The Arcana awakens further.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Rei Toma
Translation: JN Productions
English Adaptation: Ysabet MacFarlane
What They Say:
Princess Nakaba of Senan and Prince Caesar of Belquat only married each other for the sake of peace between their two warring countries, yet the two find themselves drawn to each other even as political forces threaten to tear their world apart. As Nakaba becomes embroiled in the chaos within the country of Lithuanel, Caesar prepares to return to Belquat to face the possibility of execution! Meanwhile, Nakaba’s Arcana of Time power reveals some disturbing details about her attendant Loki’s past…
Content:
After some discussion back in the capital over Caesar’s guilt, we return to our heroes and the snake Ajin. Rather than continue the fight, the villains decide to escape triumphantly, leaving Nakaba to despair once more over how she was unable to prevent the future that she saw. Feeling rather powerless himself, Caesar decides that his only hope of helping is to return to Belquat, even if it means separating himself from Nakaba. Later on the two have an intense fight and then make up and prepare to get it on, but Caesar chickens out and goes for a hug instead.
Meanwhile, the bandits start to become more daring in light of their earlier success, and decide that they’ll attack the capital directly. Caesar departs, and Nakaba ends up finding herself the prisoner of the eldest prince. Desperate to do whatever she can, Nakaba cuts herself in order to force her Arcana to activate, only to end up in a strange hallway of doors.
Upon calling out for Loki, Nakaba ends up in a vision of his past. There she sees just how much Loki was willing to sacrifice, and just what he was willing to do, for her sake. How will Nakaba react upon seeing the ways in which Loki sheltered her, and will it change her opinion about the secrets that he’s hiding?
In Summary:
This volume is another exciting one, but also one that somewhat unfortunately takes a step back from the action. Though the villains decide to more or less move out of the limelight for the duration of the book, in exchange we get some rather touching and powerful interaction between Nakaba and Caesar. Furthermore, Loki gets some fantastic character development, and it feels like we’re finally starting to see who he really is for the first time. Not only that, but the Arcana itself even seems to be evolving, taking on a strange new form. It’ll definitely be interesting to see the repercussions of this volume, as what we see is certainly interesting. Hopefully the next volume will really manage to follow through.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released by: Viz Media
Release Date: February 5th, 2013
MSRP: $9.99<
