Graphic Novel Review: THE CHILDREN OF BATHALA by Arnold Arre

The Children of Bathala Vol.1 by Arnold Arre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the things I've noticed in my many years as an educator, is that more and more of my grade school students no longer know what engkantos, kapres, and tikbalangs are. Tiktok and Genshin Impact have replaced story telling, which is the precious gift of culture and identity passed down through generations.

Which is why I'm so grateful for Arnold Arre and the other incredibly talented Filipino artists who create new stories with Filipino mythology in them!

Every Filipino must read this, and its precursor, THE MYTHOLOGY CLASS (TMC)!

THE CHILDREN OF BATHALA (TCOB) was published (and takes place!) in 2019... twenty years after TMC. Reading TCOB was one big homecoming, and I loved every minute! I laughed, I cried, and any book that makes me do both is a rare five-star one, indeed!

The lovely foreword by Jamie Bautista said it all:

"Arnold has once again captured the spirit of society and mixed it in with classic Philippine fantasy elements. But it's not the same type of story as TMC... the first chapter feels like a story about mid-life crisis... And the readers, like the characters in the story, are made to take a look at their lives and ask what are they supposed to do now. The times have changed, we've changed, and the threats have changed. Can we still cling on to the magic we depended on before, or do we need to let all that go and grow up?"

"All this during a time in our country when evils and demons we thought were defeated decades ago start to slowly reappear, only in newer and more subtle and insidious forms..."

I am so happy to discover that this is merely the first of five sequels! And that also explains why this first volume is mainly character development and premise setting. When the action happens, it arrives quickly! And I would suggest not to read this at night because the evil engkantos were drawn so skillfully, I was legit scared!!!

There are SO MANY things to love about this graphic novel. The familiar settings (U.P. Diliman, Katipunan Ave., Krus na Ligas) also made me reflect of my own idealistic college self, and how much I've changed, yet in many ways, stayed the same (like my love for Kubin, the Ibalon warrior... somehow made even more good-looking in his short-sleeved barong and work-appropriate haircut!! Hahaha)

For Filipino readers, no need to brave the pandemic to go to a bookstore. You can have your book delivered, courtesy of Lazada!

Thank you, Christian, for the reco!

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