Kutsuzure Sensen - Witch Vasenka's War
 

I am stunned that this manga does not have a topic on here.

http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics...o-sensou-r2147

It is amazing how amusing this series is. I love the combination of the strict Soviet-era ideals with the exact-opposite superstitions and supernaturalism.

Please tell me I am not the only one here whose read this.

I'm reading it, though I am surprised someone was enterprising enough to translate it. The manga-ka is very much a Russia otaku, and he uses the knowledge of the Slavic mythos to great effect.

Stuff like St. Crispin and the Rus version of Santa... You don't see that used a lot.

I remember hearing about a scanlation a year or so ago, but saw that it was dead in the water for lack of raws. The scanlation group just re-acquired a raw stream and is moving forward.

I agree about the mythos. I found myself Wiki-ing a lot of the things in the manga to see what they were.

I can see though how this won't be for everyone. World War 2 is still a thorny issue even today, and what's more, Vasenka focuses on the EASTERN FRONT, which was one of the most brutal battlegrounds of the conflict. And let's not even get into the fact that we have a clearly white supremacist antagonist witch, and Vasenka's minder Nadya is a Russian Jew...

I can see that. Perhaps the idea that the manga is poking fun at these topics may MAKE it uncomfortable for people... but, for me, the medium is what makes it amusing rather than uncomfortable.

The one thing that I am slightly irked by is the ordering of the storyline. I can't really pin down some things. The scanlator puts at the end of most chapters the line about, "To be continued next issue," which, I assume is a translation of something in the original manga. I can't figure out if "issue" means "volume" or "chapter." Some storylines do seem to continue from chapter to chapter, but others do not, even when there is the, "to be continued next issue" after a cliff-hanger or abrupt end to a train of thought.

For example, I cannot figure out if Chapter 6 is chronologically before Chapter 7 or vice-versa. I THINK Chapter 6 is supposed to take place after Chapter 7, but I am not sure... If Chapter 6 does take place after Chapter 7, there is a huge gap in the line-of-logic. If Chapter 7 takes place chronologically after Chapter 6, then...

Another thing... I cannot figure out what is up with Vasenka's hair/head. Does she have two-tone hair? And what is that thing that is like a horn that comes near her right eye? :confused:

I think the story deliberately skips around a general timeline, from the start of Operation Barbarossa to after Operation Bagration (where Russia pushes back the German army and reclaims territories lost, like Ukraine).

As for Vasenka's hair, it's red (I suppose it's to highlight her being touched by the supernatural -- legends of changelings and all that). Given the fact that she's apparently Baba Yaga's apprentice, there's likely more to it though.

Yeah, I've seen the color art for the cover, but is it also black in the back?

I don't mind the storyline skipping around, overall, but rather the failure to clearly indicate whether a sub-storyline is closed out, like with chapters 6 and 7.

Chapter 6 is right after the Winter Campaign of 1941–1942, Chapter 7 is Fall Blau.

How did you determine when Chapter 7 takes place?

Wait, Case Blue? Are you sure about this Sume?

Reading the scanlation, it just says "1942." If you take the words "German surprise attack!" and read into it, I guess you can make the argument... But it's still a stretch.

I mean, I admit I am making a logical leap of my own. I've rationalized that Chapter 7 must take place before Chapter 6 because

New chapter out, finally!

I don't understand how

Grr, not yet up in the places I can access via my office network.