As his jail crumbles around him, the warden decides to make Nina and company the targets of the rest of the prisoners. Azure is on the scene, but will his presence be enough to save them? And when Sett decides it’s time to kick some Az, will Nina pay a high price to sate Sett’s bloodlust?
Ah, the little manga that could. This is award-winning shojo and it’s not especially hard to see why. It generally feels good and has a romantic streak a mile wide, while also being about something more than just the basic tropes we’ve come to know and love (if Fortna ends up having a school festival, I assure you, my tears will be visible from space).
After way too much time apart, Az has returned to save Nina and the two of them don’t miss a beat. I mean, the biggest issue throughout this one is how incredibly young Nina looks, but after eight volumes I probably should have mentioned that by now. It says a lot about the way this story lays it’s groundwork that they have such obvious chemistry upon reuniting, which is appreciated. Stuff like this needs to land to make the story work and it really does.
Of course, the converse to that is Sett, who gets a bit more than the usual rival by virtue of being a really jilted dude with a sword. Nina wasn’t exactly leading him on, but their relationship was on parallel tracks rather than heading for an intersection. Except he didn’t seem to realize that until too late.
The showdown at the end is fun because beyond the incredible danger, it shows that Nina’s spirit never flags. She may recognize that people are truly awful, but she wants to try to see the best and make things right. Normally ‘plucky’ is as much a cursed descriptor as it is a bit of praise, but streetsmart yet trying to do the right thing anyway makes Nina truly excellent.
There’s a lot of hint dropping again that Nina is much more than she seems and that little bit of suggestion is really fun. I usually prefer my magic to be a bit more overt, but clearly something is up with the, uh, mice? Whitest rats in Arabia? Something like that.
And the whole prison section is great. I don’t read shojo for high action, but this one gets the job done pretty well (and has some story beats I wasn’t expecting). Plenty of move and countermove and such, with good character moments.
I mean, look, that one pairing happens that we all kind of saw coming and it’s pretty cute. I liked that it was headed that way and finally got there, especially since it really eased off on the raging misogyny of one character.
It’s a dang good volume of a really good series. Nina’s plucky and strong, Az is there to save the day on occasion (heroine who isn’t a total damsel? Thank you!), Sett is a broody mess of emotions. I’m already looking forward to seeing that cliffhanger wrap up, although I think Nina may have made a very wrong interpretation of what was being said.
4 stars - consistent performance is no bad thing, people. This doesn’t blow me away, but it has, so far, maintained an appreciable level of high quality that deserves praise for being consistently good.