Manga Review: Kaze no Hana Volume Two

[Jason]

Title: Kaze no Hana
Volume: Two
Mangaka: Ushio Mizta & Akiyoshi Ohta
Originally Serialized In: (Media Works)
Genre: Shoujo/Action
Publisher: Yen Press
Rating: Teen (13+)
Price: $11.99/US

Volume Two of Kaze no Hana picks up with the Shimon group – a group of spiritual swordsmen who guard the seal on a wicked god – one month after the end of the first volume. Momoka Futami, one of the group and supposedly the one who was meant to own Suzukaze (her sword), still has traumatic amnesia and is still unable to draw it, leaving her feeling like a burden on her roommate, the moody Shouta.

Momoka gets led astray by one of the demon-things sent by the enemy group, the shichijou, requiring yet another rescue which ends badly for Shouta. Determined not to put him at risk again, Momoka agrees to go back to her family’s grave with some others from the group, hoping to stir her memory and hopefully she’ll be able to draw Suzukaze afterwards.

Unfortunately, as we get some of Momoka’s history, it is not all happy and it doesn’t help that the shichijou group are stirring things up. Worse, unsheathing Suzukaze unleashes Momoka’s dark side and it might be more than her friends can handle.

The storyline moves well though the fight scenes are a bit confusing, not helped by the fact that the characters’ faces aren’t always distinctive. The plot is convoluted but only occasionally gets confusing. Part of the problem is the vast cast of characters. The art is good, the reused face style issue aside. In their usual style, Yen leaves the sound effects in situ along with a Japanese phonetic and English translations but they’re getting better at not cluttering up the panels. The front pages give a nice reminder of who’s who and there is both a glossary and translator notes at the end.

Reviewed By: D.M. Evans
Proofed and Edited By: Jason Punda