Duranki: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Manga Details

• Per tucker: this title is a reference to Mesopotamian mythology. Duranki (also called Ekur) is kinda like the Sumerian equivalent of Mount Olympus in Greek mythology. It’s a mountain palace/garden that is the gathering place of the gods. It’s thought that the construction of ziggurats in Mesotamian cities were likely connected to belief in Ekur/Duranki (perhaps trying to copy it or pay tribute to it?)
• Author: Miura, Kentarou
• Author’s other works:
  • Berserk
  • Giganto Makhia
  • Ourou
• Run dates: Sep 9, 2019 to May 9, 2020
• Chapters/Volumes: 6 /1

About the Manga

• Plot
  • Usumgallu is the intersex child of the ancient Sumerian gods, but they are human. Kinda. As an infant they’re found by a guy who is more or less literally Noah from Noah’s Ark and his wife, who raises them on a mountain. Usum is a genius, able to invent a water wheel as well as a saddle to ride on their giant fantastic dog. They do all this while hanging out with their god friend Pan and dancing naked with nymphs. Usum gets sick of the mountain and invents the crossbow, allowing them to defend themselves as they descend into the world of man.
  • Usum, who by the way looks exactly like Griffith from Berserk, saves a “band” of “hawkish” children from a wild boar. The kids are led by Kirta, who looks exactly like Guts from Berserk, and like in Berserk, Kirta develops a massive crush on Usum. Berserk Berserk Berserk Berserk.
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  • Usum gives them their new crossbow invention, including a massive 5-shot bow for the big fat kid who I most relate to. This helps them when they’re attacked by wolves and Griffith… I mean Usum *wink* is able to use their cunning and tactical genius to outsmart them and the kids are again saved.
  • The kids celebrate by relaxing in a hot spring and Usum joins them despite being nervous about having their intersexuality discovered but the kids don’t notice.
  • They then go back to their village of Tasi, where we discover that Kirta is actually the prince, and all the boys have dads who look like villains from Berserk, and Kirta actually has a really sickly nice mom who didn’t give birth to him after being hanged from a tree.
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  • The kids train with their dads and fight off a bear while they have cute moments together. Noah tells Usum to be careful getting involved in the struggles of Tasi village, which is in the process of rebelling from a much stronger nation. Usum hears a scream, and when they follow it into a cave they discover a god damn manticore threatening a woman and a child. Usum’s crossbow fails to pierce the Manticore’s armor, but Kirta suddenly appears to stab it in the back!
  • Then Kentaro Miura died.
• Characters
  • Usumgallu
    • Means dragon
    • Born of gods but not divine
    • Very clever with inventions
    • Lil griffith
  • Pan
    • Satyr
    • Nice boy
    • Plays the flute
    • Likes yogurt with honey
  • Kirta
    • Of Tasi village
    • Heroic
    • Cares for friends
    • Respects wit
    • Lil guts
    • Prince
    • Generically sick aunt
    • Guts has this one specific facial expression he makes throughout all of Berserk where he’s nervously smiling and Kirta makes the exact same expression

Why it failed

• This is an acquired taste, it’s very good but it is so very weird
• This plot is very very slow I can tell
• The plot just kinda jumps around
• This series is just so weird, you have to be careful who reads it
  • Like ever manga/anime has weird anime factor and this one has it super high
• I feel it stretches out every scene to really give you the details but with 6 chapters it did not have the time to do that
• The art is generally great but falls into the uncanny valley a lot. Most of the panels look fantastic but the eyes are often really off and unsettling. It is really good but a pale imitation of Miura’s work. I don’t wanna be too hard on them tho because Miura was literally the best who ever did it.

What it did well

• Jfc this art so good
• I like the efficient flow of paneling
• The ingenuity of ideas is really fun to see, a sort of gods vs monsters but collaborated
• I like how the kids act like smart kids but still kids
• I like the anti war tone of the series, we were waiting for the shoe to drop about the crossbows in war and it makes sense why they hid them
• This is an alternate take on berserk

Where it could have gone

• I’d have liked to see more of where the MC gets their inspiration from, it was kinda lame they just created the xbow
• See the mc actually fail at an idea
• More about the different lore
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Misc Thoughts

• Kinda reminds me of GOW
• The talk of the bow made me think of araki with the gentle caress thing
• Tucker thoughts:
  • A location in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Likely located in modern-day northern Iraq (Kurdistan).
  • The mountain is the final resting place of an ark that the god Enki ordered Utnapishtim to build in preparation for a giant flood that would wipe out all humans and animals (sound familiar?)
  • These stories of massive floods covering the world are actually pretty common in early mythology. A theory about why these stories are so widespread across many different cultures is that they stem from oral traditions dating back to prehistoric times at the end of the most recent glacial period, which sediment records show caused massive floods in many areas of the world.
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• Each of Kirta’s friends have exact analogues in the Band of the Hawk, and the kids’ fathers look like the bad guys
• The god of the waterfalls looks exactly like Billy from Adventure Time except with the normal number of fingers I love him.

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary
  • Community
    • Tucker: Epic of Gilgamesh featuring Dr. Stone
    • Twolfwood: Naked children are extremely unnecessary, 😠
    • Duke: Oh god what he said, ohno
    • The Laughing Fool: The Gods must be an engineer
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  • David:  quit it with the naked kids
  • Jordan: Guts deserved a nice loving family
  • Guest:
• Flop or not
  • If flop, what they could read instead
  • If not, how it compares to Chainsaw Man
• Is this the best/worst series we’ve talked about