Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy

About the Mangaka

Nothing available on either KARA who does the art, or Woo SooJung who did the story.

About the Manga

Previously I’ve not been overly impressed with this series, while it was fun to read there was nothing special about it. I’m beginning to change my mind on that though after reading volume three.

Once again KARA returns for the art, and as I’ve come to expect has done a superb job of it. The pull out poster in full colour is just mind blowing. One of the aspects I was glad to see improving however was KARA’s chibi characters have improved greatly, they aren’t perfect by any means, but they’re well improved over previous volumes.

Story wise we don’t really get much development in the actual plot, though we do get some character development. No-Ah is interesting in this volume, and we get to see him battling with both his emotions and his desire to save his sister.

Eun-Gyo is getting less and less annoying, and becoming more and more the lead character she should be. Though I found her clumsiness in this volume a bit exaggerated. It wouldn’t have been so if she’d been like that from the start, but after two volumes of being built up as a tomboy, to suddenly become super clumsy, was a bit to drastic of a change.

Ho-Dong I’m not so sure about if I’m honest however. His personality and actions don’t really seem to mix very well. Though he is growing on me a bit, he feels a bit off.

The inter-development between these three characters is interesting to watch, and I’m looking forward to seeing how things progress between them. I’m especially looking forward to seeing the relationship develop between No-Ah and Eun-Gyo. No-Ah initially clearly only wanted to get the sword so as to save his sister, however as the volumes progressed he’s softened, and showing more emotions.

though I have to agree, he is like a robot at times Initially I didn’t like this, it felt to weird. However as the story has progressed, and by the end of the third volume, I can’t help but feel it’s a good move by Woo making him like that.

Yen Press return with another release from the IceK stable, and once again I’m impressed.

The colour poster is awesome, but I really hate the fact that they can’t easily be removed without damaging either the book or the poster. I really wish that they’d (and I mean publishers in general) would either put them in loose, or perforated the the join so as they can be easily removed.

There was no guttering problems with this release, for which I’m thankful. I love to read a manga without having to damage it in the process.

I do have some concerns this time over the translation, they seem to have slipped into the Tokyopop Syndrome at one point with ‘dude’ and stuff cropping up. I’m hoping it was a one off slip, if it becomes common place I’ll be dropping the series. I hate it when TP do it, and I wont change my feelings on it just because it’s a Yen Press title. While I love Yen Press, I still try and judge them by the same standards as other publishers, though I tend to overlook some stuff because I enjoy their titles

The other thing that has me worried, and I have emailed Lisa asking about it, is the website only lists up to volume four of the series. Also the catalogue they sent me only has up to volume four as well. I hope that they intend to carry on for the full series. While I believe they would do (I mean why only license only four volumes of a series??) I’m hoping for some clarification. This applies to a lot of the titles that were picked up when IceK merged with Yen Press.

While my opinion of this series has changed somewhat, it’s still not good enough to go onto my Essential Read list, however it’s gone up a few notches. This is definitely a series to get if you like light hearted shojo, and have some spare cash lying around.

Where to Buy

Volume four of Legend isn’t released until the 7th August 2008

For us Brits: Waterstones, Little Brown, Book Depository

For you Yanks and Canadians: Amazon.com and Amazon.ca

Note: Amazon.com is claiming to have volume three in stock, despite it not being published until the 7th August. I haven’t confirmed either way however. They’re also listing a different release date of the 12th August. Little Brown however are the official distributor and they’re saying that it’s released on the 7th.