Rem

This book krumped all over the place with its creativity and how quirky it is. Loved the humor, the characters (Nemo’s my favorite), and artwork too. Pandora is fun. I think watching her humanity… uh devilishness grow will be interesting.

Devils Candy plays with common manga tropes but repackages it in a fresh way. The juxtaposition of the cutesy art style with the eldritch horrors everywhere is great. There are info dumps packaged at the end of each chapter, and, at times, the panels show more get so overloaded with (beautiful) artwork it's hard to decipher what's going on. There are also some occult references, which I don't care for, but it adds to the worldbuilding.

I would definitely read more of this series. show less

After having read the audiobook version of the book this is based on, the Soulless manga (well, graphic novel in a manga-esque art style) is a sort of speed-run adaptation of the story, but it hits in a pleasant way that doesn't sacrifice the plot of the original book, and streamlining some of the comedy in it's new visual medium, replacing some of the British humor and wit with blink-and-you'll-miss-it illustrations with really good expressions. The art style is also gorgeous, reminiscent show more of Black Butler (another supernatural manga series in a Victorian England setting), and it really does the characters described in the book justice.

Though one thing I find particularly interesting about the art style is just how young everyone looks. If you didn't read or listen to the original book first, you might not have a clear grasp on how old the characters are supposed to be? In the book, it's stated that Alexia (our main character) is a spinster, and she's 26 years old, which is old for the Victorian era - especially if you aren't married, and her age is such a big deal in the book that it's always mentioned. Even the woman posing as Alexia on the covers of the original book series are clearly adults possibly late 20s, in their 30s, maybe even early 40s, but the art style in the manga really shows Alexia being youthful. But again: this is the Victorian era, so of course her being considered old is so prominent, and in this illustrated adaptation of the story, her age is almost emphasized by her sisters being drawn young, and even her friend Ivy looking pretty young, almost teenaged, herself. Though in terms of Alexia's appearance: she's also described as having darker "Italian" skin on top of her dark hair, but that's not reflected in the art style - and while the said can be same about the models on the covers of the books, the graphic novel being illustrated and still not reflecting just how different Alexia is from others on top of being soulless may be a turn off to some. But at least, they cut out a lot of the "Italian" talk in this adaptation, which got a little grating in the original book, so you win some you lose some.

The story is still a streamlined version of the book, so if you've already read the book, you're not missing much: you're basically just getting the highlight reel, in a good way, along with the nice art and illustrated interpretations of the story's characters and world. But if you're not familiar with the book and this is your first introduction to the series, the pacing might seem a bit rushed by comparison. It truly does feel like a edited down version of the first book in the Parasol Protectorate series, but not necessarily in a bad way: just in a way that might leave those who have no context for the original book out of the loop on some details.

There are 2 other books in the series of graphic novel adaptations of the series that I'm curious to hunt down and read first, as while I was reading both this book and listening to an audiobook version of the book it's based on at the same time, I wonder if the other two graphic novels will make sense and still suffer from oddly fast pacing without their respective books as context (assuming each of the mangas is a 1:1 adaptation of their respective book volumes despite the manga series going only by the name "Soulless" and not having their respective books' titles).

Overall, I did end up liking this adaptation of the story for what it is, bringing me back a time where anime and manga were becoming more mainstream and more available in the US, and even English-language books getting graphic novel adaptations with manga-esque art styles, or getting Japanese manga and anime adaptations of their stories, so not only do I recommend it for a quick supernatural mystery fix with nice art and a little bit of illustrated mild spiciness, but it's also a series I hope to hunt down and own. show less

This is the third book in the Parasol Protectorate manga and was very well done. I enjoyed it a lot. This was one of my least favorite books of the full length book series, I actually thought it was better done in manga format. I haven’t been able to find any information about the fourth novel in this series.

Alexia is being scorned by everyone she knows because of her pregnancy. She journeys to the Templars in Italy in hopes of finding some answers both about the history of Preternaturals show more and about what kind of baby she might actually be carrying. However, she finds upon her arrival that the Templars have plans of their own. Meanwhile Lord Maccon is wallowing in a drunken state of misery and being generally troublesome.

This was a very fun installment in this Manga series. It starts with vicious exploding ladybugs for goodness sake, so how can you do wrong? There is a lot of action and adventure. Additionally Alexia learns a lot more about the significance and history of Preternaturals.

Alexia really shows her toughness in this installment, it's a rough time for her. However, where a weaker woman might give in to despair...Alexia decides to hunt down answers on her own despite what everyone thinks about her.

As with the full length book series, I found Lord Maccon to be especially obnoxious in this installment. He does redeem himself in the end however. The characters that are the most fun in installment are Genevieve and Lyall. Genevieve is Alexia’s main companion for much of the novel and we learn a lot more about her. It was also fascinating to watch Lyall try to deal with Lord Maccon’s mess.

The illustration continues to be extremely well done. There is a lot of detail and facial expression are done really well. The illustrator does a wonderful job of distinguishing between characters, I was never confused about who was who.

The book ends on a wonderfully hopeful note and I can’t wait to read the next installment in this series.

Overall and incredibly well done installment in this manga version of the Parasol Protectorate series. The characters, story, and illustration are all very well done. I really hope to see a fourth book in this series and can’t wait to read it. show less

It was refreshing to turn to something quick and light with this manga adaptation of the well-beloved (at least here in the 75ers group) manner-steam-para-punk-romance novel, Soulless. If you have read that novel, I hardly need detail the plot here. (If you haven't read that novel, why the heck not? It's jolly good fun.) The manga adds sleek, attractive illustration to the mix, resulting in visualized characters (looking much younger than one might expect) that "show" what the novel show more previously had to tell. The fashions, whether loosely limned in black and white or richly illustrated in the few color pages at the front, were particularly delightful to see.

The greatest fun of this adaptation, however, is the expression on the characters' faces and through their bodies during particular interactions. Mutterings, eyebrow-raisings, flirtations, are all rendered in clean lines alongside the quirky dialogue. Alexia's substantial bosom has never been so readily apparent, for example... and Lord Maccon's observations of that endowment have never been so hilarious. Though the interpretation of the characters delivers audience appeal over descriptive accuracy, I found the images to be a fine fit and a pleasant way to expand the novel's demographic. That said, I don't think this is a substitute for the novel; its purpose seems to be to collect teens into the growing coterie of Carriger's readers, and just in time for the soon-to-be-released YA series she's been working on. For the rest of us, this is a worthy diversion that offers an hour's entertainment and some actual LOLing. What more could one ask? show less