Yoko Matsushita

Oh how I always kick myself when I read a series without first make absolutely sure it has a resolution! In this volume Hisoka continues on his quest to confront the dragon king thinking that if he wins he will be Tsuzuki's equal. Things don't always work out the way you want them to. Tsuzuki for his part finds himself between the original Tengu rivals trying to find out why the Dragon King wants to destroy the Imaginary World. On the outside Tatsume and Watari delve the mysteries of show more Hisoka's odd family and some weird water ghost.

I kind of lost track of things near the end of the story which was kind of frustrating. Even more frustrating is that this appears to be the last volume and publication stopped back in 2006 with multiple cliffhangers all over the place. In checking Wikipedia it appears there is hope of a volume 12 to be released in 2010, but the details are rather vauge.

Despite the confusing multiple story lines I still really enjoyed the manga and hope that the manga-ka does, in fact, pick up her series or at least give us one last volume to conclude her story lines.

In the future I will certainly do more investigation before undertaking a series! show less

Hilarious and adorable. "Shingami" as portrayed by a horrible 90s cop show with yaoi and a bird-shaped tech services librarian as backup. Also, one of the funniest, rudest translations ever? Golden.

This volume covers a very angsty and what seems like a potentially transitional story in the series. As I have in the past, I can't help but compare the manga and the same episode in the anime. In this instance the manga has much more depth to offer. In addition, he anime's timelines for the process were a little different and the characters actions, especially in the case of Tetsuhiro, made a lot more sense in the manga.

When the ministry discovers a discrepancy in the number of people show more disappearing in Hong Kong it appears that a common denominator is the Cruise Ship The Queen Camellia and Tsuzuki and Hisoka are sent in undercover to investigate. Because Hisoka is an empath being forced to spend time with so many people proves difficult, but Tsuzuki is in his element acting as a card dealer in the onboard casino. To the dismay of both Shinigami one of the passengers turns out to be the sadistic doctor, Muraki, who is caring for the daughter of the ship's owner. When a rash of murders starts Tsuzuki immediately suspects Muraki, but when Muraki shows up dead himself he and Hisoka are forced to look for other suspects.

I felt terrible for Hisoka in this story. Here we are presented with the details of his torture and death at the hands of Muraki. Hisoka's memories of the accident do serve as a catalyst to show how much he has grown to trust Tsuzuki, not that he would willingly admit it. I do enjoy the relationship between these two. Right now I'm not getting any BL vibes from it, just an affectionately antagonistic feel. It makes an already interesting mystery/murder/paranormal story even more appealing to me.

The artwork is still very nice although it troubled me that Hisoka and Camille looked so much alike in some places. It made it a little hard to tell them apart in the face only panels. The sidebars are always an interesting bit of trivia. The manga-ka seemed to get annoyed by her fan mail a little much although some of her complaints made sense (who wants to read about other authors in your fan mail?) She does make the comment about feeling like these characters are her children, which is an idea I'm personally rather familiar with.

There is only one more disc to the anime (three episodes) for me to watch and I'm guessing it will continue to follow the course of the manga. I am very happy that the manga has more volumes than that and am really looking forward to it. show less

This volume starts off with a story about a dancer dying of cancer that is not in the anime which is nice because it gives me a chance to experience it without comparisons. The second story, "The Devil's Trill" was in the anime but is presented here with some very small differences, like the continued allusions to the similarity between Hisoka and Hijiri (although I guess with the anime they figured it was just so apparent it didn't need to be addressed specifically). I enjoyed both stories. show more It certainly does bring to light Tsuzuki's kind hearted personality and almost tragic ability to fall in love quite easily.

I particularly find the theme in "Devil's Trill" to be kind of disturbing. The idea that transplants can carry over memories, or in this case a written contract, from one host to another, is one I've always thought as interesting.

This manga is very episodic which can be good or bad. Time will tell if it just goes from one story to the next or if it will start to build on itself. There is a great mixture of humor, angst and drama which makes it all very appealing. The drawing as well is easy to look at. I really do like Tsuzuki who is drawn at times as almost heartbreakingly, beautifully handsome and at times with quite comic intent. There are two panels which stick out for me as really gorgeous. The first is in "The Last Waltz" where Tsuzuki is leading Hisae out for the dance contest and the other in the infirmiry where he first meets Hijori and is so tall he towers over him with his head inclined *sigh*. He's easily becoming one of my favorite manga characters for both the way he is drawn and his personality in the series.

I'm continuing to enjoy both the manga and the anime and look forward to reading/watching more. show less