Hotaru Odagiri – Yen Press – 2012 – 11+ volumes
this is an omnibus containing vols. 5-6
I loved the first 2 omnibus volumes of this series. It has a very X vibe to it (they ran in the same magazine), great art, and I love demons. One of my only criticisms was that it felt like there were slightly too many characters, but it did a good job of focusing on the two Zweilt fighting pairs introduced in the first volumes. But here, it crossed into far too many very quickly. Maybe it felt worse because I took a break, but I didn’t feel too lost in the story… only lost among all these characters.
We get a third Zweilt fighting pair at the beginning of this volume, and they take Yuki and Luca to the main Giou house in Kyoto. There, we meet the head of the family/Yuki’s brother again, Yuki’s two aunts, and maybe a few other people that are hanging around. We also get to hear about the former partner of the new Zweilt pair, their instructor, a Giou family member that was killed in the past… ugh.
Mostly this omnibus focuses on telling the story of the new Zweilt pair, Senshirou and Kuroto. Which is fine, that’s what we got in the previous volumes. Both of them were likable enough, and their backstory was suitably dark for what was going on here. Interspersed with that, we get the origins of the war from 1,000 years ago, some history of the Giou clan, more about that betraying jerk from last time (turns out, he committed a massive betrayal in the past. Shock!), and lots of wacky antics from the side characters.
What I really, really want is more story about Yuki and Luca. I started liking Yuki a little less here, because he’s nice to everyone and everyone is nice to him. We actually find out that being parted from him is painful to the Zweilt at Twilight House. I kind of get it, since he’s got the powerful healing abilities… but really?
I’m a little terrified about having this many characters. Will we soon have to learn about Yuki’s mom? Both his aunts? Will we get endless plots about all the Zweilt? There weren’t even really any battles in this volume, though one breaks out towards the end. There was also very little Luca, as he isn’t permitted to enter the main house. Next volume looks a little more promising on that front… but will it also introduce more characters?
Hopefully it’s done. If it stabilizes here, I think that’ll be fine. I only see one other character coming (the long-lost ancient leader of the Giou), but if the story moves forward with this cast, I think I might enjoy that quite a bit.
Of course, I think it may be currently on hiatus? So I may only have a few more volumes to read before I reach the limit of what’s out. It probably will get really good by then.
