Shrine of the Morning Mist, Vol. 3

by Hiroki Ugawa

Yuzu and her sisters are miko priestesses at the Asagiri Shrine and they must keep the spirit world in balance.

Genres: Manga, Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 9, 2007

Reviews

[Denise みか Hutchins]

I probably would have given this volume a solid five-star rating if I didn’t feel so confused after finishing.  The art was still a bit annoying, anatomical-proportion-wise, but it was easily ignored thanks to the jovial humor and robust action.  Unfortunately, that clash is one of several reasons I feel confused when trying to express my reaction this entry in the series.  When I started into this book, there were a lot of plot elements from the previous volume that I just couldn’t remember—which I attribute to the last volume’s feeling of skipping over important developments instead of giving them time to be absorbed by the reader—so I was lost as to what was happening in the beginning of this volume.  Towards the middle, I started to feel more secure and was able to get properly into the story but then all hell broke loose.  While I really enjoyed the fast-paced and extremely intense action scenes, it was like everything was all over the place and all I could do was turn the page to escape the visual overload.  It’s simply weird for me to experience this feeling while reading manga; I’ve never had so much trouble understanding what I’m seeing or what the characters are doing or what the plot is supposed to be developing into.
 
The author of this series seems to want to tell the audience things only once and move forward with the understanding that it’s the reader’s responsibility to remember.  If I can keep that in mind as I continue with this series, which I intend to do, I will probably enjoy it more.  After all, I felt the need to choose between 4 and 5 stars for this volume, not between 3 and 4.  Even confused, I still enjoyed my time reading