With both Arata’s moving forward in their respective worlds, mysteries begin to be solved.
Creative Staff
Story: Yuu Watase
Art: Yuu Watase
Translation/Adaptation: Lance Caselman
What They Say
In a mythical world where humans and gods coexist, a ceremony marking the new governing princess is about to occur for the first time in 60 years. Only a girl from the Hime Clan may take this position, but the lack of females born to this family means that a boy called Arata must pose for the role. Meanwhile in modern-day Japan, a boy named Arata Hinohara is starting his new life in high school. He wants to put memories of his difficult past behind him, but things aren’t going to be simple when he discovers a mysterious connection to the first Arata…
Both Arata of the Hime and Arata Hinohara come under attack by members of the Six Sho, a group from Hinohara’s world who found themselves in the other, gained great power, and now wish to return home for reasons more sinister than just being homesick. Arata of the Hime is tasked with protecting his classmate and friend Oribe, who turns out to be a lot more than either of them suspected, while Arata Hinohara faces perhaps his greatest challenger yet among the Six Sho—Isora, who wields the power of the written word!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
On Earth, Arata of the Hime continues to protect Oribe as the Sho Harunawa has tracked them there to kill her. In the other world, Arata Hinohara finds himself under attack from the Sho Isora, who has kidnapped Mikusa and turned the rest of the party into children using the power of words. As Arata of the Hime runs from Oribe to try and draw Harunawa away from civilization and buy time for Oribe to fully come to grips with her powers, Arata Hinohara travels to Isora’s fortress in order to rescue Mikusa and turn his friends back. At the same time, the two Arata’s are coming to grips with the realities that link their two worlds together, coming to an equal understanding that for a person to cross from one world to the other, his/her opposite from the other world has to come the other way. The problem is that Mikusa has only known a life in the fantasy world, while Oribe has only known life on Earth, so will they want to go back? And if Arata Hinohara returns home, with or without Mikusa, where will that leave Kotoha, who doesn’t want Hinohara to leave?
I was interested in Arata early on, but I find that as the story progresses, it becomes more a paint-by-numbers shonen title, and it is losing me bit-by-bit. As I’ve never been a huge fan of the genre, it’s not a surprise really. As the various Sho’s powers get sillier and sillier, I find it more and more difficult to care much about their plight. Isora cannot speak (or so it seems at this point), but his power is the ability to make anything he writes become truth. He writes “child” on various members of Arata Hinohara’s party, so they become children. To combat this, Hinohara has to learn how to write in the language of the new world so that he can harness the powers on his own and combat what Isora is throwing at him. I’m not going to pretend that I feel it’s fun or interesting. I just felt myself rolling my eyes at it.
In Summary
If you enjoy shonen titles such as this, then you can probably add a letter grade (at least) as I think it’s pretty well written and plotted to this point. But Arata the Legend is getting harder to recommend to anybody who doesn’t have as much of an interest. Each new villain that comes along has a sillier powr than the last, and it’s hurting any sense of tension the story might be trying to build. Thumbs in the middle.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: June 10, 2014
MSRP: $9.99
