> Just visiting one of my favorate Bastard!! pages (i.e., yours!) and was glad to see the news about Bastard!! being back on the shelves. Truth is, I knew that already because I just got back from Japan yesterday (lucky little snot me) with a copy of "Bastard!! 19" in my cold little hands.

Since my japanese is limited to katakana and hiragana (the phonetic bits of the language) I can't tell you the exact plot, but it certainly jives with the "Hell on Earth" concept you mentioned. (Possible Spoiler bits here!!) The introduction shows you 4 angels: Raphiel (a guy), Micheal and Gabriel (both women with the traditional Bastard!! style "way too huge to be real" breasts) and "Urieru" (Uriel?) who, surprise, looks just like DS! (only with wings, and no fangs.)

Then you go on to see three "main" characters (they seem to have various super powers which they deploy from time to time as the plot demands) leading a group of happless normal people accorss a hellish landscape. They come to a giant, mutilated corpse and one of them declares that it is an "angel". Then various demons start attacking in what must the be most humerous death scenes I've ever seen (like the cerebus picking that victim's leg out of his teeth, or the ones saying "nummy nummy!"). Each monster gets a description and some "Level" information (Example: "Golem Demon, level 126"). Most of the normal people become demon-snacks, and then the Man himself shows up. Yes, it's Satan, sporting a rather devilish mustache. He and the three "leaders" talk/scream for a while, and one of them attacks and gets turned into a slug. (A very cute slug!). Then the Angels appear, possibly summoned (or resurected?? by one of the three "main" characters). They blast the demons and Satan, but Satan bounces right back, only to be blasted again by - yes! he DOES show up somewhere in this manga! - D.S. the fanged one himself!

Then D.S. and the D.S. Angel (Uriel) begin arguing. The Manga points out with little arrows that the angel is 2cm taller, which seems to give him some sort of advantage. He's also very cool-headed and doesn't say much. D.S., on the other hand, screams a lot and makes faces. (fun!)

Satan pops back up, again and again, (Wearing boxing gloves! Smoking a cigar! etc!) and D.S. and the Angels take turns zapping him and arguing. D.S. grabs at one of the female angels that gets too close (Honk Honk!) and Uriel gets ticked off. But Raphiel (2 cm taller, again!) stops them from fighting. Still, D.S. doesn't seem happy - (mabye it's this he wants to concquer the world thing?) and more words are exchanged, Satan comes back a few more times, and yada-yada. Then, at last, Satan comes back and rips D.S. to pieces. Everyone is horrified. D.S.'s head bounces around for the next 20 pages or so in the background, as the angels fight Satan once again. It seems that Uriel wants to blast Satan once and for all, but the remains of the people on the ground would be obliterated too - so the other angels try to stop him. But he does it anyway. It looks like things are prety much wrapped up when, yes, again, Satan comes back and ripps appart Uriel. Raphiel does something gradiose and destructive in Satan's general direction, and then a little girl (one being carried by one of the three "main" characters) notcies the bouncing head of D.S. She looks at it and it calls to her. "Hey! Kid!" it yells, and she walks over and picks it up. Yup, it's D.S., grining with those little fangs and waggling what's left of his spinal cord like a dog wags his tail. Meanwhile, /something/ is happening to Satan (no clue?) and D.S. wants to see so the little girl holds up his happily wagging head.

In the next chapter, an ordinary-looking young man (who is on the cover so you figure he's important in some way) and his girlfriend are hanging around an airport. They talk a while and then a plane comes crashing through the terminal and rips apart right in front of him. The last page has him looking up, his face covered in blood, at the image of a faceless angel.

Then there are a few pages of character designs (for upcoming characters?) and little comics.

Anyway, I hope you liked my feeble attempt at explaining manga 19. I'll have some scans of the better images up on my pages some time in the near future...anything you want a specific scan of, just ask!

-parr