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 friends come across an isolated island in their ongoing quest for the kokonotsu treasuers. A man named Kuroha and his gang rule the place, and they’re after the treasures too. Who will ultimately succeed? Utsuho? Kuroha? Or…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Itsuwaribito’s that have tricked the lord of the island are a tough group. Not only are they crafty like Utsuho, but they have some strong fighters on their side too. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about that because Utsuho has the invincible Nibyo on his side. Problem with that is Nibyo is trapped in the cave that collapsed. Strong enemies and a duel with the Itsuwaribito’s leader, Kuroha, and Utsuho might not make it out of this in one piece, much less with the kokonotsu treasure. In the end, no one on that island make out that well; not Utsuho, Kuroha, or the people of the island. To make matters worse, a new opponent in the search for the kokonotsu treasures appears; the Government.
In the hopes of surviving their wounds and putting the memory of failure behind them Utsuho and Kuroha take their respective groups and head off in different directions. I figured this would be the last we saw of Kuroha’s group, or at least for a few volumes, but instead this volume splits time between the warring Itsuwaribito groups. Kuroha is in poor condition, so he sends two of his subordinates to a Government warehouse in hopes of finding any kokonotsu treasures they may have squirreled away. Considering one of the two subordinates is one of the dumbest characters I’ve ever seen, I don’t know how good their chances are. Nonetheless, these guys are a good way to inject new characters and they have interesting backgrounds.
Utsuho wastes no time tracking down another kokonotsu treasure once he’s well enough to travel. This treasure is in a black castle that has been abandoned, but not before the former occupants filled it with deadly traps. Added to the danger of the traps is the appearance of Kuroha’s men, Choza and dummy Uzume. Uzume immediately argues with Utsuho over something stupid to the point that they turn retrieving the kokonotsu treasure into a competition. Makes sense, if only they didn’t get separated one room into the castle. Everyone ends up in a different part of the castle, teamed with someone from the opposing group; with the two most at each other’s throats trapped in a room together; yep, Utsuho and Uzume. It is an obvious choice for the author to throw these two together, and it could be an easy story of them tripping each other up on the way to the treasure, and probably with plenty of laughs along the way. However, much to my liking, the author puts them in situations that neither could survive on their own. It’s neat to see them save each other and begin to potentially become friends. I appreciate this kind of camaraderie type storyline and look forward to seeing how it plays out. Because you know, they could easily try to kill each other if they can defeat the master samurai guarding the kokonotsu treasure.
In Summary
Friendship is a strange thing at times; sometimes the people you think you should hit it off turn out to be your enemies and other times your enemies turn out to be pretty fun. Utsuho and one of Kuroha’s men, Uzume, form a tentative alliance when they get trapped together in an old castle. Not only do they slowly come to realize that they work good together as a team, but they both find the same things funny. Which is funny, considering they were trying to kill each other just a few chapters earlier. It’s storylines like this that continue to impress me with this book; considering I didn’t expect to find much entertainment past a volume or two. Quite to the contrary, I continue to find this book fun and genuinely entertaining.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: C
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 2012
MSRP: $9.99
