STORY
Whooooo. This is a pretty big volume in terms of content. The Frosty Assassination arc wrapped up in suitably dramatic fashion, and then the very next chapter kicked off what looks to be a very thrilling and emotional storyline. Raimei's brother, Raikou, is back in town. He's murdering people left and right (because reasons), and it's up to Raimei to put a stop to his antics. He's a Grey Wolf, by the way.
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| Raikou legit murders a dude |
Turns out Raikou is murdering these people because of his duty as a Wakachi to uphold honor within the Grey Wolves. Raimei wants to find him so she can finally sort out why Raikou murdered basically their entire family.
Saying anything else would be a spoiler, so I'll stop there. Good story stuff in this volume. Moving on!
ART & PRESENTATION
The art. The art. The art. The art. So good. It's seriously crazy to think that the art has gotten this much better within the span of four volumes. I mean, it took Pandora Hearts about ten volumes to get it's art into great form. Yuhki Kamatani must have put a crazy amount of work into perfecting her form, and it's nowhere near done improving yet. You can almost tell that every panel seems to be slightly better than the last. The feet still look like potatoes, though. Below are a couple of standout moments from this volume.
Yen Press once again does a good job presenting this volume. Everything that I've mentioned before is there. Color pages, solid translations. HOWEVER. Everything on this volume's spine is shifted down about a half centimeter. That doesn't sound like a lot, but it breaks uniform and looks messy.
CHARACTERS
Raikou is, of course, Raimei's big brother. He has a sort of honor about him, especially with his dealings as a Wakachi. His back story is unclear for now, but I get the feeling that next volume will tell all. He also has pink hair and is obsessed with Red Spider Lilies.
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| So many flowers |
The other newcomer is Gau Meguro. He's Raikou's right hand man and is super devoted to Raikou. He's got a short temper, too. Not a whole lot has been revealed about Gau yet, but he's heavily involved in the Raimei/Raikou storyline. I don't know what it is about Gau, but he's probably my favorite character so far. His funny personality, his character design... Dunno. He's just cool. Gau has really slanted eyes, too, and my only complaint with that is sometimes they look a little too slanted.
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| Those eyes |
FINAL VERDICT
If last volume wasn't good enough for you (for some reason), this volume has everything. Fast pacing, great art, and an involving story. PLUS/MINUS!
+ Finishes one story arc off with a bang and launches directly into another
+ Raikou and Gau are cool
+ Gau
+ Ever improving and beautiful art...
- But potato feet still happen...
- And Gau's eyes can get over-slanted sometimes
And the score for this volume is...
A - BUY IT
Not 'a minus', but not quite achieving the 'a plus' greatness, Nabari no Ou is a fantastic series that keeps getting better. A solid 'A' for this one. And this is only volume 4.
(I don't own Nabari no Ou. All rights go to the author, Yuhki Kamatani, and the licensing company, Yen Press).
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