Manga Review: 7th Garden, Volume 2, by Mitsu Izumi

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Shonen Jump (VIZ Media)

Release Date: October 4, 2016

Volumes: 6+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

The high-pitched battle is on between powerful angels, sexy demons and innocent humans to dominate a world rife with political intrigue and to win the heart of one hapless male!

Awyn Gardner will do anything to protect the beautiful mistress of the equally beautiful estate gardens he lovingly tends even enslave himself to an also beautiful demon bent on world domination!
Awyn and Vyrde are engaged in a savage battle with angel Uri when a mysterious young yet powerful boy appears on the scene. What is the child s relationship to Vyrde? Do demons even have relations? Then, because the other angels aren t conveniently showing up for Vyrde to slay, she follows their trail to a neighboring nation embroiled in regicide. Is tenderhearted Awyn willing to fight back against a cute young princess who happens to be wielding an angel-powered weapon capable of annihilating both him and Vyrde?!"

Review:

 We get away from Awyn's garden for most of this volume. Instead, the fight in the previous one draws to a conclusion, only for Vyrde to drag him off for another one. We continue getting clues as to what happened to Vyrde.

We meet another angel, who's horrible. I really don't understand the ideology here. The angels are clearly awful, and really aren't better than Vyrde, who is supposedly the only demon here. I don't get it, mostly because it seems obvious to me that the others aren't really angels? But if that's supposed to be a revelation later down the line, then why is it so obvious? There must be something deeper going on here, and I really don't understand what's happening with that.

We meet an interesting friend of Vyrde's. The reasons behind the angels actions has me intrigued, but only a little. The side character we met here was nice—a younger girl who's being pushed into her sisters crimes—but mostly I want to see more of Marie. I like her a lot, and the dynamic she has with Awyn.

I really do enjoy the contrast of good and evil, aside from the whole angel thing. Seeing the bright world of Awyn's garden and home, and then the darkness of Vyrde and the underlying dark side that Awyn is hiding. I want to see more depth of that as well.

I'm rather enjoying this series so far, surprisingly. I want to read more.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!