This book is full of the elements of high drama, if not the logic and setup. Still, it works.
The art of course is stunning and to this day unequaled.
There are no less than 4 heroic deaths of self-sacrifice, and a 5th love suicide. The problem is that none of them make much sense.
The first, Ryuga, kills himself in order to confirm that Ken is the chosen one and relay that message to him. What this accomplishes is hard to say.
Then we have 3 members of the Goshasei who give their lives battling Raoh in order to delay him. But they dont delay him long, the first two are killed in minutes. (This might violate their code of honor, but couldn’t several attack at once?) And it’s not even clear why he needs to be delayed.
Or why Ken needs to meet with their general. Although the scenes are powerful and effective, largely because of the art and the evocation of primal emotions, they would have been much moreso with stronger plotting.
If raoh needed to be delayed for a set amount of time for Ken to arrive (Ken, as usual, is casually strolling about), or recover, or for others to escape. But I can’t see anything the sacrifices accomplished.
There are also a pair of twists. One — Ryuga didnt kill Toki, but only pretended to in order to test Ken’s enraged strength. As mentioned above, this falls flat.
Two — Yuria is still alive and is the general they keep talking about. This twist has a spur of the moment, piecemeal feel to it. Buronson wants to write scenes of high drama but doesnt lay the necessary groundwork for them.
Another example is a flashback to Raoh’s childhood used to establish a connection to Yuria. Apparently she wiped his face and he’s been secretly obsessed ever since. It’s pretty weak and would have needed to have been established long before this.
The most dramatic scene in the book involves a tubby giant jumping into a sandpit to save his adopted children, after their real father tossed them in. It was a creative idea with strong visuals, a sadistic villain, a likeable hero. FOTNS is very good operating on this basic level.
Punishing the crimes of the wicked and depraved is an ongoing theme and it never gets old. The author is quite imaginative setting up these scenes of depravity.
The fat giant is made likable through his gentle nature — carrying Lynn and bat on his shoulders and operating an orphanage for lost children, where he crawls around giving a dozen of them a piggy back ride at once.
So, primal, operatic themes & lack of planning. At volume’s close, the stage is set for a head to head battle between Raoh and Ken over Yuria. This rivalry is the main engine driving the manga so it will be interesting to see where it goes afterwards, or if the duel will once again prove inconclusive.