Assassin's Creed: China – Manga Comic Chapter 3 - Review & Summary
"The Port"
"The Port"
Sorrosyss & Markuz, January 26th, 2020
Note: Non Spoiler Review, but a full Spoiler Summary and Analysis follows
Assassin's Creed: China is a Manga comic produced by Minoji Kurata, currently being released in Japan on a monthly basis for Sunday GX Comics. If you happened to miss our review of the second issue, do please check it out here.
The third issue is titled “The Port”, and takes quite a departure from the previous issues in a number of ways. The Modern Day for example, sadly is an afterthought here, comprising only 2 of the 29 pages in this offering - and leaving Lisa Yang's story somewhat suspended. This is therefore a relatively shorter issue compared to the generous 52 pages given by the first issue. Shao Jun's component of the narrative appears to be nearly entirely new content though,
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| A partial vista shot of Macau |
The artwork is again functional, with some nice vista shots of Macau. Certainly some panels do not look too dissimilar to the Macau levels from within the game. Jun's combat scenes are at least well represented, and special mention must again be made for the beautiful work on the close shots of face.
Assassin's Creed: China - Chapters 1 to 3 are available online now. Naturally this is currently only available in Japanese, though English and French versions are expected at an undefined future date.
Preface: Kindly note that the following story summary has been produced with a heavy reliance on translation software. We cannot guarantee 100% accuracy of the details, but we hope this is as close as possible.
Story Summary (WARNING: FULL SPOILERS FOLLOW)
SPOILER TAG - Click to unhide
Yokohama, Japan, 2019
Mari, a cousin to Lisa Yang, enters a restaurant. She queries Lisa's mother, her aunt, if Lisa is around. Her aunt is surprised to see her, and learns that she is back in school. She is told though that Lisa is running late and is not there, to which Mari says to tell her she dropped by to say hello.
Macau, China, 1528
Arriving by boat, Wang Yangming explains the history of Macau to Shao Jun – that it was colonised by Portugese traders, and is now one of the biggest trading ports in the country. Yangming suspects that the Precursor Box remains in Macau, under the control of Yu Dayong – the resident installed Templar leader known as “The Slaver”. It is also believed that he has recently captured an Assassin informant, whom he has put up for sale. The Mentor instructs Shao Jun to assassinate Dayong, and to free any slaves she comes across, as several could be members of the Brotherhood.
Shao Jun leaps from ship to ship, across the harbour of Macau. Eventually landing on one in particular, she stealthily takes down several of the guards and tries to remain undetected. Below decks, two guards discuss their concerns about Dayong's safety, as two of the Eight Tigers have been killed recently. A guard suddenly shouts out and pulls a young boy from out of hiding, who is clearly a slave who had escaped a nearby Fort.
The boy recognizes the Brotherhood's crest on Shao Jun's necklace
The boy runs to the top of the ship, climbing high into the sails with Jun chasing behind. Whilst standing atop a mast, he reveals that he is called Shao Hu and that he and his Assassin father had been captured at the nearby Fort. He pleads with Jun to rescue his father, a task that she gladly agrees to. Jun tells him to hide, and then swings on a rope away from the ship.
Infiltrating the Fort, Jun comes across a prison cell with a man being tortured by two guards, whom are demanding to know the whereabouts of other Assassins. Jun quickly despatches the guards, and tries to rouse the heavily injured man. She realises that this is Shao Hu's father, and as she tries to help him escape he protests that his legs are broken, and that it is too late. He lies down again, and passes away shortly after. Filled with anger, Jun vows vengeance upon Yu Dayong.
The only point of contact between the comic and Chronicles China is the last picture of the chapter, where Yu Dayong is shown in the exact same ominous position as in the game - with the difference that he’s not holding the Precursor Box in the Manga.
Hopefully the next issue will get us back on track, and whilst it was nice to see some new lore content, there is almost a comfort in us following the events more closely to the game. We can feel that progression forwards in the storytelling, whereas here we do feel like we have come to a temporary pause sadly.
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| Mari, Lisa Yang's cousin |
Macau, China, 1528
Arriving by boat, Wang Yangming explains the history of Macau to Shao Jun – that it was colonised by Portugese traders, and is now one of the biggest trading ports in the country. Yangming suspects that the Precursor Box remains in Macau, under the control of Yu Dayong – the resident installed Templar leader known as “The Slaver”. It is also believed that he has recently captured an Assassin informant, whom he has put up for sale. The Mentor instructs Shao Jun to assassinate Dayong, and to free any slaves she comes across, as several could be members of the Brotherhood.
Shao Jun leaps from ship to ship, across the harbour of Macau. Eventually landing on one in particular, she stealthily takes down several of the guards and tries to remain undetected. Below decks, two guards discuss their concerns about Dayong's safety, as two of the Eight Tigers have been killed recently. A guard suddenly shouts out and pulls a young boy from out of hiding, who is clearly a slave who had escaped a nearby Fort.
The boy recognizes the Brotherhood's crest on Shao Jun's necklace
As the boy is intimidated, Jun sneaks up from behind, stabbing the guard cleanly through the throat. Comforting the shocked boy, Jun learns that he is the son of an Assassin – as he recognises the symbol of the Brotherhood upon her necklace.
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| Shao Hu's father dies in front of Shao Jun |
Infiltrating the Fort, Jun comes across a prison cell with a man being tortured by two guards, whom are demanding to know the whereabouts of other Assassins. Jun quickly despatches the guards, and tries to rouse the heavily injured man. She realises that this is Shao Hu's father, and as she tries to help him escape he protests that his legs are broken, and that it is too late. He lies down again, and passes away shortly after. Filled with anger, Jun vows vengeance upon Yu Dayong.
Analysis and Final Thoughts
Sadly, there isn’t that much to say or analyze about this issue with little repercussion on Jun’s overarching story (or Lisa’s for that matter).
There does seem to be a slight problem with the events’ dating though, as this issue is declared to occur in 1528, whereas the last issue, was set in 1526. Indeed, the Macau events of the game were set in 1526, therefore we will put this down to a dating error on the comic (sadly, this is not the first occurrence of this problem in the series).
The relative absence of Modern Day is also pretty disappointing here, and the relatively slow narrative makes the issue as a whole feel pretty weak. As previously mentioned, there is little development in Jun's story neither, beyond an attempt at justifying the anger within her against her next Templar target. In general, it does feel we could honestly have skipped the events of this comic though, and been none the worse off for it.
Sadly, there isn’t that much to say or analyze about this issue with little repercussion on Jun’s overarching story (or Lisa’s for that matter).
There does seem to be a slight problem with the events’ dating though, as this issue is declared to occur in 1528, whereas the last issue, was set in 1526. Indeed, the Macau events of the game were set in 1526, therefore we will put this down to a dating error on the comic (sadly, this is not the first occurrence of this problem in the series).
The relative absence of Modern Day is also pretty disappointing here, and the relatively slow narrative makes the issue as a whole feel pretty weak. As previously mentioned, there is little development in Jun's story neither, beyond an attempt at justifying the anger within her against her next Templar target. In general, it does feel we could honestly have skipped the events of this comic though, and been none the worse off for it.
The only point of contact between the comic and Chronicles China is the last picture of the chapter, where Yu Dayong is shown in the exact same ominous position as in the game - with the difference that he’s not holding the Precursor Box in the Manga.
Hopefully the next issue will get us back on track, and whilst it was nice to see some new lore content, there is almost a comfort in us following the events more closely to the game. We can feel that progression forwards in the storytelling, whereas here we do feel like we have come to a temporary pause sadly.
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