michi speaks: Crimson Spell

Mangaka: Yamane Ayano
Status: Ongoing
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Yaoi

Summary:

In order to protect his people from attacking demons, Prince Val uses a demonic sword and curses himself in the process. He leaves his kingdom to find a cure, and his search leads him to Hallwil, the person rumored to be the only one who knows how to break the curse. Hallwil agrees to help Val... for a price.

-mangaupdates.com





My Take:

Last couple weeks ago, I started re-reading Crimson Spell and see how the story goes. As of this date, this manga has been compiled and published into four volumes already. Two new chapters for the next volume has been serialized in Chara Selection (Japanese magazine) last July and September 2011. Judging the story, so far,we are now in its central climax wherein the purpose is to break Prince Val (Valdrigue) from the curse he got in the crimson sword. The sword has been sealed by Val's family for many years but lately, his kingdom has been attacked by demons. He took a risk and used the sword to defeat the demons and later seeks the service from the famed sorcerer, Havi (or Hallwil in previous translations), to remove the curse. The curse is so strong that even Havi admitted that he can't easily remove it by any means: potions or incantations.

Thus, it begun the adventure to find the cure and along the way, we were introduced to several interesting characters like the cute and fluffy sacred rabbit, Ruruka, who can transform into a human form. Yamane-sensei surely knew what characters were added to carry on the plot. There were more sorcerers and a wandering swordsman added that quite make the happenings interesting and fun. These characters, for me, were vital especially since Crimson Spell is being serialized every other two months and Yamane-sensei has to maintain the momentum of the story. Waiting for two months is tiresome and with a busy lifestyle that it get us sidetracked and forgot everything that happened in previous chapters.

One more worthy of praise about Yamane-sensei is her consistency of her drawings. I think she put three times of hard work on her sketches. According to her, it is hard to polish a fantasy manga such as this compared to the contemporary stories she had made before. In all her work, Crimson Spell is the ONLY fantasy manga she made so far. There were supernatural genres she created but this one has the longest plot. I would like to say thank you to Yamane-sensei's editor and publisher for helping to bring out the best ability from my favorite mangaka ^^

My Expectation:

For now, I have nothing to worry about the pace of the story. I think we already passed the stage when Val is going to learn and accept Havi's feelings for him. I guess what I'm looking forward to is for him to become true to himself and his growing feelings for Havi. Though it had been showed in previous chapters that Val realized that its hard to continue the journey without Havi (ohh this breaks my heart!). Havi, on the other hand, is a typical character that once he thinks he is no longer needed by Val, he volunteers to exit from the team. I think that is so cute and childish but I expected him to be more persistent and should have not leave. That's a good twist though. Oh! Yamane-sensei, you're a genius! >.<

I expect that the current volume will be completed next year. I'm not really anticipating this manga to end so soon. Definitely, I want more from this and I'm only afraid of any sidetrack stories will cause to lose focus on the central point of the story. As I conclude, the plot almost reached its climax towards its end. Soon. I think this will finish in 1 to 2 years? There's my two cents. ^^