Ryu’s Musings – Late Advent Vol01&02

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Language: English
Direction: Right to Left
By: Yuriko Matsukawa
Publisher: Digital Manga Guild
Type: Series
Genre: Action, Shojo, Supernatural

Synopsis:

Reira Bandou is an ordinary, average college student—or so she thinks, until a group of strangers tell her she is the reincarnation of Ashura, the Buddhist god of war and a member of the Hachi Bushu. The remaining members of their group must be found so they can defeat the demons that threaten the world. Reira struggles to control her powers and regain Ashura’s memories, and it only gets more complicated when another Hachi Bushu member makes a shocking claim—that he and Reira are lovers!

I’m really not sure what to make of this series, well, it’s not really a series since it’s only two volumes.

On the one hand, it had a great premise that had the potential to be freaking awesome.  At times it really did come off that way as well, some excellent characters, tied with some excellent developments, both character and situational. However on the flip side it was rushed and terribly handled.

The art style at times gets in the way of the story, it’s to whimsy and airy at times, and at others it’s just confusing as to who is who and what.  The thing that bugs me a bit is that the art was okay in the first volume. But as the volume progressed the art got worse and worse, and seemed to have just gone through the floor in the second volume. Bad art can be forgiven however if the rest of the mix is great, but sadly this isn’t the case, and it’s purely because it’s only two volumes.

This seems to be a prime example of what i said in my last post, how short titles try to do much and fails to do it because all it manages to do is confuse the reader. In titles like this, which have a lot of lore and characters, this is especially true.

What would have been a good way of handling this would have been over a few more volumes, allowing the lore to be delivered in a more manageable and coherent manner. It would have also allowed more in depth exploration of Reira as Ashura, and the different personalities that contains; especially since that includes multiple relationships with her personal harem.

Those relationships aren’t really explored, they’re just thrown out there and then moved on and ignored.

The plot twists in the second volume were just pure WTF moments for me, it’s like, ‘where did that come from?’ Which would have been great, if it was handled properly, but it wasn’t, because space was running out so it was sped through.

So, is it worth getting? Only if you want a throw away read. there’s no depth to the series, but it does have a few good moments that could make it worth reading.

Author: Ryu Sheng