MJ Review: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning Volume One

[Jason]

Title: Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning (Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna)
Volume: 1
Author: Kyo Shirodaira
Manga-ka: Eita Mizuno
Originally Serialized In: Shonen GanGan (Square Enix)
Genre: Shonen, Mystery
Licensed by: Yen Press
Price: $10.99 (US)

Spiral : The Bonds of Reasoning struck me as a sort of throwback in both art style and storyline. I found the art very reminiscent of the 1980s manga that dribbled into the States. The young protagonist is a bit of a ‘Larry Stu’: a boy genius in several areas, but especially detective work à la Encyclopedia Brown. This would probably appeal more to the younger teens than to my age bracket, but that said, it’s not a bad story.

It opens with Ayumu Narumi, a 10th grader dreaming of his older brother, a detective and piano genius, who disappeared some two years before. Rousing himself from his napping spot on the school roof just in time to get blamed for pushing a student, Kana, off the roof to her death, Ayumu is immediately embroiled in the mystery. As a devotee of mysteries, including amateur detectives, I’m well acquainted with the usual McGuffins used to allow the amateur to out-detect the police: the amateur is related to the detective or the detectives are idiots. Spiral goes for both. The detectives on the case are Madoka Narumi, Ayumu’s sister-in-law and the idiot partner, Suemaru Wataya, who spends all his time engaged in brain-spraining twists and leaps of logic.

By the time Ayumu is hauled to the station, Suemaru has already run through several theories, settling on the claims of an eyewitness, Mizue, that Ayumu pushed the murder victim. Madoka, on the other hand, is more open-minded. She also appears to be Ayumu’s guardian (I assume this based on no parental figures appearing in the volume) and she has no problem with him investigating.

With the dubious help of Hiyono Yuizaki, a school reporter, Ayumu unravels the mystery only to end up with a hint to something called the Blade Children, the very thing his brother was investigating before he disappeared. Thrilled to finally have a clue to his brother’s disappearance, Ayumu’s hopes are dashed when his one link is murdered.

After solving this case, Ayumu is soon drawn into another one - the classic locked room mystery, again revolving around the Blade Children. The storyline is pretty good once you get past the ‘Ayumu is a better detective/pianist than everyone in spite of his age’ issue, and enjoyable if you like mysteries. If you’re not a mystery buff, then there isn’t much here for you.

I was less fond of the art. It’s not awful but it’s not as good as I’ve been used to seeing elsewhere. Like I said, it has an ‘old’ feel to it. If I had unknowingly picked this up and glanced at it, I’d have thought it had come out twenty years ago. It reminds me of things I saw in my youth. Yen has done what I’ve seen in other titles from them when it comes to the sound effects, leaving the original Japanese effects in the picture plus adding in both the phonetic translation and the English equivalent, which can be cluttering.

Reviewer: D.M. Evans
Proofer: Syrente
Editor: Lissa Pattillo