The cracks start to show as Akito feels her hold over the zodiac members slowly slipping away, with another two members breaking free from the 'curse'.. but how did Akito come to be this twisted in the first place? Is the late master of the Sohma household the cause for the rift between Akito and her mother? As the plot further unravels, Tohru prepares to confess her feelings to Kyo, but Kyo has more than just the 'curse' holding him back - the painful truth about Tohru's mother's death... and one confession that may end their relationship before it has the chance to start... (courtesy of Madman.com)
Review*
*My "reviews" of manga are a combination of a summary and a review. It's hard for me to really talk about a volume of manga without going in depth with the plot. So if you're really concerned about spoilers, beware.
The curse is falling apart. Two more members of the Zodiac lose their curse in this volume: Momiji and Hiro. The idea of loss is represented by feathers falling throughout the pages. I don't entirely get what feathers represent as far as loss goes. Perhaps the equivalent of things falling apart, loss of life? It's an interesting artistic choice that sets the atmosphere.
We learn more about Akito and her mother Ren. Talk about Mommy Dearest. Ren loved Akito's father desperately. She couldn't bear the idea of anyone else holding a place in her husband's heart, including Akito. She is horrible jealous and bitter, because she believes that Akito's father loved her more than Ren. She never ceases to ridicule Akito for the "so-called bond" and all her various faults. Akito is in many ways very much like her mother in her volatile temperament.
As the volume ends, we learn more about how Kyo knew Kyoko-san, Tohru's mother. She ran across him one day when he was just a little boy and took a liking to him. They would speak every so often. He happened to be there when Kyoko died and didn't save her. He blames himself for her death.
On the cheery, angsty side, there's a gorgeous page spread with Kyo in front of Tohru asking, "Do you like me?" Wonderful to see the love story moving on.
Oh now I'm intrigued and want to see the spread with the "do you like me" illustration:) Since there are so many volumes in this series, do you ever feel like the storyline is being forced to continue, or does each volume flow pretty well?
ReplyDeleteFB is one of those mangas I always wanted to read, but never really got around to do so. Like Fushigi Yuugi - I actually had the whole collection of FY mangas on my shelf, I read and enjoyed some of them, but then I had to move and taking them with me was not an option, so I ended up selling them on ebay.
ReplyDeleteI heard a lot of good things about FB from my friend, she read all the volumes and said they were awesome.
I'm glad to see you enjoy it too :)
I love how you described the character development in this one. That's something I would assume (not having read manga, myself) would be difficult to follow. Fab review :)
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of Manga until I started book blogging and visiting blogs.
ReplyDelete