Tokyo Babylon, Volume 2

Volume 2 starts to take a grimmer turn from the first, where we continue to enjoy Subaru's daily adventures as a demon exorcist living in downtown Tokyo. I think that I have enjoyed the story a whole lot more because I have actually visited a lot of the neighborhoods that take place within the story, among them the infamous Red Light District of Kabukicho and the government office buildings of Shinjuku which has the cheapest elevator ride in town to see the entire megacity in all of its endless concrete jungle glory.

It is quite interesting that a group of female authors who have entertained us with a bubbly cute manga such as Card Captor Sakura would write a manga that covers so many difficult themes in vogue today. It is like they are show more writing far ahead of their time. This novel not only offers us the staple fun of ghosts doing mischief and demon fighting hawks, it delves into the lives of victims of rape in a society where it is still very difficult for survivors to come out and report the crime due to the shame of being blamed by everyone. I also enjoyed the story focusing on Hokuto meeting a foreign woman who has overstayed her work visa and has been forced to work in a seedy bar with the constant fear of deportation. I would have wanted a more fulfilling conclusion to that story, and maybe make that character as a regular. But for a country that sees foreigners working blue collar jobs in such a negative light, I really liked it that CLAMP took a huge risk.

I kind of feel the volume could have benefitted with being a bit less episodic in the sense of relying too much on being a "exorcise monster of the day" story, but it was a step in the right direction from volume 1, and we get to discover a few secrets about Seishiro.

Definitely worthwhile if you are into dark urban fantasy! show less

I've always loved the cover design for this volume. Some darker stories in this one than the first volume, and though it still has moments of being dated, I thought they were handled well. 

Although this is volume 2, it is the first Tokyo Babylon I've read. It is probably an easy guess that my interest here stems from these characters appearances in the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. In this series young Subaru is an Onmyoji, a spiritual master who can perform exorcisms. He has been set in his task by his grandmother and also has a twin sister who does not share in his vocation. Seishiro is a veterinarian from an opposing clan Subaru has befriended and appears to have an intense interest in his quest.

In this volume a former classmate of Subaru's contacts him via a dream and he has to find a way to use the dream to bring her out of a coma. Quite an interesting episode. In the second story arc Subaru's sister, Hokuto, show more assists a girl on the run from the police. I enjoyed this story and I really want to go back and read volume 1 as well as continue on with the series.

From the artwork you can tell that this was one of Clamp's earlier works. The panels are pretty dark and dense, but not confusing. The characters are all very attractive. I really like all of Clamp's different drawing styles (presumably since different artists draw different manga) and I certainly have no complaints here. show less

The art was okay, and the writing was a bit better than volume 1, but neither are all that great. The defense of cops was kind of strange, particularly since the story doesn't follow up on it at all.