Aya Kanno

Manga stories are like every reading materiel - from time to time there are great works to be read but majority tend to be good art but weird story or vice versa.

This one falls into the category of good art but weird story. While main character is rather androgynous he is also quite a psychopath. Known as a master criminal Zen he sows mayhem around him and kills or destroys everything that finds itself on its path.

So when accidental kidnapping starts to unravel Zen's personal history, dark parts of countries past start to surface.

In general story is little bit too gothic/depressive (constant "destroy your world to come out free"?!?) for my taste. Way story goes, some weird romance budding between Zen and almost everyone else (due to his out of this world beauty) is rather disconcerting. I think story itself might be aimed to younger audience. For me (old man as I am :)) everything seems a little bit too far fetched.

Art is pretty good. again this is one of those mangas with extremely lanky characters. Again not exactly my cup of tea but close ups and environment look pretty good.

Recommended to fans of political thrillers but keep in mind entire look and feel is rather depressive/gothic - so if you like this all the better for you :)… (mer)

Conclusion of the story is straight Jason Bourne. We meet bandits from the mountains, crazy scientists, groups of super soldiers, memory flashes, covert units, revenge, conspiracy and treason.

Again there is this weird romance between Zen and blind girl. I cannot figure out one end from another here, but I guess this part is given because it needs to be in this type of story (young (depressed) adult genre :)).

Gothic theme is still on, search for freedom through destruction of existing world (tiny bit too radical for me, but OK). I am not sure that anything can be achieved through mayhem but I might have lost touch with teen self :).

Art is as good as in volume 1. Again lanky characters, but when Zen's skills are shown you can literally see him zooming around and wreaking havoc.

Highly recommended to all political thriller fans and fans of young adult stories (with love/romance and slightly depressive view of life :)).… (mer)