is an action, adventure, comedy manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written and illustrated by . It is licensed in English by Tokyopop

Tokyopop

Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...

. The first volume was released on August 2004; the final volume was published in April 2007.

Story

Mingchao, Chinese youth and orphan, travels through the "Old West" with the hope of gaining glory and fame. She rapidly joins with a suspicious priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

, Baskerville, and together they head for Hollywood.

Throughout their journey they are harassed by tricksters and bandits. Mingchao's only memory of her late grandfather, one Eto gun, appears to be on the minds of the troublemakers and supposedly gives significant power to the one that controls it.

Characters

Mingchao is a young, orphan

Orphan

An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...

ed Chinese girl of about 10-12 years in age who lives by herself in the Old West, and she dreams of becoming a famous superstar. Her grandfather is the one who created the mysterious Eto Gun, which she can fire due to the number XII that had been branded on her palm

Hand

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...

 on accident when she was very young. Mingchao has a kind, carefree personality, yet can show outstanding courage when her friends are in danger. She is also incredibly fortunate, to the point that Benkate has dubbed her as having the "Devil's Luck" due to her uncanny ability to narrowly avoid death or injury. She refuses to kill any person, and often stops others from killing their enemies, no matter how bad they are. This stems from her belief that it is sad whenever someone dies and that killing someone would make her as bad as the murdering scoundrels she frowns upon. She is very forgiving, even allowing Alternate, a former enemy, to join the group. Her demeanor makes her likable to others, and she builds friendships easily, even with people who initially dislike her. She shares a special bond with Baskerville (or, as she calls him, "Mr. Priest"), and cares about him deeply. She was the most heartbroken out of anyone when it was believed that he'd died, even with the revelation that he might've been using her. When it was discovered that he was still alive, but had amnesia and was working for Blush, she'd been the only one who had any confidence that he would regain his memory, and she has never wavered in her faith that he's a good person, even when the others, even Baskerville himself, didn't believe so. She was so ecstatic when he showed the first signs of remembering her that she didn't care that she was falling several dozen feet into a stormy, raging ocean, and she cried happy tears when they were reunited. It is implied several times that she may have romantic feeling towards him despite their obvious age gap, as pointed at by other characters such as Benkate and Luriele, though the only real indication of that is that she seems happiest when he's by her side.

When it became even clearer how many lives were being ruined by the shady Syndicate, Mingchao and her friends started trying to find more ways to stop it. But much to Mingchao's dismay, it seemed that the closer they got to discovering what exactly the Syndicate was, the more it seemed that her family was connected with it somehow. When the gang reached Manhattan, they soon found themselves battered, injured, and at the heart of the Syndicate, face to face with its leader "Gothic", who to Mingchao's utter horror revealed himself as her father. Her father then proceeded to gloat about his dark, underground exploits and how great it was he'd gained so much power. Mingchao, shocked and appalled that she shared this man's blood, quickly grew enraged by his callous referrals to all the misery he caused, a rage and deep sadness that only amplified when he, discovering that his daughter didn't agree with him, proceeded to mercilessly attack her comrades. Desperate to stop him, Mingchao, with Baskerville's help shot him with the Eto gun's powerful Dragon bullet and he fell to his death, making him the first, and probably only, life she willingly took, and only because she'd lose so many people she cared about if she didn't. At the series' end, Mingchao goes off to continue following her dream of achieving stardom, and to her great joy, Baskerville decides to join her.

After Mingchao saves him from vultures, Baskerville introduces himself as a traveling priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

, though after he displays a deadly prowess with handling throwing knives and when its shown that his "bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

" actually carries information on the Eto gun, it quickly becomes obvious that his goals are much darker than those of a simple missionary. At first he seems to simply be using Mingchao to get his hands on the gun, but this soon changes as he begins to care about her. It is later revealed that his real name is } and he is a former member of The Syndicate, a shady organization that deals in drugs and seeks to gather various rare or unique guns; the most sought after being the Eto and Zodiac guns. It is later revealed that he'd lost his parents at a relatively young age, leaving him to care for his younger sister, Chisel, whom he doted on. When Chisel fell deathly ill, he out of desperation joined the Syndicate so he could get medicine for her, and he quickly gained a reputation as a ruthless killer who showed no mercy, even to children, all for the sake of his sister's health. However, the medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 he was receiving turned out to be a dangerous narcotic

Narcotic

The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...

 that if abused could over time rot the body from the inside out, and by the time he learned this it was already too late for Chisel. After Chisel's death, he took on an identity as a wandering priest and started plotting to find and use the Eto Gun to kill the Syndicate boss and avenge Chisel. The cross he wears identifies him as a former Syndicate member due to the Wedding Dress he'd had engraved on its back, however he now wears the cross solely in memory of Chisel, as it had been a gift from her. He grows to be very devoted to Mingchao; he hates ever seeing her hurt or cry, and he has wept at the thought of her dying. Because of the affection he seems to hold for her, a running gag in the series and its Omake's is him being asked if he has romantic feelings for Mingchao and/or being accused of having a "Lolita-complex

Lolicon

, also romanised as lolikon or rorikon, is a Japanese portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex". In Japan, the term describes an attraction to underage girls or an individual with such an attraction...

", usually by Benkate. Despite his criminal past he's proven to be a very caring individual. He never goes back on his word once he promises something, and doesn't hesitate to put his life on the line to save his friends and other innocents, even people he doesn't really know well.

After risking his life to save Mingchao and the others from Gordy, he suffers memory loss

Memory loss

Memory loss can be partial or total and it is normal when it comes with aging. Sudden memory loss is usually a result of brain trauma and it may be permanent or temporary. When it is caused by medical conditions such as Alzheimers, the memory loss is gradual and tends to be permanent.Brain trauma...

 in the resulting accident, and is later found by Cavanaugh and taken in by Blush. Due to his head injury he began to suffer from intense, migraines that seemed to worsen over time, and Blush starts to offer Baskerville "medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

" for his headaches to make him do his bidding. Unfortunately for Baskerville he doesn't remember that the medicine is actually the very same drug that led his sister to her death. Eventually, Baskerville becomes so dependent on the addictive narcotic that he starts becoming a mental wreck, and begins following even the most dangerous of Blushs' demands for the sake of getting the "medicine", such as picking up a heated Eto Gun from a boiling furnace to brand his hand, enabling him to fire the gun. He also is goaded several times into nearly shooting at Mingchao. When he regains his memories, he stops experiencing headaches and therefore, quits relying on the drug, though he continues to pretend he has amnesia until he's able to rejoin Mingchao and the others. At the end of the series its revealed that due to his extended usage of the drug, his lifespan has likely been shortened. He decides to live out the rest of his life traveling alongside Mingchao and dedicating himself to helping others who's lives have been ruined by the influence of narcotics.

Benkate is a collector

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

 of exotic guns from around the world. She enters the series having 99 guns in her possession, with a fierce desire to make the Eto, and later the Zodiac, the 100th and 101st guns in her collection. Many of her guns are concealed, some of which are even a part of her own clothing, so she is almost never unarmed. Her favorites include two gun earrings, gun boots, a gun designed to look like a cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...

, a three-barreled multi-directional pistol

Pistol

When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...

, and a powerful-long barreled folding rifle. She met Baskerville when they crossed paths looking for the same gun prior to him posing as a priest, though she was never made aware of his real name or of his ties to the Syndicate, considering that she was completely shocked when she later learned of his past. Apparently the conflict that went on between them wasn't very pretty as it resulted in the two having somewhat hostile feelings towards each other until Mingchao forced them to work together. At first glance she's a tall, skinny, somewhat masculine woman with a ruthless disposition who shows no mercy towards anyone who gets between her and a gun that she wants, but overtime she shows off a more caring side. Like Baskerville, she begins to care about Mingchao as she learns the young girl's more endearing and admirable qualities. Her relationship with Baskerville also quickly softens, with the two of them eventually talking like old friends that like to annoy each other but at the same time respect each other. She gets quite agitated when it is believed that Baskerville was dead and again later when she learns that he's lost his memory. Despite themselves, they work well together, and Benkate seems to develop a fondness for playfully flirting with and/or teasing Baskerville. She is often paired with Yaghi when the group splits up and has willingly protected him on many occasions. She acts as a sort of surrogate big sister to him if Fino isn't around to play her role. In general Benkate shows a soft spot for Yaghi and looks out for his well being. It is unknown whether she is aware that he has a bit of a crush on her. She made a promise with Mingchao to never kill again after Mingchao saved her life, and she has surprisingly kept with that promise. She started off in the series having long, bushy hair that she kept tied back with a ponytail, but when she gets captured and held hostage, a good amount of her hair gets hacked off by Cavanaugh. Benkate later expresses annoyance with her new, shorter haircut, though is grateful that she and everyone else is alive. After the series ends she loses her desire for the Eto and Zodiac guns, allowing them to stay with their respective owners and instead going off to search for another gun that might be worthy of holding the 100th place in her collection.

Fino is a teenage Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 girl who holds the Zodiac

Zodiac

In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...

 gun, which uses the essences of the Constellations

Constellations

Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of critical and democratic theory and successor of Praxis International. It is edited by Andrew Arato, Amy Allen, and Andreas Kalyvas...

. At first she doesn't trust Mingchao or the others, but later accepts them as friends. It is later revealed that her distrust of non-native peoples comes from the fact that when she was a young girl, she'd found Blush in bad shape and nursed him back to health, and he'd been very kind to her and her people. But then Blush revealed that it'd been all a ruse and he then proceeded to murder her and Yahgi's parents in cold blood with his guns, leaving the two children orphans. After that she grew bitter and developed a hatred for guns and white man, thinking that no one could be trusted except for her own people. Ever since then she's wanted revenge against Blush for deceiving her and ruining her family. She is the most cautious of the group and has a hard time trusting others. She is also a vegetarian.

She had been opposed to Alternate joining the team

Team

A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...

 as he'd been the son of a man that had close ties to Blush. It wasn't until he saved her, Yaghi, and Big the fisherman

Fisherman

A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...

 from a monopolizing gang

Gang

A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

, that she accepted him. He later saves her yet again, this time from Cavanaugh, taking a direct hit from the Eto gun in the process. At one point, she makes him an Indian-styled outfit after his shirt had been ruined. By the end of the series it seems that Fino has begun to care a lot for him, and it is possible that she's developed romantic feelings for him. She and Alternate can relate to one another as his father

Father

A father, Pop, Dad, or Papa, is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother...

 was also killed by Blush and thus both share a common goal of wanting to bring Blush to justice. After the Syndicate is dissolved, she decides to travel with Alternate in order to track down Blush.

Yaghi is Fino's younger brother. He is more trusting and outgoing than his sister. He's very adventurous and cares about his sister a lot. After Benkate saved his life, he started hanging around her a lot and looks up to her, and she in return looks out for him. He has developed something of a crush on Benkate despite their age gap, and, according to an Omake, he dreams of one day making her his wife, though he fears that his sister wouldn't approve. Yaghi is very talkative and friendly to other people, which makes him likable to others. However, he is sometimes too trusting, as once he allowed the Zodiac being taken away while his sister was taking a shower. Yaghi is also incredibly brave for his age and is willing to do anything for people he cares about, though this causes worry for Fino since it puts him at risk of being hurt. A testament to his bravery is how he willingly stayed behind with Benkate to help her hold off a band of hooligans in order to let Mingchao and the others get away, despite the danger it put him in. At the end of the series he went with Fino and Alternate to return to his Village.

Alternate is the first recurring antagonist

Antagonist

An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

, who then later becomes a hero

Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...

. He is highly intelligent and a decent gunman, and is easily identified by the monocle

Monocle

A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the vision in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing...

 he wears over his left eye. He wants to get his hands on the Eto gun, and makes several failed attempts to do so. His father Gordy, a member of the Syndicate, is treacherously killed by fellow member Blush, who had told him that Mingchao had done it. He becomes obsessed with revenge and is easily tricked into doing what Blush wants. Upon learning that Blush was the true killer, he assists the others in saving Mingchao from Blush, and from then on vows to find and punish Blush for what he did. When he wants to join the others, all seem to oppose the idea except for Mingchao. After rescuing Fino, Yaghi, and Big, the others accept him as well.

Alternate had a very lonely life, as he was almost the polar opposite

Polar Opposite

-Personnel:* Shimon Moore – lead vocals, lead guitar* Emma Anzai – bass, backing vocals* Mark Goodwin – drums...

 of Mingchao. He would lie, cheat, and hurt people to get what he wanted. Because of this, he had never had a single friend. However, he, like many of the other characters, begins to change in the presence of Mingchao, and his true personality eventually comes out. He is somewhat insecure, partly due to guilt a disbelief that he'll be forgiven for all the troubles he caused, but he has proven to be brave in the face of danger, willing put his life on the line to defend his friends. He seems to have grown to care a lot for Fino, and possibly has romantic feelings for her. He ends up saving her life twice, once involving him taking a bullet straight in the chest for her. She seems to reciprocate these feelings at least in part, evidenced by the fact that she makes him a new shirt after his old one is ruined, and that she expresses deep worry after he is injured saving her. He also goes off with Fino and Yaghi when the gang splits up at the end, possibly meaning that he ends up living with her and her tribe.

Blush is a member of the Syndicate. He is sneaky, manipulative, and cruel. He killed Fino's parents as well as Gordy, Alternate's father, and tricked Alternate into thinking that Mingchao had done it. He used both Alternate and Baskerville to try to get his way, but ultimately did not succeed as he too was eventually duped himself later by Cavanaugh. He despises Cavanaugh despite her being his superior in the same organization, as she apparently once took credit for one of his jobs. After she tricks him he doesn't hesitate to try to bring her down, even if it meant essentially helping out Mingchao briefly. He is noted for his unusual ability of being able to fire up to six bullets at once in a circular pattern with only two guns. An interesting piece of trivia: There is concept art of a "female" version of Blush, as Tow Nagasaki had been unsure of whether he wanted Blush to be male or female. In an omake epilogue in the final volume, it is revealed that he was actually already killed, by the giant chi energy ball created from the combined final attack of the Eto and Zodiac guns, immediately upon his secret arrival at the hidden base of the Syndicate while the final showdown was taking place elsewhere on the island. However, no other character has any awareness at all of this fact.

Cavanaugh is a high ranking member of the Syndicate and considered to be one of the most feared and cruel of them all. Dubbed "the crazy wench" by even her peers. She at first appears to be a somewhat matriarchal figure with the ability to hold a stern hand over her peers when they misbehave, but eventually it becomes obvious that she is very sadistic, calculating, and controlling. She becomes increasingly sociopathic and violent as the story progresses and her obsession with painfully ending the lives of Mingchao and her companions escalates. She had found Baskerville after he'd lost his memory, but it wasn't until after Blush took him and she discovered that Baskerville was able to fire the Eto gun that she took measures to bring him to her side. She used a highly concentrated form of a potent drug to convince Baskerville to do her bidding, though he defected after his memory returned. Her right eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

 later gets damaged in a train accident resulting from a gunfight between herself, Baskerville, and Mingchao's friends, and following the injury she swears revenge against them for scarring her face. She brands XII into her palm

Hand

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...

 so she is able to use the Eto gun, though the brand later gets destroyed when her hand gets scarred by a shot from the Zodiac gun. She is eventually killed when she falls off a flight of stairs from a high altitude while in battle with Mingchao and her friends.

• Gothic

Gothic, the Syndicate's boss, is actually Ming Chao's father. He wants to rule the entire world as a drug kingpin, starting with America, in revenge for the suffering his family endured due to racial discrimination (most especially for the death of his wife, Mingchao's mother, who died because she failed to get proper medical treatment as a poor Chinese migrant in America). He bleached his hair, damaged his vocal cords in order to change his voice, and wore a mask to disguise the fact that he was actually Chinese. He is the only human Mingchao ever expressed a desire to kill (though it was more of a declaration that neither he, nor even herself, should exist), and ultimately he is the first and probably only life that she ends willingly, if only in order to put a stop to the misery he's caused others.

Release

Et Cetera was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Tokyopop

Tokyopop

Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...

, which released the nine volumes from August 10, 2004 to April 10, 2007. The series has gone out of print. The series is also licensed in French by Glénat

Glénat

Glénat can refer to:* Glénat, Cantal, a commune in the Cantal département in France.* Glénat , a French publisher, specialising in comics and manga....

.

Volume list

External links

• Tokyopop's official Et Cetera website