Creative Staff
Story & Art: Yuuki Iinuma
Translation/Adaptation: John Werry
What They Say
Utsuho’s truthfulness as a child resulted in an enormous catastrophe, and he decided to lie from that day forward. Raised in a village of orphans by a monk, Utsuho is an unrepentant troublemaker. The monk eventually inspires him to help people, but there’s no way Utsuho’s going to lead an honest life! Instead, he’s going to use his talents for mischief and deception for good!
Utsuho and his growing entourage continue their search for the highly prized Kokonotsu treasures. Their quest now brings them to Hokorai Village, a place of illusion where it’s difficult to sort dreams from reality!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Utsuho and the gang are so close to another treasure that they can actually see it. Problem is, the cave they are in is full of hallucinogenic flower pollen, making them see deadly illusions so realistic that they actually feel pain. It may be up to the most diminutive member of the team to successfully gather the treasure; Pochi to the rescue!
This is a good aspect to this series; a level of accomplishment that makes the story move forward. The author didn’t set up two or three quest items that resulted in too many volumes of unsuccessful treasure hunting like some series. Instead, ‘Itsuwaribito’ has many treasures to recover, which allows the characters to track down an item every couple volumes, which really helps the story feel like it is moving forward.
Moving on from the cave of hallucinations, Utsuho and the others travel to an island that is rumored to house another one of the treasures. But when they arrive, the island is closed off from the outside world, and they have to actually break into the island to find out what is going on. Once inside, they find a horrific world where the villagers are tortured at random and everyone is a suspect in the recent theft of the Takara from the Lord of the island. Utsuho and company are quickly accused as outsiders responsible for the theft, and they have to escape with the help of some resistance fighters.
They quickly learn that things on the island are worse than they may have thought. During the theft of the Takara, the Lord’s manor was set on fire and he was burned from head to toe. Then some outsiders appeared and ingratiated themselves with the Lord, promising him that they could smoke out the thieves. But ultimately, they are just using his anger and pain to make him dance like their puppet; probably while the outsiders are trying to find the treasure for themselves.
When Utsuho finally locks horns with this group of outsiders, he learns that they are a powerful bunch. Not only that, but their leader is intelligent and devious, and also appears to be an itsuwaribito. Can Utsuho and the others find the treasure before the outsiders? Or will they even be able to survive the traps set to kill Utsuho?
In Summary
Utsuho continues his lying ways in this volume, and as usual, it gets them all in trouble when he claims that he stole the Takara from the Lord. Utsuho’s intentions may have ultimately been good, but it puts him his friends in a lot of danger as the village guards turn all their attention to capturing them. Utsuho may be compassionate at times, which can cause a lot of problems for his companions. Although, Hikae just finds it more exciting the more danger they are in, so he doesn’t have any problem with Utsuho’s antics. This volume also shows some character development for Hikae, even if it is just a small amount. However, I very much enjoyed seeing a small chink in Hikae’s armor give way. It will also be interesting to see of more of his cold-hearted shell will break away. This quest of adventures may be more beneficial for Hikae’s life than for any of the other companions.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: C
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 11th 2012
MSRP: $9.99
