Review copy kindly provided by Yen Press

About the Mangaka

This is a combination project between Mizta Ushio, doing the art, and Ohta Akiyoshi doing the story. Unfortunately that pretty much all I can find on them hehe. I did find that Mizta-sensei has a weblog, but since I can’t read Japanese I can’t say what’s on there. Though it seems she’s talking about the Kaze no Hana manga. Ohta-sensei doesn’t seem to have a weblog or site, so I can’t provide any info. If you know of anything about these two, please use the contact page and let me know.

About the Manga

kazenohana_3

If you remember my review of volume two, you’ll remember that I was greatly disappointed after the excellent volume one. As such I was no longer really expecting much from the final volume of the series.

So, here we have volume three and the big question is, what’s it like?

Well, to be honest it’s another Chiwoo, in that it’s an excellent series that just ends. There’s every impression and build up to future volumes, only no follow through.

However, this volume makes up for all of the lacking of the previous two volumes. Sadly, as with volume two the author realise on assuming people know the back story. Which in theory is okay, but I couldn’t find anything saying it based on novels or games; so where does this back story come from?

Mizta’s art is still as inconsistent as it’s always been, but to be honest I now consider this to be a part of the charm of the series. I do wish there was more consistency however, especially with her swords. One minute they look like daggers and the next matchsticks, and then full swords. It’s extremely frustrating to keep swords attributed to their masters when they keep changing shape.

Ohta once again carries the series with his excellent story telling. Though like the previous volume to much story is left unexplained, especially when events happen with the swords. There’s loads of holes in the story regarding characters who have suddenly changed, and one left me wondering what was going on changing sides twice in a row.

Despite this however he manages to keep me interested, and hooked to the end. While the ending is rather sappy, it would be a great ending of a volume.

However since it’s the ending of the series, it’s technically a bad ending. Since rather than answering questions it just opens up a truck load of new ones

I’m hoping this is simply a case of them taking a break from the series before coming back to finish it off. Leaving it at three volumes is a crime.

Yen Press finish the series in the style I’ve come to expect from them, high quality at a fair price. I often find myself wondering how they can charge so little for their titles.

Once again they leave the colour page intact, and once again this page is awesome, it’s vibrant and alive.

The translation is excellent, smooth and consistent through out, and with only minor guttering issues.

To be honest I had to think hard over this series, since I wasn’t sure whether to throw it in the Junk Pile. It has the elements of a great series, but the failure of the mangaka to carry it on really hurts the series.  So after reading the entire trilogy again, and again, I decided not to add it to the list.

While it’s certainly true that it fails on so many levels, it’s also true that it is a good series, so it would be unfair to junk it just cause of it’s failings. While I can’t recommend people go out to specifically buy it, if you’re store has a sale on (my local has a buy one get one free on at the moment) then it’s worth picking up.

Where to Buy

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