Finishing up some unfinished business, but everyone’s already left and gone home.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hotaru Odagiri
Translation/Adaptation: Melissa Tanaka
What They Say
Yuki, having learned the truth of his birth while visiting the Giou main house in Kyoto, returns to Tokyo in search of answers from Takashiro. Meanwhile, on the trail of the serial killer draining corpses of blood and wreaking havoc in Ueno, Kuroto and Senshirou encounter a young man in possession of a grimoire!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Cracking open this volume I wish Yen had bothered to add a “last time on Betrayal” page with some character portraits because it’s been four years and I don’t remember a damn thing about this book. I literally didn’t remember the names of the rest of the cast beyond Yuki and Luka, what their organization was called, or even what happened in the last volume. The Japanese volume probably lacked this critical information as well, and it sucks.
After refreshing myself with what all of the fantasy terminology they toss around in this book I forced myself to get through a parade of no longer recognizable cast members in this bloated series. Names and faces aren’t really important beyond three or four key players, the rest are cannon fodder at this point. I’ve never seen so many death flags thrown around. Literally every conversation between side characters could be boiled down to “I WILL PROTECT YOU FOREVER” and “our lives are burning away cause our powers consume our life-force.” This tells me two things, they are already dead and better luck next life.
Yuki, of course, will do anything for his friends and adoptive family because it’s in his blood. He still doesn’t know what happened in his past life, although he now knows his present day mother died after giving birth to him. The actual plot of this volume revolves around trying to track down a kid with a grimoire, which is the least threatening side-quest anyone could possibly be on at the moment. There’s also something about a vampire (no, not Luka on the back cover) and the fact no one has seen the boss. That’s because the boss is losing a battle against the demon inside himself and locked himself away. That looks like final boss territory if I ever saw it.
I don’t want to put too much blame on the artist-creator of the manga as to why this series is just a parade of fan-baiting with not much else going on. She worries that everyone lost interest over the hiatus, and while I don’t have sales data in front of me it’s likely true. This might be the most boring star-crossed demon romance battle manga I’ve ever read (and I’ve read a lot of stories featuring most of those themes in some order.) The author’s note comic reveals why this story exists the way it does, and it basically comes down to ‘this is what the editors wanted even though I had never written a fantasy this long, sorry.’ Yes, this was not a passion project, it’s a corporate construction that nearly destroyed the health of its manga-ka because humans weren’t built to sit hunched over a desk 22 hours a day. Yes, she goes into some of what her health problems were and why the manga went on a four-year hiatus. She switches to digital artwork in this volume and I can’t tell the difference. So, instead, I’m going to blame the editors calling the shots. This is the farm-raised salmon of manga.
The other extras in this volume are a handful of cute 4-panel gag strips. Yen does include a color opening page.
In Summary
For a manga running on borrowed time with a cast running on equally borrowed time, this manga sure likes to waste a lot of time getting to the point. The long hiatus between volumes has not done this series any favors. With a total lack of a recap and most of the action consisting of various same-faced characters confessing their undying love and or friendship to each other, it’s a slog. I expect the final volume will consist of nothing but bodies hitting the floor, Yuki finally figuring out his past life, and breaking the cycle of demon fighting and doomed reincarnation. It won’t be surprising, but at least it’ll be over.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: July 18th, 2017
MSRP: $14.00
