Answers abound in this surprisingly dark addition to the ongoing story of Kieli and Harvey. Creative Staff
Story: Yukako Kabei
Illustration: Shunsuke Taue
Translation/Adaptation: Sarah Alys Lindholm
What They Say
Reunited after too many hardships, Kieli, Harvey, and the Corporal arrive in Westerbury in hopes of locating Beatrix. Instead, they find themselves settling in with an old friend, Shiman, and his traveling performance troupe. Despite the relative ease of their new arrangement, Kieli senses that Harvey remains strangely distant, and secrets he’s been keeping threaten to tear them apart — perhaps permanently. Is Kieli prepared not only to learn the bitter truths that Harvey has been concealing but also to discover a past that the Undying himself may not recall?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This volume of Kieli gives the impression that it’s the lead up to a big series finale. If I didn’t know that the series was nine volumes long I certainly would have been tricked into thinking it was ending. Many of the characters from previous volumes return here, in a story set two years after the series began.
Each of the previous volumes of Kieli have, for the most part, followed the same pattern of events. A cluster of side event chapters which involved ghosts or other likeminded phenomena, and concluded with a plot advancing chapter. In that respect, not much has changed in this volume, except the story arc doesn’t end at the last chapter this time.
Kieli and Harvey’s relationship continues to have its troubles. It’s both frustrating and logical that neither of them can communicate properly with the other. It’s the sort of relationship that you’d expect two social outcasts to end up in. Throughout the volume other characters tease them about it, flustering Kieli, who is starting to see Harvey as more than just a kindred spirit. Harvey is having an equally tough time now that Kieli is a young woman and no longer the fifteen year old girl he left behind with Beatrix.
The two outcasts find themselves the guests of Shiman’s circus troop as Harvey wanders the city looking following the rumors of an Undying. As usual, the rumors are not quite what they appear. While he’s out wandering, Kieli discovers another added layer to the world of the supernatural, out-of-body experiences. Harvey discovers yet another victim of the Church’s strange experiments, and an explanation for most of what was going on in the last volume with the monstrous legions beneath the capital.
In fact, much of this volume consists of filling in back information that was withheld in previous volumes. We learn some of the Corporal’s past, reminding us that he isn’t just there for what passes for comic relief in this series. There was a large chunk of time that was glossed over during which Harvey was infiltrating a secret lab in volume four, which we get to see here. While it could have been included in the last volume, it would have given away the surprise return of a certain character. It’s a return that is both superfluous and oddly compelling, adding back in an element of danger that’s been missing.
The world these characters live in, a desolate arid place devoid of blue skies and greenery, seems to be constantly on the verge of burning itself out. With the constant talk of fossil fuels it becomes apparent the world they call home most have once been lush and green, probably long before the settlers arrived. Now we have the added depression of a city which was never quite rebuilt after a war, the greatest city on the planet, of which half seems to be a deserted slum. Kieli has always been borderline horror in some ways, and the author spares no details in describing the unsavory aspects of the world in great detail. The air of decay is becoming more oppressive as the story winds on.
My biggest complaint about the series is the author’s habit over reiterating minutia. The repeated descriptions of the sandy skies, Harvey’s smoking, and certain other beat to death details are dragging down the pace. I wish that time was spent detailing what we haven’t seen, like where these people are getting their food from. We’ve never heard about a farm, greenhouse, or even a tree on their world.
The volume builds to an unfortunately suspenseful end as Kieli nearly finds herself a victim of the type of assault you’d expect a girl would run into in a real world slum. The strange outcome results in a cliffhanger which has Kieli trapped in the haunted past of a city once split by war, separated from her friends with no obvious way home. Amusingly, the volume teases this event pretty heavily on the back cover, but it only occurs in the final few pages of the volume.
In Summary
Fans of Kieli are going to find a lot to like in this volume, mixed in with the grime and gore. I came in expecting answers about Harvey’s past, and instead found answers to most of the lingering plot threads of the previous volumes. The knitting together of the people and events leading up till now is a welcome change from the road trip pattern that the series had up till this point. It gives the readers time to reflect and put all the pieces in place. Kieli and Harvey’s relationship is still a frustrated mess, but there are signs that it all might be changing soon. Especially with the cliffhanger ending setting up a look into Harvey’s mysterious past.
Content Grade: A -
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A -
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: September 20th, 2011
MSRP: $11.99
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