ISBN-13: 978-1-56970-080-8
Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
Pages: 216
by: Ai Tenkawa
Publisher: DokiDoki
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Drama, Supernatural, ShonenSynopsis:
Young Kyounosuke has wolf blood running in his veins and a life-changing mission to complete! The “alpha” in his family is about to die, and his long-lost brother Kokuyou is the rightful heir to the pack’s top-dog position. Kyounosuke must hunt high and low throughout the dirty alleyways of Tokyo in order to sniff out his sibling, but there are plenty of people (and other beasts!) who can’t wait to stir up trouble for the courageous boy. Can Kyounosuke save his family’s name and solve the mystery of his brother’s disappearance?
Characters:
Kyounosuke is an interesting character, since he seems to have a split personality. When we first get to see him he’s a funny, lively and determined guy. He takes his responsibilities seriously, and is a funny character. Later on though he seems to have a split personality moment where he goes all uber evil, an interesting twist to things.
Koyoki is out love interest (or one of them), possibly. She sort of rescues Kyounosuke (I think I’d kill my folks for giving me a name that long and complex lol), and looks after him. She does it initially because it looks fun, but then because she likes him. She’s got a normal personality, with a bit of bubbly mixed in for good measure. It works really well I thought, and her reactions at the end of the volume were classic.
Mitsuru is Koyoki’s older brother. Like Kyounosuke he comes across as a nice older brother just out to look after his sister. But I got the impression several times that there was a darker side to him. As a character I think he’s a good one, with the potential to be a good nemesis.
Kanosuke is an interesting character, he’s strong, determined and has a very high opinion of himself. He’s Kyounosuke’s cousin, and resents the fact he’s in the branch family rather than the head family. The impression we get from the volume is that he hates his cousin because of this.
General Thoughts:
I’ve read this through three times now and can finally put my thoughts into writing. On the first read through I hated it with a passion, in fact the only reason I read it through to the end was because it was a review copy. After reading it through though I felt compelled to read it through a second time and found that I didn’t actually hate it at all, third time through I really liked it.
Looking back over it now my issues came from the art and the way it was used to progress the story. Initially I found the constantly change art, from comic to normal a bit over the top, and irritating. On the initial read through when I was trying to focus on the story I found the art got in the way, but on the second where I was just looking to enjoy it I noticed a lot of things I missed in the first read though, most of them made me laugh.
The chibi characters are a bit annoying, but that’s because I’m not a huge chibi fan, especially used this way. I did find it very funny at times though, such as the way that Koyoki handles Kyounosuke.
The part of it I really enjoyed though came in the extras, we get a short back story of Kyounosuke and Kanosuke. While it was short, it manages to show of their relationship so well, and it totally changed the feel of the exchanges that happened in the volume. I can understand why it was made an extra, and not incorporated into the volume, since it’s such a story changing chapter.
The problem I have with this though is that I’m worried that’s how it’s going to be for the series. Disliking the volumes on the first read through, then getting to like them. I’m hoping that the art will become more smoother over the course of the series.
Publisher Handling:
The copy I read was on the eManga website, so my comments here are going to be limited by that. Also, as with all of DMP (and it’s imprints) getting new releases in the UK is a pain in the arse. This is on my order list and I’ll update the post once I get a paper copy.
Anyways off we go. First off, there’s an odd mix of honorific usage, one minute it’s there the next it’s not. I’m sure it was like that in the original, but it feels really weird to me. Not really sure how it could have been fixed though.
Great use of font’s, especially with the SFX’s, with a simple translation next to the original japanese ones, but with it’s own font that sort of matches the original. Makes for an easy read.
This is also true for the actual text, which is easy to read, neither to small or to large. Though there was a few small words that were hard to read. Those were just the odd SFX though, so it’s not a huge issue.
In the end, I’m not really sure about this series. While I did end up liking it, I also have some reservations about the way it’s going to flow, but I don’t like judging a new series only on it’s first volume.
