Ryu’s Musings – Angelic Runes Vol01

I really liked this volume and I’m eagerly awaiting volume two, though there’s no release date for it yet. Although I have to admit the pink cover is not the most appealing 😀

Book Information:

PrintAngelic Runes Vol. 1

by Makoto Tateno

Publisher: DMP

Type: Series

Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Shojo

A traveler in search of his father chances upon a pair of twins about to be buried by their village. The villagers claim the two are cursed but he rescues them. He soon finds out what makes the villagers fear them: the siblings have the power of angels and demons. But he has his own secrets as well…

Characters:

This volume introduces three main characters and two supporting characters.

Sowil, the main lead is an interesting and compelling character. I was impressed by how powerful a character he is. His personality is well developed and comes across perfectly.

The way he acts, and talks shows his inner turmoil over his past pretty well. I was especially impressed by the way the initial story was handled.

The way his magic is handled and revealed was also very well done, and has a lot of potential. The mystery surrounding it wasn’t to little, or over the top, it was just the right amount to keep the reader wondering.

I did find his character design a bit off at times though that may just be down to my own personal preferences rather than anything else.

Allueh & Erudite, two walking bundles of cuteness. These are the twin children that Sowil ‘rescues’ at the beginning. They’re perfect in every way. Their personalities and art designs fit to a T. The way that Makoto introduces them is done in just such a way that you can’t help but love these two. The crowning moment of cuteness in the volume though had to be them falling over in unison. It was just so perfect in every way.

I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop, but I am hoping that we get to see more of their children’s own personalities, since at the moment all we seem to get are the angels and demons. Ideally this needs to be balanced a bit better I think.

Those are the three main characters introduced in this volume. The two other supporting characters didn’t show up until later on.

Taurus, Sowil’s teacher is an interesting character, and while nothing much is revealed about him he has a strong presence. When he was introduced in this volume it was almost like he suddenly became the leading character. This isn’t a problem at the moment since he isn’t around to much, but I can see him overshadowing the others.

Personality wise we don’t get to see much about him in this volume, but he does come across as a strong character. I also found myself thinking that if this was a yaoi title, he would be one of the love interests. I’m not overly keen on his character design though, he’s to handsome and it felt a little weird reading it.

That said, I don’t think he’ll ever be anything more than a supporting character, cropping up now and again so it wouldn’t get to bad.

Loft is the other character that was brought in during the last part of the volume. He’s hard to judge since he isn’t around for long. However I get the impression that he will be the main antagonist for the series. His personality is a bit flat at the minute, mainly due to the limited scope we’ve seen him in. I also felt that he was a bit like Taurus, to handsome, almost as though Makoto was trying to bring in as many pretty boys as possible.

It’ll be interesting to see how Loft and Sowil’s relationship develops.

I purposely haven’t listed Sowil’s missing father, since while on the one hand I do see him as a supporting character; he also has next to no page time this volume. At the moment he’s nothing more than a hook that’s driving the story forward. Hopefully this will change.

Story:

The story is both interesting and yet simple as well. It revolves around Sowil simply trying to find out who he is, why he was born, and who his father is. Simple story hooks like this can lead to the best stories. Due to their simplicity the story teller has loads of room to flesh It out and make an intriguing story. Of course it can also fall flat on it’s face 😀

Thankfully, so far at least, Makoto has  created a well developed and interesting story that has progressed well this volume. I was loving the angel and demons aspects, and how listening to the angels seemed to get Sowil into trouble.

It’s hard to judge a story based only on it’s first volume since that’s the volume that’s usually the weakest link. However I feel Makoto has a first volume she can be proud of.

Art:

As I’ve said above, Taurus and Loft did make me cringe a bit, I felt it was over the top with the pretty boys. However I can’t really complain about the art in this volume. The settings were really well drawn, with only one exception. I found the sand worm monsters from the first part of the volume to be a bit, well, crap. They looked bad plain and simple.They didn’t have any presence to them, nothing to fear or anything, I just found them flat, dull and uninteresting. Monsters should make you at least go ‘oooo’ or ‘eeek’ or something.

The twins make up for all though. Their facial expressions through out the volume are just hilarious and cute, and compliment Sowil well.

The other characters, such as the villagers, and other nameless characters were all rather well drawn, though they did make the pretty boy aspect of Loft and Taurus stand out all the more.

Publisher Handling:

this was another eManga title, so no comments on the actual book. I did order it today and will update the post when it arrives.

I only have a few minor niggles with this volume. Firstly the choice of wording at times in this volume made me wonder what the original japanese version said. There was nothing majorly wrong, but it did make me wonder a bit.

Secondly the editing, especially the font choices I thought were bad. Mostly on thought and out of the box text. Several of these were hard to read due to them being small and a faint grey. While it certainly doesn’t hinder the main story, it does mean you miss some of the comic responses from the characters, which is a shame.

Notes:

I loved this volume, it has an interesting story and characters. All of my issues can be overlooked simply by the volume being an excellent read that keeps the reader hooked and laughing. Makoto balanced the humour and seriousness of the story well.

Author: Ryu Sheng