Two Flowers for the Dragon 6
Posted: December 28, 2010 Filed under: Two Flowers for the Dragon 2 Comments »Nari Kusakawa – CMX – 2010 – 7 volumes
I put off reading this because the lack of volume seven absolutely broke my heart into pieces. I was hoping the climax was in this volume and the next was emotional fallout, but no. This leaves everything dangling. I know this is an extraordinarily unlikely license rescue, but maybe someone would like to release two omnibus volumes? I’d buy them again, because this series was great and I really do want to read the ending.
Shakuya is still struggling against the betrayal from last volume, the outside force that challenged her, her feelings for both Kuwan and Lucien, and now, her powers and the country they are currently lodging in. The final story breaks open into an action-packed sequence where the bad guys turn out to be the lesser evil, betrayal doesn’t seem so final, and lots of magic and non-magic solutions cause and solve lots of problems.
I know I’m speaking in vague terms, but I really don’t want to spoil anything. There’s plenty in here for people who were fans of the romantic side and action/plot side of the series, since Shakuya becomes out-of-sorts due to her feelings and wrestles over situations involving both boys (Lucien’s problems escalate in a most heartbreaking way, but I’m glad all is well by the end), plus an elaborate plot involving people from her own country and the very top brass from the country she’s currently in take out bad guys along with Shakuya’s friends, and magic makes death less permanent than it seems.
It’s edge-of-the-seat stuff, and I have no idea where the plot will go for the final volume. I mean, I’m sure everything will work out, but I’m not sure how the various factions will wind up in the end, or if old trends will be re-examined, et cetera. More puzzling, I’m just not sure which boy Shakuya will wind up with, something that’s normally very clear at this point in a shoujo story. It could go either way right now, and I’m guessing one of the boys will have to bite the dust in order to settle things cleanly.
I’m about this close to just buying the last volume in Japanese. I may do that. It really is quite good. Not super-spectacular (the characters aren’t quite fleshed out enough, I think), but pretty top tier material nonetheless, and a great representative for shoujo fantasy manga in English.
For what it’s worth, I bought the final volume in Japanese! It was pretty cheap at YesAsia, but you have to search by its Japanese title to find it, I believe. Not that I’ve read past volume 3 yet, of course, and not that I can actually read Japanese, but I figured I could at least look at the pictures.
I got #7 in Japanese, too, so I can look at pictures and guess more or less how it ends. I second the re-release of the series in omnibus, I’ll collect it again, or print on demand.