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
You know I was sure I’d already done the review for volume nine, but for some reason it wasn’t posted and I cant seem to find it now, doh. Anyway in a way it’s a good thing since I get to post about these two volumes together. Which is awesome because these two volumes compliment each other better than any others in the series so far.
I’m not going to go on much about the art, since lets face it I’ve said it all already. A few things I will say though. Firstly, I love the cover designs for the volumes, the light and dark feel they have both match perfectly.
What these two volumes have in buckets is character and story development. What’s more is that it has a lot of tension and atmosphere.
Volume nine is pretty much all about the planning. The gang has all arrived, and Kanon is about to make his move and everyone turn to Narumi Jr to save the day. Initially I was surprised at how his self pitying didn’t get on my nerves. I was expecting to be wanting to batter him. However while I did find it a bit irritating, it was more like a real irritation you’d get when a friend was doing it.
This volume is where he really starts to develop his personality and character and grow beyond the self pitying/denial kid he was. Rather than becoming superman though, his change is slow and realistic. He sees that even with his abilities he needs the rest and acknowledges that. Something that’s rare for this style of character to do.
I’m to used to seeing them becoming supermen over the space of a page, that this made an excellent change.
We also get a lot of information on Kanon, and the how and why he is the way he is. At the end of the volume my thoughts and feelings about him had changed a great deal, and I felt sorry for the guy.
We also got an unexpected love confession, sorta. While it was one I was expecting at some point, I wasn’t expecting It to come out in the when and how it did. It just made me question a certain persons motives all the more.
The volume ends with a more self-assured and assertive Narumi Jr setting his plan to capture Kanon without killing him into motion. I have to admit I got a little shiver at the end, it was so well done.
The volume also has several extras, one of them being a standalone chapter about Narumi Kiyotaka. While I do like the chapter, since it’s light hearted, it does paint a very different image of him that what the rest of the series has done, which can be a little confusing I guess. But either way I found the chapter hilarious.
As always there’s a letter from Kyo, and as always it’s a good long one and well worth reading. TBH I love these since it shows that Kyo actually likes his work, and his readers, him taking the time to write a long letter to them; rather than a paragraph that usually appears in manga.
Finally we get a mini 4koma that is just bloody funny to read as well.
The tenth volume is the complete opposite of volume nine, in so much as that nine spends it’s time sitting around talking, ten is pure action. This volume is dedicated to putting the plan that Narumi Jr came up with.
It unfolds really well, and while there’s no really character development, it comes together to make one of the best volumes of the series. This is also why I said volumes nine and ten complimented each other.
I loved how the story came out in this volume, and realised something. For all the planning that went on in volume nine we’re never actually told in details what the plan is. So watching it unveil itself as we go through volume ten makes it all the more thrilling, especially when little incidents crop up. The way it ended as well had me laughing so hard I couldn’t believe it, because it was just so ludicrous and totally unexpected.
This volume ends on a rather darker note, as Eyes explains a few things to Narumi Jr, which gave me a creepy feel. I also found myself wondering just what Kiyotaka’s goal really is.
Once again Kyo writes a decent sized letter, and I got my hopes up when he was talking about the single volume novel that accompanies the series. Sadly he admits it’s only in japanese, but he does give the site address anyway. I only hope that Yen Press take the initiative and pick up the novel as well, since it’s only a single volume, I think it would be a good addition to the Spiral series (hint hint nudge nudge Yen Press!!).
Speaking of Yen Press they once again did an excellent job with these releases. Christine Schilling returns as the translator (yay!!) and does an excellent job of it. (Oddly I haven’t seen her being credited with any other of Yen’s recent releases, hope she comes back soon!!). The use of honorific’s make this an excellent read, which is backed up by the use of some excellent font choices and good editing. I was also happy over no guttering this volume, which is something Yen have been improving on greatly in recent releases.
All told, another set of amazing volumes that make feel it’s place on my Essential Read list is more than justified.
Where to Buy
Volume 09
Volume 10
