Lunar Legend Tsukihime 6

Again, I need to give this series full credit for being all kinds of awesome.  It’s one of the only licensed manga that I can think of (in this case, video game to manga) that is this much fun to read.  The only bad thing I can say about it is that it doesn’t come out fast enough, because at one volume a year, there are things I forget by the time the new volume comes out.  The US version is caught up to Japan though, so there’s not much DrMaster can do about that.

I had trouble remembering the boy from Shiki’s childhood flashbacks, which made it harder for me to remember whether or not Shiki’s… actions in this flashback were revealed before (I don’t think they were), and whether or not the kid was sort of a jerk and had it coming.  The more the flashback goes on throughout the volume, the more I do not think it is the latter.  At least in the past.  I also forgot Ciel’s deal, but most of her background was in this volume anyway, and it came back to me that she was a mysterious member of Shiki’s class, which is probably all that was revealed about her before anyway.

But anyway, the stuff covered in this volume was really, really awesome and made up for last volume’s inactivity.  Aside from a brutal scene with Arcueid that goes from her being violent to Shiki being violent, we get a ton of stuff about Shiki’s past, we learn about the Tohno family and a rival family, we learn about Roa, and we learn what Ciel’s role in all this is.  And Shiki gets really, really scary violent.  Combining that with the flashbacks explaining pretty much everything that’s going on was quite effective.  With all the cards on the table, all that’s left is to fix things between Arcueid and Shiki and then go after Roa.  And sort out the matter of the Tohno family, though none of the members seem all that interested in sorting things out.

Having the volume starting and finishing on an awkward note between Shiki and Arcueid was great, too.  Like I said, I was no fan of the date volume last time, but the awkwardness and tension between the two was conveyed quite well in this volume.  I liked it.

I think a lot of people probably pass this over because of the license, but don’t be afraid to give it a try.  Start from volume one.  It’s quite an enjoyable read.