Kaze no Hana Vol.#01

By: Sakura Eries
Review Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Release Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Ushio Mizta / Akiyoshi Ohta
Translated by:Elina Ishikawa
Adapted by:N/A

What They Say
Orphaned four years ago by an accident that took her parents and her memory, 16-year-old Momoka Futami travels to Mitsurugi City upon receiving an invitation from the Mitsurugi House, her father's very powerful relatives who offer to take her in. What awaits her far exceeds her fears and expectations: a spiritual sword, Suzukaze, and a tumultuous battle.

The Review
Packaging:
A wraparound design is used for the front cover. It is essentially an illustration of Momoka that has been oriented 90° such that her top half is on the front flap and her lower half is on the back flap. She stands against a white background in her school uniform, a white sailor top with a red ribbon and blue skirt, and holds her sword horizontally behind her back. From the way that her skirt and top are flying about, she looks as if she's caught in a breeze. The black spine of the book, which includes the manga title, artist's and author's credits, and a dragon design in white, cuts across the illustration of Momoka. On the front cover, the title logo, block white lettering against a black square, is placed at the top right-hand corner, and the author's and artist's names are placed along the bottom in plain black text. On the back cover, a white panel with the story summary overlies a portion of Momoka's skirt, and ISBN, rating icon, and publisher's icon are placed towards the top.


Yen Press has done a nice job with the packaging of this title. The print job is clean, the paper and binding feel nice and durable, and they printed the title page in color. The title page, by the way, features a sleeping Momoka with some sunflowers against a background of puddles reflecting blue sky. Its many extras include table of contents; rough character sketches for Momoka and Shouta; a glossary of Kaze no Hana terms; two pages of translation notes; and an untranslated preview of Volume 2.

Artwork:
Characters' bodies are realistically proportioned (i.e. no bulging muscles or balloon sized breasts), and they have enough distinct attributes that one can easily be differentiated from another. Noses are more snubbed than pointy, and eyes are relatively simple, often outlined without any shading or completely inked in without any gradations or shine spots. Deformed versions of characters are used frequently, but their quality varies. Sometimes the chibi versions are adorably cute, and at other times, they look like dumpy, sloppy versions of themselves.

Mizta seems to put in a lot more effort into the designs of the Susami. Of the three presented in this volume, the first looks like a giant mutant insect, the second looks like a cross between a frog and a lobster, and the third resembles a giant feathered creature with enormous human-like toes. While Mizta scores points for making his monsters sufficiently scary, the fight scenes that they're featured in are little difficult to follow. One of the Susami fights with tentacles, and it's unclear whether the tentacles shoot from the monster's body or not. The humans dispatch the Susami using swords, and sometimes I can't tell if their blades actually strike the monsters or if power/wind emanates from the weapon to do the dirty work.

Backdrops are excellently drawn. A few sunset skies and cities skylines are so well rendered, I wonder if they were originally taken from photos or done using software. But even the interiors that are definitely hand-drawn are nicely detailed.

Text/Translation:
The way Yen Press handles sound effects in this title is ... interesting. They keep the original Japanese sound effects with translations either placed beside them in small text or at the panel margins. However, the translations they provide are the transliteration of the Japanese text with English equivalents in parentheses. For instance, the translation provided for a sound effect in one of the sword fighting scenes is "ga (thwack)". It's a feature that might be handy for someone actively trying to learn the Japanese language, but casual readers may find it confusing to have so many words running around. Translations of text on paper and signs are translated with notes at the panel margins.

The dialogue translation is satisfactory. Yen Press chose to keep the Japanese honorifics, but does not provide any explanation for the Japanese honorific system. Yen Press does address several cultural references in their translation notes at the end of the manga, but it would have been nice if they had used asterisks or something within the text to indicate which terms were defined in translation notes.

Content:
16-year-old Momoka Futami is a girl with a missing past. Four years ago, she left Mitsurugi City after losing her parents and memory in a mysterious accident. However, when her relatives, the Mitsurugi family, offer her a chance to return to her hometown, she seizes it in hopes of regaining her lost memories. But instead of a pleasant homecoming with long-lost relatives, she finds herself thrust face to face with the supernatural. No sooner has she stepped off her train in Mitsurugi City than she is transported to an alternate dimension to be confronted with a bizarre monster!

Fortunately, the allies of the Mitsurugi family come to her aid, and once the danger has passed, they explain to the baffled girl what has happened. The monster she encountered was a Susami, a subordinate form of a corrupt god that was sealed beneath the city long ago by the benevolent dragon god Kuzuryuu. The eight families within the Mitsurugi house were granted eight spiritual swords by Kuzuryuu, and chosen warriors from the families wield the swords to keep the Susami at bay. And to Momoka's amazement, she learns that the Futami family holds one of the swords and that she is its current bearer! However, when she is given the Futami sword, she is unable to unsheathe it. Even more disconcerting, the Mitsurugi family head balks at revealing the details of Momoka's past, especially the events of four years ago.

Nevertheless, it is clear from their kindness that Momoko was once very close to the other young sword bearers. She remains in Mitsurugi City, where she shares an apartment with Shouta, the bearer of the Ichijou family's spiritual sword, and even goes so far as to go on Susami patrol with the other sword bearers even though she is unable to fight. However, the Mitsurugi family isn't the only group interested in Momoka as one day she receives a map directing her to the location of her old house...

Comments
If anything, Kaze no Hana is a supernatural action title. I find it highly reminiscent of CLAMP's X. Battles between Susami and the sword bearers take place in the Hollow World, which has a similar nature to the protective barriers in X. While the counterparts of the opposing side have yet to be introduced, Momoka's side is comprised of a team of eight, and their weaponry involves magical swords. At first glance, the conflict in Kaze no Hana seems more of a local battle instead of the "fate of the world" war in X. However, the story hints at much larger things brewing with Chapter 4 showing the Vatican taking an interest in the events of Mitsurugi City.

Regarding Ohta's storytelling style, I'm not particularly impressed. The Kaze no Hana world order is extremely complicated. Within the first volume, you have a girl trying to find her lost memories; demon-like creatures leaking from another world; a powerful policing family to keep things under control; auxiliary swordsmen and swords in addition the main eight spiritual swords; opposition to their efforts lurking in the background; and an investigative reporter who is more than he seems. All that, and only five of the eight sword bearers have been introduced. This world has the potential to be intriguing, but Ohta throws way too much at the reader at once. Keeping track of the different threads of the plot is difficult enough without attempting to remember the individual names of the swords and their distinct characteristics.

In addition, the dynamics between main characters Shouta and Momoko don't seem natural. In the opening chapter, Shouta and Momoko travel to Mitsurugi from Tokyo together, but it's never clear why they're traveling together or how much Momoka knows of Shouta or the Mitsurugi family from the get-go. Also, Shouta seems surprised about Momoko's inability to fight, but if he is one of the sword bearers, wouldn't he know about Momoka's situation? Then there is the inexplicable decision to put Momoka and Shouta into an apartment together (what kind of family makes two 16-year olds live alone together?!). By the way, in the Valentine's Day chapter, it is mentioned that sword bearers are not allowed to be romantically involved, which might as well be a huge blinking sign that something romantic will eventually arise out of Momoka and Shouta's relationship/living situation.

This manga is rated teen for violence, some cursing, and nudity in the bathtub.