Yurara 5
Posted: April 11, 2011 Filed under: Yurara 1 Comment »Chika Shiomi – Viz – 2008 – 5 volumes
Having read almost all of Rasetsu at this point, I knew how this series ends, so there was little in the way of surprises in this volume. And unfortunately, other than Mei, none of the characters really grew on me. I liked it okay in parts, but… it’s just not as good as Rasetsu. Comparing them is unfair to Yurara, because Yurara came first and all good things start somewhere, but… it’s hard to recommend this when the other is out there, doing a better job.
One of my biggest problems with the ending was that it seemed like a revelation to all the characters that Yurara was not cheating on Mei with Yako, but rather that the spirit-Yurara had the crush on Yako. I thought this had been established last volume, but Yurara was very relieved when it hit her, that she didn’t like both boys at once. And then there was a big crisis, and Mei was all depressed and needed saving… blah blah blah.
The crisis actually made me lose a lot of respect for Yurara. It was meant to teach her that she needed her own powers (so that spirit-Yurara didn’t have to take over her body and fall all over Yako anymore), but to underscore this, she panicked and cried a lot, and did a damsel in distress thing that made me really angry. But again, I probably would have liked it a lot better if I didn’t know Rasetsu was out there, fending off a demon lover under her own steam and being awesome about it.
As down as I am about this series… yeah, I probably would have liked it a lot if I hadn’t read Rasetsu first. But again… Rasetsu is all kinds of awesome, and has better characters, haunting stories, and overall plot. The art is better, it’s probably written for a slightly older audience, too… I like Chika Shiomi a lot, and this is an okay, middle-of-the-road series, just not compared to her others. I’m picking up Night of the Beasts next.
I suspect you’ll like the heroine in Night of the Beasts. :)