Manga Review: Ran and the Gray World, Volume 5, by Aki Irie

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: November 2019

Volumes: 7.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 4. 6.

 

Goodreads Synopsis:

 

A young sorceress transforms into an adult and sets out on magical adventures full of charm and wonder!

Ran Uruma can’t wait to grow up and become a sorceress like her mother, so with the help of a magical pair of sneakers, she transforms into an adult and sets off! Her father and older brother Jin try to keep her home safe, but Ran is determined to advance her powers and have adventures of her own!

With the Door destroyed, bugs are an even greater danger than before. The sorceresses build a glass fortress, but it’s only a matter of time before the bugs break through. Meanwhile, Ran tries to protect Otaro from being hunted down, but will she end up jeopardizing the battle against the bugs?

 

Review:

 

There's a lot of people hiding out in the Uruma house, so thankfully they're all magic. There's some debating and hunting, and an impending doom lingering over everyone. About halfway through the volume, though, Ran discovers that Otaru is behind all this, which means that something is wrong with him, and so she has to fight against the clock to find him and get him safe while everyone is out to kill him.

This volume actually got a bit exciting near the end. Ran has been holding a lot of magic inside her up to this point, while still being a kid. It's been a struggle for her to deal with both, and finally some of that starts to come out and she has to face it.

The characters and the story lines are all very odd, but in a unique and interesting way to me. Same as the art—it's unique, but so pretty.

We're left at a pretty good point in this volume, thankfully. But there's still some questions left. While this is my last review volume, I might pick up the rest of the series at some point. This is just such a neat series, I would like to see how it ends.

 

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