Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom 6

Oh man, I love this series so much.  This volume is full of all the important plot points that have been building up.  All secrets are revealed here, and the fruits of all that exposition are delicious.

Well, that’s true, and it’s not.  I get a ridiculous amount of pleasure from reading every new volume of this series, but it can be guilty of using common shonen plot devices.  And when I say “can be,” I mean “most of it is,” but somehow I forgive it a thousand times over.  For instance, the nature of Nora and Kazuma’s relationship is revealed, as is their proper positions in the demon world.  Now, I didn’t see this coming at all, but I can’t say I was surprised since the story does take a well-beaten path for those two.  On the other hand, the only thing running through my mind when they talked about it was “hell yes.”

Similarly, there is a character death toward the end of the volume.  It is sad, and it plays out exactly how every significant death in a shounen manga plays out.  It’s even used as a lesson for a bad guy on one of the last pages, which did make me roll my eyes a little.  But Nora’s reaction to it was truly sad, as was the flashback that we got to see afterwards. I thought it was marginally more successful than similar death scenes, just because Nora is so terribly sad, but that could just be because I’m horribly biased.

Again, I think it’s because the nuts and bolts of the plot and characters are pretty good.  Kazuma is an especially entertaining guy (his response to his role was an even bigger “oh hell yes” from me), but the friendship between Kazuma and Nora, Nora’s treatment by pretty much everyone in the series, the relatively entertaining despite her fanservice factor Dark Liege, and the whole demon world thing… I mean, I wouldn’t call any of it fantastic, but it does have its flashes of brilliance, and it’s pushed all the right buttons for me.

Also, I think it helps that Kazunari Kakei seems especially gifted at choosing the shounen plot devices that work best for him.  Many authors write lame stories that use those as a crutch, but they feel really fresh here despite the fact that I’ve seen them many times before.  I honestly don’t think the story would have been better had it used more intricate and original plot and character development, but again, I like series about demons, and I think I like this one a lot for the “woah, AWESOME” factor, which is admittedly high.  You know what I mean.  It’s why Guts has a big sword, too.

Anyway.  I love it dearly, and it’s one of the series I look forward to the most.

Amusingly, I tried to see what the Japanese covers for the series looked like, but the fact that the series has an entirely English/Roman name meant that a search for it got me this instead.  It lacks the class of the old Loveswept covers and the subtlety of modern romance covers, sadly, but more importantly… is Nora Roberts really big in Japan?  That’s amazing.  I figured cheap romance was something that could be cranked out domestically in any country, it’s strange that the stuff leaves the country.  Then again, maybe Nora Roberts really is fantastic.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.