Et Cetera

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For other uses, see Etcetera (disambiguation).

Et Cetera
Et Cetera volume 6 cover
えとせとら (Etosetora)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Comedy
Manga
Author	Tow Nakazaki
Publisher	Kodansha Tokyopop Glenat
Demographic	Shōnen
Magazine	Monthly Shōnen Magazine
Original run	1998 – 2001
Volumes	9

Et Cetera (えとせとら, Etosetora^?) is an action, adventure, comedy manga created by Tow Nakazaki (なかざき冬, Nakazaki Tō^?). It was released in English by Tokyopop. The ninth and final volume was released in April 2007.

[edit] 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, 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.

[edit] Characters

Mingchao

Mingchao is an orphaned Chinese girl who lives by herself in the Old West. Her grandfather is the one who created the Eto Gun, which she can fire due to the number XII branded into her palm. Mingchao has a kind, carefree personality, yet can show outstanding courage when her friends are in danger. She refuses to kill, and often stops others from killing their enemies, no matter how bad they are. She is very forgiving, even allowing Alternate, a former enemy, to join the group. Her demeanor makes her likeable to others, and she builds friendships easily. She shares a special bond with Baskerville (or, as she calls him, "Mr. Priest"), and appears to have romantic feeling towards him despite the age gap. However, their relationship could also be closer to that of a father/daughter one, or possibly that of a brother/sister.

Baskerville

Baskerville claims to be a traveling priest on his first appearance. He carries a bible with him at all times, which actually contains information on the Eto Gun. At first he seems to simply be using Mingchao to get his hands on the gun, but this soon changes as he develops feelings for the girl. He is extremely skilled with throwing knives. It is later revealed that his real name is Razy and he is a former member of The Syndicate, an organization that seeks to gather the Eto and Zodiac guns. Long ago, his sister was sick with a deadly disease and he joined the Syndicate so he could get medicine for her. He was known as a ruthless killer who showed no mercy, even to children. However, the medicine turned out to be a drug that rots the body from the inside out. This resulted in the death of his sister, Chisel. He wises to use the Eto Gun to gain revenge and kill the Syndicate's boss.

After risking his life to save Mingchao and the others from Gordy, he suffers memory loss in the resulting accident. Blush uses a highly addictive "Medicine" to make Baskerville do his bidding. Eventually, a syndicate member named Cavanaugh uses an even more potent drug, and Baskerville helps her to steal the Eto gun. After it falls into a fireplace, he grabs it and is also branded with XII, allowing him to fire the gun. However, he later regains his memories and rejoins the others.

Benkate

Benkate is a collector of exotic guns from around the world. she has 99 guns in her possession, and wants the Eto gun to make it a solid 100. Many of her guns are concealed, so she is almost never unarmed. Her favorites are two gun earrings, gun boots, a gun designed to look like a cat, a three-barreled multi-directional pistol, and a powerful-long barreled gun. At first she appears to be somewhat ruthless, but is actually very caring. She is often paired with Yaghi and has had to protect him on many occasions. She acts as a sort of big sister to him when Fino isn't around. She made a promise with Mingchao to never kill again.

Fino

Fino is a teenage Native American girl who holds the Zodiac gun, which uses the essences of the Constellations. At first she doesn't trust Mingchao or the others, but later accepts them as friends. She distrusted all white people since Blush killed her parents years before. She now wishes to get revenge against him. She is the most cautious of the group and has a hard time trusting others. She is also a vegetarian.

She is opposed to Alternate joining the team, until he saves her, Yaghi, and Big the fisherman from a gang. He later saved her yet again, this time from Cavanaugh, taking a direct hit from the Eto gun in the process. Fino appears to have a special bond with him, as his father was also killed by Blush. She makes him an Indian-styled outfit when he joins the group.

Yaghi

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. He also seems to hang around Benkate a lot, possibly seeing her as a sister or mother figure. Yaghi is very talkative and friendly to other people, but his conversations sometimes lead to the Zodiac and Eto Gun, which Fino doesn't exactly approve of. Yaghi may sometimes be too trusting, which once resulted in the Zodiac being taken away while his sister was taking a shower.

Alternate

Alternate is the first recurring antagonist. He is highly intelligent and a decent gunman. He wants to get his hands on the Eto gun, and makes several failed attempts to do so. His father is killed by 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. When he wants to go with them, 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 of Mingchao. He would lie, cheat, and hurt people to get what he wanted. Because of this, he has never had a single friend. However, being around Mingchao changes him, and his true personality comes out. He is somewhat insecure, but will put his life on the line to defend his friends. As Fino's parents were also killed by Blush, he seems to have a special bond with her. He saved her from Cavanaugh by taking a dog bullet directly in the chest, and despite the fact he had a coin on him where the bullet hit, he ended up getting badly injured in the process.

Blush

Blush is a member of the syndicate. He is sneaky, manipulitive, 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 and get his way, but ultimately did not succeed as he was tricked by Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh

Cavanaugh is one of the most feared and cruel members of the syndicate. She used an extremely potent drug to convince Baskerville to do her bidding, until his memory returned. However, she was tricked into thinking he was still under her control. Her right eye gets damaged in a gunfight between against Mingchao and the others, and she swears revenge against them. She brands XII into her palm so she is able to use the Eto gun.