E's Vol. #04

By Patricia Beard     December 11, 2007
Release Date: August 30, 2007



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Satol Yuiga
Translated by:Satsuki Yamashita
Adapted by:Elizabeth Hanel

What They Say
The search for the Sacrament of Calvarias becomes more complicated when Yuuki and Asuka are attacked by rebel psychics, and must join forces with Maria and the guerillas to survive.

Meanwhile, Kai finds himself in a world where psychics battle in a blood sport for both the glory of their religion and the greed of the wealthy. Back in Ashurum, Shen-long wonders what is wrong with his sister Shin-lu, and who are the three strange new recruits on their team?

The Review
The major players are now in place: Kai, in answering the call of a young psychic, has agreed to work with the resistance Church in finding the Sacrament of Calaveras, not in support of their goals, but to free the youngsters from the death battles into which their mistaken notion of redemption has forced them; Yuuki and Asuka, pursued by any number of psychics have now joined Maria in searching out the Gald guerillas, who had hired Yuuki to find the Sacrament of Calaveras for them; and Ashurum, with three new arrivals, headed by the powerful and treacherous Maxim, whose loyalties may not be exclusive.

E'S is an apocalyptic, cataclysmic story in the mold of Clamp's "X", with which it shares a similarity in character design and action depiction. The art is very attractive, but can be overwhelmed by the excessive visual busyness that comprises the action scenes. This visual noise combined with the demands of so many characters and their individual story lines had made for some inscrutable reading, but the lumbering pace of the narrative in previous volumes seems to have picked up. The events that seemed to be wildly disparate in previous volumes now show some convergence.

Broccoli has again produced a very attractive volume (Eiji Sagemiya on the olive green cover) complete with color insert. There are generous bonus sections that present lighter moments with the characters along with very useful character descriptions and relationship charts.