Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning, Vol. 09

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning #9

by Kyo Shirodaira, Eita Mizuno (Illustrator)

Kanon is startled by the sudden arrival of Madoka Narumi, but not so much as to shake his aggressive offense. Still, it's enough to give Rio the chance to rescue the captive Ayumu. Free at last, Ayumu must face the difficult decision that lies before him. Is his only option to kill Kanon? As the Blade Children fall back and lick their wounds, Ayumu must find a solution to end Kanon's reign of terror once and for all, even if it means becoming a murderer himself.

Genres: Manga, Mystery, Shonen, Comics

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 22, 2003

Reviews

[Shin Donghae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Masih arc-nya Kanon. Namun jilid ini penuh dengan deduksi terkait kemampuan Kanon, Terkesan dipanjang2kan padahal sangat simpel.
Semoga yg dipanjang2kan ini berujung manis dan terbayarkan pada jilid berikutnya utk aksi penyelesaian Ayumu vs Kanon

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume is still tackling the Kanon-arc. Kanon has taken Ayumu hostage in the school and it opens with Kanon facing off with Ayumu’s ‘big sister’ (his sister in law, the police detective who married Kiyotaka). She and the Blade children trying to take Kanon down and capture him without killing him. After an unbelievable amount of damage, that no one seeks help for, is delivered to both sides, Kanon escapes to the outside of the school.

However, his only goal is to get back inside and make Ayumu kill him because that’s what Kiyotaka predicted would happen and none of these kids seem to think they can do anything but what ‘god’ predicted. Of course this gives Ayumu the perfect opportunity to doubt himself some more and feel like he has no choice but to do what his brother wants.

In fact, the only one of them who has other ideas is Hiyono, the school news reporter who is obviously taken with Ayumu. While the Blade children have gone from trying to kill Ayumu themselves to trying to exalt him to a higher intellectual status than his brother, Hiyono argues that Ayumu didn’t think this through. She plans on stalling Kanon for ten minutes to give Ayumu time to think up a plan that doesn’t include him becoming a killer, an idea that Madoka accepted almost too passively for me, given who and what he is. Hiyono is the only one thinking out of the box and she’s willing to take her stalling tactics as far as they need to go to help Ayumu.

The rest of the volume involves all the mental twisting Ayumu, Madoka and the Blade children give the problem of how to handle Kanon. The mangaka even apologizes after the volume for having such a static series of chapters, admitting that people sitting around and talking might not be well suited for such a visual medium. Unfortunately all that talking doesn’t get us any closer to learning who the Blade children really are or what Kiyotaka wants from Ayumu.

[Selena Pigoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though much of this volume was deduction, the way in which it was paced and the visuals made it a real page turner.