Pastel 6
Posted: June 5, 2007 Filed under: Pastel Leave a comment »There was a weird element of finality in this volume. There are many series which will tease you with sudden events that, were they to happen, would suddenly and irrevocably change the flow of the series. Or end them outright. This teases you with just such an event, and you keep thinking something is going to happen that will take it back, and then it doesn’t get taken back. It’s shocking that this series has the strength to do such a thing. Granted, it is partially taken back at the end, but not all the way, and not in a way that’s not going to change things from now on.
The result is that there is a quiet sincerity to the rest of the volume which you would not expect from this series. It certainly has gotten better lately, and it’s definitely relying less on humor and more on character interactions. While I think most characters could still use a little fleshing out, Mugi’s pretty dimensional at this point, and it’s nice to see him doing all these things which are just… true to himself, I suppose. It’s gotten very cute, and I liked it. This was a really, really great volume. Even the stuff leading up to the main event was sad and well-played. Very nice.
We also learn a lot about both Mugi and Yuu’s parents. These stories are both extremely good and do a lot to flesh out Mugi, like I mentioned before.
