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Sunday, September 29, 2013

Manga Review: A Wise Man Sleeps. Volume 1, by Mick Takeuchi



Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5
Publisher: Go! Comi
Publish Date: 2008
Volumes: 2
Spoilers?: Some.
Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. (Out of Print)

Goodreads Synopsis:


Miharu hasn't been having a good year. Her mother died, leaving her only a single ring to remember her by, and her father went bankrupt - leaving her with all his debts Though she'd intended to sell the ring to pay off her debts, Miharu finds herself unable to part with it... literally

Review:

I’ve had this series on my eye for a while, but hadn’t really planned to get it soon, when I saw it at my ‘local’ bookstore. I’ve read some of Her Majesty’s Dog, also by Takeuchi, and hope to get my hands on that series at some point, but it’s rather hard to find. So, this one.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, going into it. I figured it would be good, entertaining, and that’s pretty much what I got, although it was also a little slow at grabbing my attention.
Miharu, our heroine, is stuck with her father’s debt when he runs off. The yakuza are after her to get it back, and she’s trying to get by and avoid them. It doesn’t work very well. And then some strange guy, Akechi, an alchemist, comes up, claiming that this ring her mother left her is worth a lot, and he’d like to have it. She tries using this to her advantage, but that doesn’t turn out very well. In the end, her debt goes away, and she starts working for Akechi, who owns a jewelry store and is searching for jewels that have, kind of, souls to them, and that dead people’s souls attach to, whether for harm or good. And Miharu swallows her ring, and it kind of fuses with her, giving her the ability to sense the special jewels and see the spirits and stuff, something that Akechi can already do.
This leads to several one-shot chapters where Miharu tries helping, or hurting, people who have special jewels. These cases range from a little girl who lost her mother, to a psycho man who killed his family. One good thing about these one-shot chapters, in particular, is that there is some actual character development, character exploration, in them, which was nice.
Miharu seems like a pretty average heroine. She’s impulsive, barges in to help people whether she should or not, but is kind, I guess. I like Akechi—he’s kind of clumsy and awkward, but I like him. He has a double personality from his ring, one that Miharu likes, who’s very suave and powerful. There’s also a talking doll that Akechi has, a woman named Beatrice, who’s actual form, or creature, I was not expecting, but I like what I’ve seen of her. She's kind of blunt and rude.
There’s only one other volume in this series, which I have already, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the series ends, where it goes from here.

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