Et Cetera (Et Cetera)

Rating:
Summary: Western tale, manga-style
Review: Mingchao is a young Chinese girl-probably between 8 and 10 years old-who lives alone on the chicken farm her recently deceased grandfather left her with. He also left her with a strange gun which she doesn't even know how to use, so apparently he just never got around to explaining that to her. She dreams of one day going to Hollywood. (There is a blurb at the beginning telling the reader not to go complaining about how there was no Hollywood during the days of the old west, and that that's just something you have to suspend your disbelief on.)

Then one day she meets Baskerville, a traveling missionary. While they chat one night over a meal of rabbit stew, she shows him his gun but accidentially drops it in the pot. She fishes it out, then the two are confronted by a bandit. He threatens two kill them, and in desparation Mingchao fires her gun at the bandit. A rabbit spirit flies out and knocks out the bandit. As it turns out, the gun is an Eto gun, a mystical weapon that is charged by the zodiac animal spirits. The bandit is beaten, but then the next day his brothers and their friends come to town wanting to find the Chinese girl who beat their brother, and threatening to kill the whole town if she doesn't show herself. Only Mingchao's gun can save her, but there's a problem in that she still hasn't figured out just how it works...

After the bandits are beaten (come on, you know the story can't end this early) Minchao and Baskerville set off for Hollywood. On the way they meet Suhbo, a young boy and his mother who own a cow ranch that is in danger of being shut down by Franklin Pastures, a ranch owned by a ruthless rich man who'll do anything to take over the land. Then Mingchao and Baskerville come to a town and visit a saloon with some unsavory gamblers... and that's just the first volume.

If you love manga stories with lots of humor and cute characters, as well as some nice action scenes, check this one out. It's also interesting to see an American historical period depicted in a Japanese comic.