Many thanks to Yen Press for providing a copy for review!!

About the Mangaka

Spiral – bonds of Reasoning is a joint project of both Shirodaira Kyo and Mizuno Eita. Shirodaira-sensei also worked with Mizuno-sensei on the prequel story, Spiral Alive, which is still sadly unlicensed. Mizuno-sensei hasn’t worked on any other projects, where as Shirodaira-sensei has another piece of work, called Record of a Fallen Vampire. This has been licensed by Viz.

About the Manga

spiral_7

Holy biscuits, another mind blowingly awesome volume!!

Once again I’m going to skip praising the art, since it’d be repeating what I’ve said previously. It’s as good as it’s always been, which is all it needs to be :)

There’s very little in the way of action in this volume, it’s primarily a huge chunk of story. It’s delivered in bite size chunks and easy to follow and understand. Which is essential as this volume is the start of the real story.

Whilst the previous volumes have basically all been about introducing and explaining the characters, this volume starts the story in a big way.

I do think Ayumu needs a swift kick in the pants. His defeatist attitude and out look is really starting to grate on my nerves. If they carry this on for to long it’ll start to hinder the story. Luckily it does seem that he’ll get that ass kicking next volume.

The main developments come from the explanations of what the Blade Children are. While we aren’t given the main details yet, we’re given basic information that’s been lacking till now.

It’s great because it threw out my assumptions about them and I’m basically back to square one. Kiyotaka is revealed in more detail, and my initial thoughts on him are proven true.

The last quarter of the volume is pure action, mixed with a few revelations. I loved the way they mixed the story together and brought it nicely to a hell of a cliff hanger ending

Yen Press do their usual outstanding job, gotta love Christine Schilling’s translations!! And no guttering issues this volume, another bonus. That said I do not like the cover. It’s not a bad cover, in fact it’s a master piece, but to me it just doesn’t match the contents of the volume, it’s to happy and light. Where as the contents of the volume are darker and more tense.

This volume easily maintains the series on my Essential Read list

Where to Buy

this volume is due for release on April 21 2009

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