Monster Collection

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Monster Collection
genre Adventure, fantasy, action
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Be Itō
First publication November 1998 - ...
expenditure 6th
Anime series
► Mon Colle Knights

Monster Collection is a trading card game by Group SNE and a manga series based on it by Sei Itō . The game is also based on the anime television series Mon Colle Knights .

The manga is about the magical girl Kasche who is looking for a stolen artifact. The work can be classified into the genres of fantasy , action and adventure .

Game release

The game was first released in 1997 by Fujimishobo in Japan. In 2000, a second version was released with Monster Collection 2 . The cards were designed by Ryūsuke Mita , the concept comes from Hitoshi Yasuda.

There was also a video game for the Playstation , a Monster Collection Board Game for the PC and the game Monster Collection Trading Card Game The Millennium , also for PC.

Manga

world

The world of Monster Collection is called "The World of Six Gates" and is divided into six regions, each with different conditions. Each individual region can be assigned one of the six elements that particularly characterize the respective region. The same applies to plants and animals, whose properties are particularly strongly influenced by a certain element and are therefore also predominant in the respective region of the element.

Division of the world

The North

In the north the element earth predominates. The region is divided into a jungle and a mountain landscape.

The East

The east is the region of the wind , which consists of a wide plain. Various animals live in it, especially birds.

The South

Fire is predominant in the south , with the result that volcanoes rage in this region and increasingly dry deserts spread.

The West

The west stands for the water , there is the sea with several islands in which many marine animals live. The climate is rather mild.

The Holy

In heaven above all lies the world of the sacred.

The demonic

The world of the demonic exists deep in the earth.

Cities and peoples

Sazan is the sacred center of the world, which lies in the middle of it and where the elements are balanced. Sazan is the seat of the Holy Authority and the School of the Wise. Wallace is also called "The City of a Thousand Canals" because, like Venice , it is criss-crossed by numerous waterways. Wallace is in the west of the country, on the water.

The sign of the Vujad

The shadow fighters are mercenaries who undergo special training. These include, for example, sabotage, espionage, setting up ambushes or assassination. Due to this fact, they are outcasts, whose services one likes to use in war. There are several different tribes of the shadow fighters. One of these is the Vujad tribe , of which Cuervo is a member, and another is the Nergal tribe . About two years before the beginning of the story in which the Monster Collection takes place, the Holy Headquarters mandated the dissolution of the Tribes of the Shadow Fighters. The Vujad then quickly dispersed to the winds. The Nergal on the other hand - who had a stronger faith - resisted this order and were then almost completely destroyed by the Holy Punitive Expedition.

The summoners have the power to use the elements to summon certain animals or demons, such as wolves or pocket journeymen (speaking mice with a high level of education). To summon the demons, however, six-pointed protective circles of different complexity and the utterance of a mantra written in runes are required. The creatures summoned in this way are supposed to support the summoners in battle.

action

Kasche Arbadel is an apprentice to Robin Prophecy in the monster and demon summoning department of the School of Wise Men in Sazan. When it is noticed that the "Guardian of Knowledge" has been stolen from the school, Kasche is sent by her master to fetch the guardian. The Guardian is said to be the key to the "Encyclopedia Verum", which is a collection of spells and incantations from the marriage of the realm. When she tracks down the thief Cuervo and takes him prisoner, he has already managed to pass the guard on to his client El Eclipso. A little later that night, the Lamia Nastascha appears, who was conjured up by El Eclipso to silence the now captured thief Cuervo. But together Cuervo and Kasche manage to defeat Nastascha and free them from the will of their conjurer El Eclipsos.

The three now set off together on the way to Wallace. The first encounter of the small group with Shin Men takes place in a hostel along the way, who is not recognized as a friend due to his lizard body. Shin Men had also set out from Sazan after learning from Robin Prophecy where Kasche was leading the search for the Guardian. Without explaining his intentions, Shin Men quickly disappears and begins to watch Kasche, Cuervo and Nastascha from a distance on their way.

Arrived in Wallace they find the whereabouts of the "Guardian of Knowledge" who is in the palace of the Marquis Duran and break into it. Their break-in does not go unnoticed, however, and a fight ensues again between Cuervo and the Marquis. This turns out to be Nergal , who has taken the place of the late Marqis' Duran. El Eclipso also takes part in this fight with a serpentine demon he conjured up and a fallen angel who fight against Kasche and Shin Men.

In the course of the fight, however, the serpent-like demon summoned by El Eclipso is killed and Kasche is captured by the fallen angel. Then the fake Marquis Durant, El Eclipso and the fallen angel flee Wallace, taking Kasche with them as their prisoner. However, since Kasche succeeded shortly beforehand in throwing Cuervo the "guardian of knowledge", El Eclipso then made contact with Cuervo. El Eclipso suggests to Cuervo to swap Kasche for the “guardian of knowledge”, which the latter responds to.

After these events, Nastascha and Cuervo travel by ship to the westernmost island of the inland sea, which is called the “island at the end of the world”, to meet the guide provided by El Eclipso. This is a hippogryph that is supposed to bring the two to the spiral island, which is said to be guarded by a sea dragon - the landkeeper. The sea dragon sleeps at the bottom of the sea only one day a year, which is why it is only possible to go to the spiral island in one night. However, on the way to the Spiral Island, they are attacked by giant red ants, which normally only appear in the southern desert. And again there is Shin Mens interference in the fight.

After everyone has reached the island, they recognize that the spiral island is a formerly inhabited island, which is now the nest of the red giant ants. While the group around Marquis Durant appropriates the "Guardian of Knowledge" and with this opens a gate below the island to the "Encyclopedia Verum", Nastascha and Cuervo manage to keep themselves hidden from their opponents, while Shin Men once again keep out of everything. The red giant ants were put into a trance-like state by opening the gate, so that Marquis Durant and his companions can go to the Verum encyclopedia without further incident. This turns out to be the queen of the giant ants, who seems to be a kind of biological computer for ancient knowledge. Again the two groups confront, in the course of which Kasche is able to catch up with Cuervo and Nastasche and the three flee to the surface of the island, where a fight breaks out between them and the apparently clearly superior fallen angel. Marquis Durant meanwhile began to penetrate the knowledge of the encyclopedia Verum.

On the surface of the island, the group around Kasche Arbadel then succeeds in defeating the fallen angel after a hard fight. Immediately afterwards, however, they become aware of the landkeeper - a high dragon - who was previously employed by Shin Men and is now pushing the group back. In an attempt to stop the landkeeper, Kasche realizes that the encyclopedia Verum tied him to the spiral island and that she had met the landkeeper earlier in her dreams in the form of a woman. In order to be able to free Vibal - as the name of the dragon is - Kasche connects her consciousness with that of the dragon, while her friends on the surface of the island hold off the giant ants controlled by Marquis Durant. While Kasche Arbadel is connected to the consciousness of the dragon, the body of the dragon and Kasches freeze into immobility.

In the consciousness of the dragon, however, Kasche meets the Marquis Durant, who is just as connected to Vibal via the Verum encyclopedia as Kasche. Clearly inferior to the Marquis Durant, Kasche has no choice but to conjure up a demon of whom she only knows the name. This is a Course Elemental that Kasche cannot control and threatens to overwhelm Kasche.

The Marquis Durant needs ten minutes to break through the last barriers that still separate him from the all-encompassing wisdom of the encyclopedia Verum. Meanwhile, El Eclipso supports the red ants on the island's surface in their fight against Kasche's allies. And Kasche herself is faced with the impending destruction of all her memories by the Course Elemental, which is why she has all the strength she can mobilize. Then she succeeds in overpowering the demon and getting it under her control. With this, Kasche goes on to counterattack. However, the Marquis Durant knows how to defend himself and conjures up Holy Elementals from the heavenly spheres, which are the counterpart to the Curse Elemental. Despite the inferiority of the Curse Elemental compared to the Holy Elementals, Kasche can defeat them and penetrate to Vibal (in her consciousness again in the form of a woman). By destroying Vibal's fetters, Kasche succeeds in freeing Vibal. In addition, Kasche knows Vibals' real name and can therefore control the kite.

On the surface of the island, the freed dragon is now stirring again and the ants withdraw. Even the encyclopedia, which works like a computer, recognizes the danger, but cannot counter it. Since the primary goal of the encyclopedia is to preserve and protect the knowledge it has gathered, it tries to keep itself safe. Part of the island is then lifted into the air with the help of wind elements in order to escape. However, the sea dragon attacks this flying part of the island and destroys the wind elements, causing the encyclopedia to plunge into the sea and threaten to drown. In order to preserve the collected knowledge, the encyclopedia sees no other option than to outsource all knowledge to the brain of the Marquis Durant. Because of the far too large amount of knowledge / data, however, the Marquis Durant dies and goes under the sea with the encyclopedia Verum.

On the remaining part of the island, El Eclipso manages to wound Nastascha with his last strength before he dies himself. Then the dragon Vibal brings the group around Kasche Arbadel back to the mainland and heals the wounds of Nastasche and the others by sacrificing part of their own lives for it.

On the mainland, the group ultimately splits up. Cuervo joins the Lizardmen to learn from Shin Men, which primarily means that Shin Men include Cuervo in his looting. And Nastascha accompanies Kasche Arbadel to bring back Robin Prophecy, the "guardian of knowledge".

Characters

Kasche Arbadel

She is a summoner who can fight with the help of the animals and demons she summons. What is special about her is that she feels the pain of the creatures she conjures up like her own pain. She is a student in the Monster and Demon Summoning Department in the holy city of Sazan. She is a talented conjurer, but she is also quite clumsy.

Cuervo

Cuervo is a member of the Vujad tribe who joined Kasche and became her companion. Before he met Kasche - being a shadow fighter - he had no choice but to become a thief.

Nastasha

Nastascha is a lamia , a creature in the shape of a snake. She is peaceful, but needs blood to survive, which she prefers to get from Cuervo. Most of the time she maintains a human form, which she can only do if she can concentrate. She can use different spells.

Shin Men

Shin Men is a longtime friend of Robin Prophecy. He is a member of the pangolin people, the tribe of the legendary tall lizards who are said to have descended from the dragon. Because of this, he does not tolerate alcohol, which he still likes to drink. He describes himself as a master of martial arts and is a strong and experienced fighter. Furthermore, he likes to take valuables with him.

Marquis Duran

He took the place of former Lord von Wallace and is actually a Nergal . He is a strong and experienced fighter and prefers to wear strong armor with hidden weapons. He commissioned El Eclipso to steal the "Guardian of Knowledge" in order to get the "Encyclopedia Verum" with his help. Before the story of the manga, he lived peacefully with his wife and child, who, however, were killed during the holy punitive expedition.

El Eclipso

He describes himself as the servant of Lord von Wallace and is a powerful conjurer. Like Kasche, he feels the same pain on his own body as the creatures he conjures up. He hides his face behind a mask with a long bird-like beak and two horns. According to his own statement, he is one of those who helped to collect the knowledge of the "Encyclopedia Verum". Shortly before he dies, it turns out that he is one of the summoners who had begun to transform himself into one due to too intensive handling of summons of demonic beings. He wanted to hide this by wearing the mask.

Robin Prophecy

Robin Prophecy works in the monster and demon conjuring department of the School of Wise Men and is Kasches Master. He is an old friend of Shin Men and like them an experienced fighter and conjurer.

publication

In Japan, the manga for the card game was published in November 1998 under the title Monster Collection - Majūtsukai no Shōjo ( モ ン ス タ ー コ レ ク シ ョ ン ～ 魔 獣 使 い の 少女 ～ ). It was written and drawn by Sei Itō and published in six anthologies ( Tankōbon ) with a total of over 1000 pages.

He appeared in English on CMX Manga and in French on Asuka Comics. The manga was published in German from January 2008 to March 2009 in six volumes by Carlsen Verlag . The Manga is recommended in Germany from the age of 16.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monster Collection Volume 1ff: back of the manga - ISBN 3-551-75581-7

Web links