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

About the Mangaka

Many thanks to Ephidel for providing some info on Satoko!! It seems she’s done another manga series called GA Geijutsuka art design class, which is licensed by Yen Press as well.

She also has worked on several games, Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone, and Knights in the Nightmare.

 

About the Manga

kuro_2

While I enjoyed the first volume, I adored this second volume!!

There are loads of things I love about this series, first the art style, the format, the story, basically everything about it.

One of the things you notice about this series is that it’s done in black backgrounds, as a result the white paper is more vibrant. This is something that can only be done effectively with 4-koma manga.

I dare anyone to say that Nijuku and Sanju aren’t cute!! This volume has them at their cutest looking like angels, literally, wing and all

Satoko’s art seems cleaner and sharper to me in this volume than it was in the first volume, and the little things I found wrong in the previous volume had been fixed.

What really makes this volume the best for me though, is the colour panels within. I really wish I could post a few just to show you how awesome they are. The colouring is done perfectly, it’s soft and muted and just heightens the story and art to an all new level. Tied with the black and white style of the volume, it’s even better.

What’s more, I’m not talking one or two colour pages, or even five or six, there’s a staggering twenty-five full colour pages. Some of them are really interestingly done, such as when Kuro takes a night time walk, the colours are done to match a night setting perfectly

logo_kuro

The story progresses very slowly however, though it’s not a bad pace. The problem however is still the same as the first volume, the past and present are to mixed. You’ll be reading about something that’s happening in the here and now, move to the next panel and it’s swapped into a past event. Only you won’t realise it right off and it does lead to a bit of confusion.

If you remember my previous review, Satsuki commented that some of the history is revealed in this volume, and that it carries on past volume two. Sadly I’m not finding this to be the case.

It is true that there are hints given as to the past of the Kuro and Sen, but there’s nothing really disclosed. The only real fact disclosed is a bit confusing, regarding the ‘black mark’ that’s spreading across Kuro’s body. There’s been two answers given so far, both in this volume as well.

This isn’t a bad thing, giving the hints and slowly giving the answers as the volumes come out is the best way of doing things. However, it doesn’t look like a further volume is scheduled for release. In fact all I can find on the various sites, including Japanese ones, is volumes one and two.

The one thing that does get explained is just why Kuro is carrying a coffin. I found this chapter one of the best in the volume, since this is where a lot of hints are dropped, and we get some interesting developments.

Yen did a great job with this release as well, and of the titles I’ve read this month (I’m still waiting for Waterstones to deliver Wild Animals and With the light!!), this is by far my favourite.

I really wasn’t into 4-koma originally, I just didn’t see them being value for money, however I have to admit that the releases by Yen have changed my opinion. I do wish they’d release them as double volumes (as in two volumes in one).

The good thing about the 4-koma releases is there’s no guttering at all!! it’s a perfect read, helped along by a nice and smooth translation. My only complaint with this release is a minor thing, a few times the lettering used for the fonts is hard to read, I would have used a larger or bolder font. This is a minor thing though, it only happened a few times.

Needless to say this goes to the top of my Essential Read list, in fact I’d go as far as to say that this is my manga of the year. I’m now making offerings to the great manga god in the sky that we get some more volumes soon. I’ll keep you posted on any future releases as soon as I find out about them!!

Where to Buy

Please note that this title is not released until the 10th October 2008

  • Share/Bookmark