Sorcerer Hunters
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Sorcerer Hunters >(爆れつハンター Bakuretsu Hunters') |
| Abbreviation(s): | SH, BH |
| Creator: | Satoru Akahori (writer), Rei Omishi (illustrator) |
| Date(s): | 1993 – 1996 (light novel), 1993-1998 (manga), 1995-1996 (TV anime), 1996-1996 (OAV) |
| Medium: | manga, TV anime, OAV, light novels |
| Country of Origin: | Japan |
| External Links: | Sorcerer Hunters on Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sorcerer Hunters was a 1990s anime and manga series.
Canon
The main series ran for 13 manga volumes and 26 TV anime episodes. The series focused on hero Carrot Glace and his brother Marron, their adoptive sisters Tira and Chocolat Misu, and their friend Gateau Mocha as they fought against the destructive sorcerers running rampant across Spooner Continent. They took their missions from Big Mama, a goddess figure, and often times worked alongside Haz Knight Mille Fuille.
They eventually crossed paths with the main villain, Zaha Torte, who had a complicated backstory of his own in the manga.
The OAVs were animated adaptations of certain manga storylines, consisting of three episodes total.
Manga vs Anime
The anime has a very different tone than the manga, especially later on. The biggest difference is in the climaxes: in the manga, Tira sacrifices her life to save Carrot and is brought back via the two confessing their love, and they get married. In the anime, Marron, Gateau, Tira, and Chocolate all die while Carrot faces Zaha alone, only for the four to come back via the power of Carrot's friendship and familial love for them.
The manga also expanded on the characters' families:
- Carrot and Marron's father Onion appeared in several volumes, and their mother was explicitly stated to have died protecting a young Carrot.
- Gateau's motive was to rescue his sister Eclair, who'd been captured by Zaha. During the first major battle against Zaha, Eclair was revealed to have become his devoted minion until Gateau died to protect her, at which point she came to her senses and became a semi-regular character among the group.
- Tira and Chocolate were the adoptive children of Zaha before he became a villain.
The anime left out a lot of major manga characters, including Big Mama's elite Haz Knights save for Mille Fuille, who was a completely different person than he was in the manga. Eclair was more or less replaced by Gateau's former partner Opera, whose death by sorcerers he wants to avenge.
The three-episode OAV was an attempt at a more manga-faithful animated adaptation, but only adapted a few of the manga's stories.
Fandom
The fandom took off during its heyday, especially in the early 2000s. This was likely due to the wacky concepts mixed in with serious plot, the sexy character designs, and the overall popularity of sword-and-sorcery fantasy anime in the 90s. While fans definitely had their set preferences between the anime and manga, there were never any major adaptation wars like with other fandoms.
Some fans of the anime took issue with the dub, particularly episode 15 onward where Steven Foster (of Ghost Stories fame) took over directing. Today, Foster is known for taking huge liberties with anime scripts to make them crasser and more mean-spirited, and Sorcerer Hunters was the first major example of this. Gateau's voice actor was let go and replaced after speaking against Foster's methods.
Shipping
Sorcerer Hunters had a big yaoi following, but quite a few het ships and the occasional yuri pairing. Fans often remarked on how ironic it was that the marketing focused heavily on the sexy Chocolat and Tira, but most of the fandom was yaoi fanfiction. Marron/Gateau was popular and seen as "a given" by fans who came in via the dubbed anime, whose second half amped up the ship tease between the pair thanks to director Steven Foster. Its popularity was rivaled by Marron/Mille and Marron/Carrot in the fandom's later years, however, mainly as more fans of the manga entered the scene.
Het was still fairly common, the most popular pairings being Carrot/Tira and Marron/Tira.
The series was an oddball in the way it didn't have any major shipping wars. Fans could be very protective of their pairings, and a few vocal fans were quite harsh on whatever character they felt was "in the way" of their ship. Ship bashing, however, usually came in the form of demonizing characters in their fanfiction or fanart; actual pairing discussions and meta tended to be opinionated but civil.
The most common ships of the heyday were:
- Marron/Gateau
- Tira/Marron
- Carrot/Tira
- Marron/Carrot
- Mille Fuille/Marron
- Chocolat/Gateau
- Tira/Daughter
- Daughter/Sirius
Example Fanworks
Fanfiction
Communities
Fanart
Essays
- Sorcerer Hunters KYOTO VIDEO by KaiserBeamz