Natsume Ono (Japanese name: オノ・ナツメ) made her professional debut in 2003 with the webcomic La Quinta Camera. Her subsequent works not simple, Ristorante Paradiso, and Gente (a continuation of Ristorante Paradiso) met with both critical and popular acclaim. In 2009 Ristorante Paradiso was adapted into a TV anime series. Her current series House of Five Leaves (Saraiya Goyou), also adapted into a TV anime series in 2010, is running in IKKI magazine.
Highly enjoyed this volume. This is a series that gets better and better with each volume.
Jean is a precious dandelion and I hate how everyone is trying to use him for something. He's such a good person. And Lotta is adorable. Also all these talks about yummy bread and desserts are making me so hungry.
This volume raises more questions about Jean's involvement in the coup. With his aloof personality, he doesn't seem the type to get involved. And even if he is, he's more likely to be a pawn than an active party. Yet his reaction to the events in Suitsu makes his involvement not such an impossibility after all.
Ever since the reveal from the last volume, you would expect a dramatic confrontation or at least some sort of fallout. The way things actually go down is anti-climatic yet true to character for Jean and the other character involved.
Once again, the worldbuilding is fantastic. You can tell Natsume Ono has put so much thought into the ways in which geography can affect food, climate, and trade. There's always been an emphasis on food in this series, but it's on the same level of importance as the main political plot in this volume.
On top of that, I love how cinematic the paneling is. It's easy to see why it's been adapted into an anime.
I've written so much about why I like this volume but ultimately settled on 3 stars, since there's not much story progression. Or more precisely, things are happening but the payoff isn't obvious yet.
plot is really heating up - I love when protagonists tell or learn something that you thought was going to be a secret or source of tension waaayy early in a story, leaving you to be like oh NO, that wasn't the conflict at all... It ramps up the tension in a way I really love
TOAST. IS AWESOME. That's a terrible way to express the intricacies of toast. However, luckily, Natsume Ono has done such a brilliant job, I can get away with just saying READ ACCA13!
That aside, I love how things are set up in a realistic way. There are no obvious flights of exposition or anything. The setting is still amazing. The author really knows how to world-build! I will look into more of her work. This series just gets better and better. Personally I'm glad things have shifted away from the overt action of the first volume, and can't imagine a more natural progression.
hmm the last two volumes have ended with a slight cliffhanger. dropping down to a three because idk its kind of repetitive and there were a few parts i didn’t understand this time. i do like how jean is very chill about everything. part of me is just reading bc the library has every volume so ill be able to read the whole thing before watching the anime (for research purposes) but at the same time its enjoyable and i really do wanna know how it ends.
Yet another amazing ACCA volume!!!! And things are getting interesting!!!!!! (Though I cannot for the life of me see where things are going—there’s so much going on, and so many people involved.)
There is SO much worldbuilding in this series, and it’s like opening a present when Jean goes to a new district, they are all so different, it makes it a unique and interesting adventure each time.
The stuff in Suitsu was bonkers—it reminded me much of the French Revolution, just without the guillotine. I liked Warbler, and I loved Biscuit (namely because of his super fun name.)
The branch director in Birra, Dunlin, while his appearance was brief, he was such a sweetheart. He was cute. I mean, c’mon, who doesn’t love a kind, cheery curly-head? I love that stereotype so much, I have one in my own WIP. (Though Jürgen… He’s clever. And very poetic.)
Oh, can I mention how much I adored learning where some of the Chief Officers are from? Pastis is from Suitsu (it fits him, he’s so vain.), and Grossular is from Rokkusu (where they all look like Grossular…)
Seriously though, they all look like grumpy, long-haired nomads. 🥸 And I can't tell the difference between who's Grossular, and who's not. Nor can Jean. :P
Lilium’s older brother made a brief cameo in this one, Governor Lilium! I was so confused for a second when Pastis greeted “Governor Lilium”, but then it dawned on me, “Oh wait, this is one of the brothers Chief Officer Lilium was talking about at the end of the last volume. Duh.” So yeah, it was fun to meet him. Speaking of Chief Officer Lilium, I loved the part where he and Jean were talking in the car! I like those two together…. They’re almost kindred spirits, in a way. I mean, yes, they have different airs of personality, but they are both caring and want to see justice done. They just have different outlooks at the situation because of their roles. I just…. I love Lilium.
(By the way, will we get more from Chief Officer Spade, I wonder. He hasn’t said anything since volume 1, and those lines were extremely brief. *tries to remember if he even said anything in that one*)
We didn’t get the Rookie hardly at all in this one, but we got the most adorable, most smile-inducing, most innocently hilarious character this series has yet offered: Schwan’s right-hand man, Magie!!!!! What an amusing, precious character he is!!! It was so funny how intrigued he was by the concept of toast, he even bought bread and a toaster to bring home to Dowa to introduce Schwan to the concept. Oh my goodness! 😂. Honestly, I’d rather he be with Lotta than Schwan. (They’re “Bread Buddies” after all! 🤣)
I still cannot tell where Nino’s or Grossular’s allegiances lie…. I NEED TO KNOW!