Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a review copy of this volume

About the Mangaka

Once again, sadly, I couldn’t find anything on either SeungHee Han, nor on JinSeok Jeon. If you have any info, please use the contact form and let me know.

About the Manga

WOW the change between volume four and volume five is extreme, but not as extreme as the change that happens in volume five.

To be honest I’m not sure what to make of this series anymore, and I guess I can’t make any really judgements until I get volumes one through three. Sadly they’re out of print and hard to get, so I’m going to have to wait till November for the re-prints.

Reading this volume, I was initially confused since the personality of Shahryar was almost totally different to the previous volumes. In this volume he’s almost friendly, though his standoffish and violent nature does raise it’s head occasionally.

The story this time isn’t really woven into the volume, though the way it is done is just as interesting as the other way. In truth mixing the way the stories are unveiled is perfect, since it would, I think, get stale fast otherwise.

The art is different from the generic Korean stuff I’ve gotten used to, which gets a bonus point from me. However the eyes lose it points!! A lot of the characters look like their eyes were drawn with markers, and frankly they look creepy. Some of the characters however are drawn amazingly, just none of the main ones

Jeon’s story this time doesn’t flow as seamlessly as it did in volume four, though it’s far from being bad.

It feels that at times he’s trying to put to much into the story, rather than just letting it flow on it’s own. I suppose though that since it’s a manga, they have limits to how much they can do, so cramming to get everything in will happen. Though that doesn’t mean I’ll like it

The 101 fable was one of my favourites as a child, and I love this new twist to it, I’m once again falling in love with the fable.

What’s more, from my perspective at least, is that this is the perfect Yaoi introduction for people who are unsure about Yaoi. There’s no rape, just some kissing, holding and groping. It’s a easy way of getting into Yaoi without having to confront some of the more violent and aggressive titles out there.

The other aspect I like about this series is that the Yaoi element isn’t the focus. While the relationships is of course a central aspect, the way Jeon and Han handle the flow, and how much is revealed, is great. It’s easy to overlook the fact that this is a Yaoi series, in fact a friend of mine that read volumes four and five initially thought it was a shojo, it has that feel to it. It lacks the feel that Yaoi series have.

This volume is a story about Socrates, and to be honest I have no idea whether it’s a good representation or not, since it’s a story I’d never heard of. In fact I couldn’t find anything on the supposed relationship of Socrates and Alcibiades, beyond the fact that Socrates was his teacher. With that in mind I can’t comment on how the story content. However I found it an interesting story none the less.

The volume ends with some brief historical references explained, and the usual other titles adds.

Yen’s release is great as always, but I do wonder about the wasted bubble space. For some reason they use tiny fonts in the speech bubbles which end up leaving loads of empty space. However when you get little bubbles, for some reason they increase the font size resulting in an overflow. While this wasn’t to bad in this release, I have noticed it’s something on the rise in their releases in general.

The translation was done well, and the cultural references left in place and just referenced, and a small bit of guttering, but nothing overly damaging to the book.

I don’t like the cover though, and this is just a pet hat of mine, but the cover just looks wrong IMO.

Where to Buy

Here we go with the usual suspects

• Brits: Waterstones and the Book Depository
• Yanks: Amazon.com
• Canadians: Amazon.ca