Govind

This manga has a lot of potential. The art is great, the pacing is excellent, and I really like how it gets us to the main premise so quickly. Even though the book is less than 200 pages, I got a good taste of what is to come. The characters, atmosphere, and feeling of mystery are all done well. Even with these positive impressions, I am giving it a three, as it is just okay. Overall, it is well rounded, but nothing really stands out that much. I enjoyed this volume, but it wasn’t good enough to make me want to go out and buy the next one.

Thank you NetGalley and Kodansha for the advance review copy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC! The art is great, and it's a quick read, but the story has some major drawbacks. There is a totally unnecessary rape subplot, and the character is shown as apologetic to the rapist. They could have avoided that and focused on the relationship between the leads. The book would have been so much better that way. The Russian historical setting, while interesting, is confusing and half-baked. Characters are sometimes shown living longer than they did in reality, mixing fact and fiction without clarification. The presence of a character profile area that doesn’t point this out adds to the confusion. A part near the end explaining the changes made versus reality happened would have helped a lot. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend going out and buying this book, but it’s an alright to read if you are borrowing it from someone.