this series take place entirely within the Panchatanra "storyworld," which means that we don't get any more wild and crazy cameos from the likes of Harry Potter or Tarzan. What we do get, however, is something even better: The fourth issue of this series finally freakin' passes the Bechdel test. A new female character, Kava the Crow, is introduced. Pay attention to her, because she will take on an extremely important role during the climatic finale.
Unfortunately, not even the awesomeness of Bandra the Monkey, or the addition of Kava the Crow, can entirely offset the gender imbalance in this series. At one point, we even get an extended ten-page scene in which Leo the Lion rallies all of the animals in the Panchatantra to his cause. There are some gorgeous and detailed crowd scenes in some panels, showing all of the hundreds of animals gathered together... And not a single (identifiable) woman in sight. Huh wow.
I will say, however, that Bandra continues to get a disproportionate share of AWESOME compared to the male characters. For example, there's this sequence, in which she accidentally stumbles upon a doorway to another "storyworld":
FYI, Bandra then proceeds to take a pair of (still talking!) severed doll heads toss them at the feet of another character, solely for the intimidation factor, in a moment of inspired badassness.
But enough about Bandra. The real interesting character here is Vishnu, an all-too-realistic teenage boy who would much rather run away from his deadly supernatural problems than confront them. Vishnu is the character who undergoes the greatest changes, from apathy, to fear, to defiance, to a fall from grace, and finally to a hard-earned redemption.
Remember how I said that the third issue ended with Vishnu making a Really Bad Decision?
Vishnu begins the fourth issues by walking straight into Leo's stirring four-page speech about how Vishnu, the Guardian, was going to Save the Universe. About how Leo himself was at first skeptical about Vishnu's bravery and loyalty, but that now Vishnu has earnd his faith and his trust. About how Vishnu would have made his grandfather proud. About how the animals of the Panchatantra no longer have anything to fear. Vishnu attempts to protest these words, but instead ends up confronted with this:
Ha ha ha ha ha, yeowch!
A brief aside: I really loved the way that all of the animal characters were anthropomorphized. Especially the birds. From the dumpy, wizened owls to the darkly handsome and somewhat menacing crows, all of the bird designs were great. And no two animals looked alike. Even in an entire murder of crows and a flock of owls, no two faces looked alike.
It would have been nice, however, if we had gotten a few identifiable women characters in that crowd of anthropomorphized animals. Or God, even just one. Argh. Other than Bandra, Kava, and the dolls, the only other female character I could spot was that rabbit shown above. All of the other animal characters were either a) anthropomorphized and obviously male, or b) in their animals forms and extremely difficult to peg as either male or female.
But enough grumbling about the gender issues. The bottom line is, the whole series builds to a truly great ending. Big epic battle, some awesome action sequences, betrayal, redemption, death, last-minute plot twists, and a most satisfying conclusion.
The "most satisfying conclusion," however, is also left open-ended. The identity of Professor Shadow is revealed and his storyline is at least halfway resolved. However, we never once get a chance to see Cameo. (Unless Cameo was supposed to be [spoiler]?) Anyway, the battle is over, but not the war. As Jack says at the end of the final issue, "The story's just beginning, Kava. The hero finally bothered to show up."
Given Virgin's track record of not continuing miniseries unless they're backed by big-name celebrities, however, I have not-very-high hopes about Panchatantra ever getting the sequel that it's so neatly set up for. Sigh.
But still, this is such a great series. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone.
PS - I ship it:
Warning: There are spoilers in this review.
So quickly, to recap the story so far: Evil Professor Shadow is murdering some story characters and convincing others to join his cause. Vishnu Sharma, apathetic video-game-loving teen, is called upon to protect the Panchatantra. His allies are the lion, the bull, the jackal, and the monkey, except that in this version the monkey is a woman and this is very awesome. Professor Shadow backs Vishnu into a corner and strong-arms him into making a Very Bad Decision for All the Right Wholly Understandable and Sympathetic Reasons.
The final two acts of this series take place entirely within the Panchatanra "storyworld," which means that we don't get any more wild and crazy cameos from the likes of Harry Potter or Tarzan. What we do get, however, is something even better: The fourth issue of this series finally freakin' passes the Bechdel test. A new female character, Kava the Crow, is introduced. Pay attention to her, because she will take on an extremely important role during the climatic finale.
Unfortunately, not even the awesomeness of Bandra the Monkey, or the addition of Kava the Crow, can entirely offset the gender imbalance in this series. At one point, we even get an extended ten-page scene in which Leo the Lion rallies all of the animals in the Panchatantra to his cause. There are some gorgeous and detailed crowd scenes in some panels, showing all of the hundreds of animals gathered together... And not a single (identifiable) woman in sight. Huh wow.
I will say, however, that Bandra continues to get a disproportionate share of AWESOME compared to the male characters. For example, there's this sequence, in which she accidentally stumbles upon a doorway to another "storyworld":
FYI, Bandra then proceeds to take a pair of (still talking!) severed doll heads toss them at the feet of another character, solely for the intimidation factor, in a moment of inspired badassness.
But enough about Bandra. The real interesting character here is Vishnu, an all-too-realistic teenage boy who would much rather run away from his deadly supernatural problems than confront them. Vishnu is the character who undergoes the greatest changes, from apathy, to fear, to defiance, to a fall from grace, and finally to a hard-earned redemption.
Remember how I said that the third issue ended with Vishnu making a Really Bad Decision?
Vishnu begins the fourth issues by walking straight into Leo's stirring four-page speech about how Vishnu, the Guardian, was going to Save the Universe. About how Leo himself was at first skeptical about Vishnu's bravery and loyalty, but that now Vishnu has earnd his faith and his trust. About how Vishnu would have made his grandfather proud. About how the animals of the Panchatantra no longer have anything to fear. Vishnu attempts to protest these words, but instead ends up confronted with this:
Ha ha ha ha ha, yeowch!
A brief aside: I really loved the way that all of the animal characters were anthropomorphized. Especially the birds. From the dumpy, wizened owls to the darkly handsome and somewhat menacing crows, all of the bird designs were great. And no two animals looked alike. Even in an entire murder of crows and a flock of owls, no two faces looked alike.
It would have been nice, however, if we had gotten a few identifiable women characters in that crowd of anthropomorphized animals. Or God, even just one. Argh. Other than Bandra, Kava, and the dolls, the only other female character I could spot was that rabbit shown above. All of the other animal characters were either a) anthropomorphized and obviously male, or b) in their animals forms and extremely difficult to peg as either male or female.
But enough grumbling about the gender issues. The bottom line is, the whole series builds to a truly great ending. Big epic battle, some awesome action sequences, betrayal, redemption, death, last-minute plot twists, and a most satisfying conclusion.
The "most satisfying conclusion," however, is also left open-ended. The identity of Professor Shadow is revealed and his storyline is at least halfway resolved. However, we never once get a chance to see Cameo. (Unless Cameo was supposed to be [spoiler]?) Anyway, the battle is over, but not the war. As Jack says at the end of the final issue, "The story's just beginning, Kava. The hero finally bothered to show up."
Given Virgin's track record of not continuing miniseries unless they're backed by big-name celebrities, however, I have not-very-high hopes about Panchatantra ever getting the sequel that it's so neatly set up for. Sigh.
But still, this is such a great series. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone.
PS - I ship it: