Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara
Translation: Satsuki Yamashita
What They Say
While the Seven Ghosts travel to their past lives’ memory bank to investigate who tampered with their memories, Teito unearths a shocking secret of his own; he is the evil god Verloren’s vessel! And unless he regains the Eye of Mikael, his soul may crumble, spelling the end of the world.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Faced with his old home, Teito’s mind is thrown back into his past. However, before we get to experience this flashback, we cut to the Ghosts and learn that the memory quelle seems to have been altered. Apparently, this ancient record is the gravesite of the first generation of Ghosts, and it holds their memories for all eternity. Thanks to Lance/Relikt’s powers, they are able to journey back and confirm that it was in fact rewritten.
Back in Teito’s flashback, we learn that the pope transferred Pandora’s box, which is in fact Verloren’s body, into Teito himself. In order to save his son’s soul from the darkness now filling his body, the King of Raggs embedded the Eye of Mikael into him. Furthermore, Kreuz was Teito’s uncle, and he took it upon himself to protect his nephew. However, this isn’t left as a peaceful goodbye, as it turns out that the Raggs Empire’s message of the pope’s misconduct “somehow” turned into a declaration of war on the way to its destination. As young Teito moves to protect his home with the Eye of Mikael, the flashback ends and we snap back to the present.
As the volume continues, Teito is forced to deal with the presence slowly corrupting his soul now that the Eye is gone, Ayanami breaks into the church, and Teito and company meet up with the twins.
In Summary
With this volume, the plot takes yet another strong twist, throwing Teito for a loop and in a way shaking the whole purpose for his quest. It does a good job tying things together, and hopefully after this the plot will become a little less focused on Teito’s locked memories, as a lot was already revealed here. Perhaps the most interesting matter here, though, is getting to see a little bit more of Ayanami’s character. Add in what seems to be a bit of character depth for even Verloren, and it would seem that even the most seemingly straightforward villains are now becoming multifaceted. Hopefully the series will be able to run with this added complexity, as this book definitely does open up a lot of intriguing possibilities and potential.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 14th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
