Garden of ghouls.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara
Translation: Satsuki Yamashita
What They Say
Entangled by the Kraut House’s corruption, Teito finds himself imprisoned in an icy tomb with a strange girl who he swears he’s met before. Learning the dark secrets of Labrador’s past is key to surviving the subzero “garden,” but the trail leading to the gentle Seven Ghost’s sad last days is anything but a primrose path.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though Teito is able to have short conversation with Ouka, the girl from last volume, they don’t stick together for long. While using her healing zaiphon in town, Ouka sees a man getting harassed by a loan shark and gets involved. She manages to scare him off at first, but when he gets greedy Teito ends up swooping in for the rescue. As they walk back together she introduces him to her talking fyulong Kururu and they discuss their separate journeys. When the loan shark from before comes back for more, Teito gets a flashback to using his eye and seemingly meeting Ouka as a child while they fight back.
Before things can settle down, Ouka and Teito find themselves under attack by a Wars, and we learn that Ouka is the princess. After a short flashback to Teito teaching Capella to use Zaiphon and a quick look at a man named Kraut messing up the townsfolk with his mysterious incense, we rejoin out heroes. The Wars has left them intact, but they find themselves trapped inside an icy prison. Teito is able to break out, and the Wars introduces himself as Lem, a creepy fellow watching over his “paradise” of flowers and frozen corpses. Realizing that Lem is too powerful, Teito decides to retreat and break Lem’s “treasure” in order to defeat him.
As the fight rages on and Frau joins the party, we finally see the centerpiece of Lem’s garden, a creepy half plant corpse that Teito recognizes as Labrador. Will Teito be able to lay Lem’s soul to rest and deal with the corruption of the Kraut house? And what will happen to his newfound friendship when he realizes that Ouka may just be one of his most powerful enemies?
In Summary
This volume is absolutely packed to the brim with action and emotion, and it introduces a fantastic new character. Ouka adds a lot to the story and opens up a lot of possibilities, but more than anything it’s just fun to watch her interact with Teito. It’ll definitely be interesting to see how her character develops from here on out, especially considering her position. We also get a rather nice tale surrounding Labrador, which of course does a lot of good for his character. Add in some nice battles and a few other little moments here and there such as Teito teaching Capella Zaiphon, and you have a great entry to the series. Hopefully further volumes will manage to keep up the high standard set here, as this book makes for a fantastic read.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 11th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99