Kiichi and the Magic Books 4
July 5, 2009
This volume starts off by explaining the current slump Mototaro is in. It goes back to his past to show him with his father, who he inherited the Mototaro title from, and what happened between them that relates to his current situation and makes him a bit afraid to use his power. It’s a nice story, and its interesting that Mototaro is the name for the librarian in the family (it is the “Mototaro” clan) and not his given name. We meet his grandfather later, formerly Mototaro, and neither his given name nor Mototaro’s are revealed. Tricky.
We also learn… well, just about every secret the plot has been holding out on all this time. We learn exactly what an oni is, what their historical role was, where they come from, Kiichi’s exact past, and we learn a lot about the Amamori tribe of bird-people. The revelations are quite excellent, if nothing terribly earth-shaking (what the Amamori did with the onis in the past was a little horrifying, though).
Despite the fact that the Amamori have backed off, the hunt is still on for Kiichi, and even after the group reaches the water depository, they run into problems with researchers and people seeking power and glory. There’s even a way that someone comes up with to avoid sacrificing Kiichi. This part of the story was pretty horrifying, especially since it involved something quite terrible for each of the characters (Mototaro, Kiichi, and Hana). I’m looking forward to seeing how things wrap up in the next volume.
July 6, 2009 at 6:43 am
[...] Johanna Draper Carlson on vol. 13 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs (Comics Worth Reading) Connie on vol. 4 of Kiichi and the Magic Books (Slightly Biased Manga) Lorena on vol. 2 of Land of the Blindfolded (i heart manga) Melinda Beasi [...]