フラウ・ファウスト（３）

フラウ・ファウスト [Frau Faust] #3

by Kore Yamazaki, ヤマザキコレ

「これは100年をかけた 単純なお話なんじゃないかな」
封じられていた悪魔・メフィストフェレスの足は、まやかしの命を繋ぐために利用されていた……!!
裏で糸をひいていた、もうひとりの悪魔。人ならざるモノとなってしまった少女を止めるためヨハンナは異端審問官ロレンツォと共に戦いに身を投じるが……!?
生き返った不死者と物言わぬ悪魔、
禁忌と再会のダークファンタジー、第3巻!


「これは100年をかけた 単純なお話なんじゃないかな」封じられていた悪魔・メフィストフェレスの足は、まやかしの命を繋ぐために利用されていた……!! 裏で糸をひいていた、もうひとりの悪魔。人ならざるモノとなってしまった少女を止めるためヨハンナは異端審問官ロレンツォと共に戦いに身を投じるが……!? 生き返った不死者と物言わぬ悪魔、禁忌と再会のダークファンタジー、第3巻!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics, Josei, Supernatural, Young Adult

160 pages, Comic

First published July 7, 2016

About the author

Name (in native language) : ヤマザキコレ

Born in Hokkaido. Also known as Yamao Mitsu.

Reviews

[Shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Caitlin ~WordsAreMyForte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is growing on me! Even though Marion is still a bland cookie-cutter protagonist, Faust herself (himself?) is such an intriguing person. You can definitely tell that Yamazaki-San has a thing for humans having relationships with sentient anthropomorphic beings (hence, The Ancient Magus' Bride), since we get another couple like that in this volume. And can I just point out how freaking adorable Nico's homunculus form is!!! How is it possible to draw such cuteness?!?! But seriously, I really like where this story is going; it's always great to get a good backstory/flashback every now and then. Definitely picking up vol.4.

Upon Re-read:
Regarding Sarah's character arc, I believe that during my first read, I majorly misinterpreted who her feelings were directed towards. The goat demon, As, is more like her partner, and now I understand that it was Faust who she truly loved. I loved getting to see the background of Nico's birth and Faust's ragtag team. Marion wasn't all that pleasant in this volume, hence my opinion that he really is unnecessary as a character overall.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review for complete series

I usually like shorter and compact series but I feel as though Frau Faust would have needed to be at least twice as long as it actually is to deliver what it's trying to achieve. As a premise, this is a very interesting series - it's a gender flipped retelling auf Faust and will likely appeal to readers of Yamazaki's other work The Ancient Magus' Bride. It has the same dark undertones and folklore, loveable but also macabre characters and plenty of great artwork to go around, even if the character art itself doesn't appeal to me personally quite as much.

While the premise itself was a good, I found that everything moved too fast and a lot was left unexplained. Given all the other high ratings, perhaps I am just missing the point here but I didn't even understand most character's motivations. I don't understand Faust's motives nor what her exact relationship with the demon Mephisto was about - it is implied that were was romance from both sides yet we didn't get any glimpse into when or how that came about. I don't understand their contract and I don't understand all that Mephisto did afterwards. I never fully understood Lorenzo and Anastasia's situation - I understood that both siblings were trying to protect each other but I don't understand why their aunt felt the need to keep them in check in the first place - I kept waiting for some great reveal about that, especially given that Lorenzo always hides his face, another thing we never get an explanation for. Vito's main motivation seems to be that he wants to help Lorenzo but we never get to understand that to any particularly deep level either. I could go on and on about this for every other character.

It just feels like so much is missing which is a real shame because the idea and characters could have delivered something much better. The ending is also so vague, I have actually no idea what happened. I think I shall sign this off by saying that this series has simply left me confused. If anyone has answers to all my questions, I beg thee please to explain.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today's is on Frau Faust, vol 3 by Kore Yamazaki. It is 154 pages long and is published by Kodansha Comics. The cover has Faust, her daughter Nico, and her demon on it. As it is the third volume in the series, you need to have read the first two volumes to understand the story. The intended reader is someone who likes reimagining classic folk tales. There is no foul language, no sex, and mild violence in this manga. The story is told from third person perspective as moving as the story does. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- Banquet of Blood
Mephistopheles's right leg has been found, and it turns out that a member of the church has been using the leg's blood for nefarious purposes! But behind the scenes lurks another demon. Now Johanna must thrust herself into battle to stop a girl who is no longer among the truly living... Will Johanna and her cohorts retrieve her demon's limb unscathed, or will they become dinner for the undead?

Review- The first story is dealing with the little girl turned demon and getting the right leg back. Then the reader follows Johanna and friends as they travel to the city of Athens where Johanna made her daughter, to get help for her. The rest of the volume is the story of how Johanna made Nico and what happened when she was discovered. Plus the reader meets one of Johanna's friends who has a demon problem of her own. It is very interesting and nice to see Johanna in school and seeing what trouble she got into as she traveled and learned. The church is involved with the demons somehow and I hope that we get some clarity about it before the manga ends in two volumes.

I give this volume a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's action from the first chapter as we have a demon to deal with, that has a heartbreaking background to it, I'm not going to lie. Luckily taking care of it provides the distraction needed for them to escape with Mephisto's limb, so I mean....kind of a win? It all worked out okay in the end and Mephy gets to have one of his missing limbs back.

I'm not going to lie, the people from the Church seem scary and creepier than the actual demons, I'm not really rooting for them but then I don't think I'm supposed to. Although Lorenzo really intrigues me, like why does he hide his face? What's his deal? We get some interesting background on him and his friendship with Vito that just made me all the more curious about him. He's going to be very interesting for sure.

Another little tidbit about Faust and her past is brought to light as we meet her old friend Sarah who's responsible for Nico's body. We get to hear some more of her story as well as finding out more about Nico which I've been hoping for! Her story really doesn't paint the Church in a great light, like it gets worse for them with each volume, I swear!

The intrigue keeps building up and I love how little puzzle pieces get dropped here and there to help you build up Fausts past. The ending of the volume could prove interesting for the next one and I'm anticipating it! We get to meet some new demons in this volume too and they're all interestingly drawn, each of them looks different and they have a nice amount of detail to them. We're slowly collecting up Mephisto's missing limbs and I'm curious about what's going to happen when he gets them all back, and once again I have a million questions!

[Rereader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had forgotten to mention it in my review of volume 2, but the second volume is where the topic if morality starts to affect the church. The church wants Mephisto locked away and Faust to pay for her past crimes, but the manner in which it is going about it is hypocritical. That hypocrisy will hit home hard in volume 4 (spoilers) but it is brought to light in this volume as well. A priest, desperate to "right" his wife's sins and bring back his daughter, makes a deal with a demon. This of course does not go the way he wants it to, but the head Inquisitor's reaction is beyond hypocritical and callous. Obviously the series is going with the whole "the church is just as evil as normal people" but I like how it is done here. The church's rationale for their morality despite using demons is that as long as they are in control of the demons, demons are no different than tools. To them, as long as their goal is "righteous" and they can control the demons they make contracts with, they haven't committed any sins. I like this take on it, and really like how it is handled. Another great addition to the series, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Doc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally flashbacks can be a bit jarring when thrown in randomly including the brief one at the very beginning of this volume but it was not only brief but informative as well as Johanna and the others in the room meet a brand new demon born from the body of the Bishop's daughter and infused with Mephistopheles's blood which dripped from his imprisoned right leg.

We also get to see some of Lorenzo's past and see some of his family members including the ruthless Lady Olga in a memory after Lorenzo and Vito meet up. Later yet we see another flashback showing us Johanna's success at creating Nico with the assistance of the other member of their alchemy club at school and we get to meet a new demon and see the true form of the one hiding as a nun in the church. Of course with Johanna shopping for new parts for Nico I am sure we will see more constructs in Athens' the city of learning.

My fave part is probably when Sarah is about to be cut down and Azazel cuts the assassin down first because he refused to let her die and lose his chance on her soul. Talk about dedication. :)

[Karissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third volume in the Frau Faust manga series. I didn't like this volume quite as much as the previous two. It was kind of unfocused. However, we do meet a lot of great new characters (including new demons). We also get a lot of history on the characters we've already met.

The storyline involving the bishop with the demon child is wrapped up. Our group then travel’s to a new city where we meet one of Johanna’s old friends; Johanna enlists her help to repair Nico’s body. We also get a lot of history around how Nico came to be.

The illustration here remains mediocre; not nearly as detailed as Black Butler or Berserk...but it is easy to follow.

Overall I am continuing to enjoy this historical fantasy/paranormal manga series. It’s easy to follow and has both an interesting premise and intriguing characters. I did think this volume was a bit unfocused and was slightly disappointed in it. I will continue with the series but if future volumes are similar to this one I will probably stop reading it.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Every volume of this series improves a bit over the last. Sarah, the puppet builder, is the best character by far.

The storylines in Frau Faust are split up oddly, with the last chapter of the previous volume's story being the first chapter of this one. Four-fifths of the book is a new plot entirely. Normally this wouldn't bother me but in Faust it feels like this was done for the sole purpose of having a cliffhanger at the end of each volume, rather than story reasons.

[Zian B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

More of a 3.5 star rating but I gave it 4 stars because I really liked meeting and learning about Sarah. She’s seems precious and I hope nothing terrible happens to her after meeting with Johanna again; I also adore her unique dynamic with her demon.
I really like how the events from the previous volume were wrapped up, and in a much darker way than I thought they would end. I also really enjoyed the flashbacks shown in this volume, in connection to other characters aside from Johanna.

[Meakuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Etwas mehr Licht wird auf das Leben der Figuren geworfen, auf der anderen Seite zeigen sich noch mehr undurchsichtige Geflechte. Ich mag den Ziegendämon und das eine queere Person auftaucht. (wobei ich die Aussage "Du kannst nicht mit einem Mann zusammen sein" etwas kritisch bezüglich der Interpretation sehe, vor allem mit dem dazu gehörigen Panel)

[Elaine Ker · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'aime beaucoup les inquisiteurs, leur flashback était chou <3
On a un personnage lesbien, c'est confirmé !

Par contre je vois Johanna comme 100% aro, alors l'attitude glauque de Mephistophéles m'irrite, et ça me rend triste que plein de femmes soient amoureuses d'elle : j'aimerais qu'elles soient heureuses...

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 3 out of 5]

That is a beautiful cover. That art style too. Again. Good volume.

[Kara Jorgensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality has not gone down, but this is a much slower paced volume than the previous two as it is introducing a new arc and revealing info.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dynamics between female characters should be explored more and this volume mentioned quite a lot, which I loved.

[Bee (BacchusVines) · Rating 4 out of 5]

After than ending? I need, need the next book!

[poet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hm.
Gotta have a tragic gay I guess
Can't just have
Like
A happy gay

[DJL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a 3.5 star rating.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as interesting as the previous volume. But I'm interested to see where were headed.

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

With every volume, I'm enjoying this series more and more. I'm almost sad it's only five volumes- Yamazaki's ability to create loveable characters in such a short amount of time is amazing.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of world building and flashbacks in this one. Loving it all!

[Cha.len.novels · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who is all good and all bad?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun continuation, getting into the homunculus a lot

[Erin Sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lesbian angst my beloved

[David Doel · Rating 1 out of 5]

There appear to be people who find this to be interesting, but I'm not one of them. Fortunately, this is my final volume.

[Loz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good! Pretty art, interesting story. Really liked the world building in this volume. And one of the characters introduced. Will keep reading!

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome and amazing story. I love the illustrations. Could've done without the swearing though. Ripped me right out of the story, it was annoying.