Dall-Young Lim

This volume mostly focuses on Keita Ibuki adjusting to this new, strange situation he finds himself in - having his heart traded with Kuro's (something she did as a way to save his life). Unlike the anime version of Keita, manga/manwha Keita is a much colder, meanspirited person, so watching him abuse Kuro and trying to push her to her limits to test her strength is hard to see. Compared to the anime version, it's really rough, but in some ways, the way he reacts to his life being turned show more upside down because of the fantasy elements that he now has to deal with for his own safety is pretty realistic. And if someone was faced with that situation, or something similar in reality, the level of anger manga/manwha Keita has can feel relatable - and watching him take out his anger on Kuro in moments that are intended to be a little more comedic can feel just a bit like wish fulfillment. But yeah, this volume is that awkward adjustment period where Keita (and Akane) have to adjust to dealing with terra, terra guardians/Motsumitama, etc - with more of an angry edge to it. Not the relatively quick acceptance and friendly fluff (like going out to dinner, going shopping, etc) that happened pretty quickly in the early episodes of the anime series. A lot of this volume is also a fight between Mikami and Kuro (and their contractees of course), but in manga/manwha form, there's a lot of back and fourth that can be just a little overstimulating compared to the fight in the anime (which, because of the animation medium, I think helps streamline the fight even if a lot of their conversations during said fight is the same). It's also interesting to note that, in the anime adaptation, the Mikami and Kuro fight happens just before they plan to leave for Okinawa, so seeing it be like the second or third big fight in the manwha is really interesting since that really changes the pacing and essentially the difficulty scaling for future fights to come!

Having been introduced to this series with the anime first, I still can't help but make comparisons - but that also really shows you how adaptations are made based on medium, and I still find it fascinating since I'd been hunting down the anime on DVD/Blue-ray for so long, and as I grow closer to completing my collection of the physical manga. show less

Same old mystery meat with mysterious powers meets mysterious organizations. Didn't care.