Real 4
Posted: April 21, 2009 Filed under: Real 1 Comment »This volume was all Kiyoharu. While we did get his backstory in volume two, this is the rest of it. Basically, volume two was everything that happened before he lost his leg, and this was everything that happened afterwards.
Because I had commented in volume two that Takahashi seems like the saddest case since his accident is recent, this volume proceeds to take Kiyoharu, my favorite character, and show just how badly he felt and how long it took him to recover from his amputation. It’s… quite sad and very difficult. One scene in particular, where he has a nightmare about his leg ripping off during a race, was pretty powerful stuff, especially seeing his reaction after he woke up. It conveyed absolutely everything you needed to know about what happened and what his mental state was.
Seeing him pick himself up after what he perceived to be an event that ended his life, and seeing what it was that helped him change his outlook (and what kept his outlook negative for so long), makes his incredibly positive attitude even more amazing.
Also, I kind of laughed when I saw his day job. It came out of left field.
I am starting to worry about Nomiya, though. He’s still directionless, and he’s still a pretty strong guy that wants to make something of himself. His failure in this volume was as a result of something he believed in… and come to think of it, most of the time he seems to lose out for standing up for what he thinks is right. But at this point, he has literally nothing going for him. Let’s hope that nice things are in store.
What an amazing series. I was left fully satisfied by everything that was offered in this volume. Plot, characters, messages, artwork… all of it is good. You just can’t fault Real on anything.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
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