▪	RELEASED BY:		VIZ MEDIA
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		AYA KANNO
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		200
		▪	RATING:		M
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		12/02/2008
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		12/15/2008
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

It is a short but intense manga series. The assassin without a soul, Zen, returns to the place he first woke up when he had been left for dead ten years ago. He and Hakka go to visit a group of mercenaries that helped him that time. There he turns up a clue about his origins. The insignia of a black flame haunts his fractured recollections. He goes to the place it leads him, but he won’t be alone. Kyrie has been dismissed by the military for his failure to capture Zen. Nevertheless he plans to continue the hunt, even if it means going into enemy territory. He is joined by his ex-fiancée, the blind woman Rian. They, Zen and Hakka will reunite unintentionally in a graveyard that holds part of the shocking secret of Zen’s past, a past best left buried.

At an old abandoned military base, Zen learns the truth, the whole truth and it is an unbearable and merciless thing not unlike the assassin without a past.  The final volume is overflowing with shocking revelations, life and death choices, and the final fate of many of those involved with Zen. In the end Zen decides who he will be and what he will do. From the first volume it was a bleak series, gripping and unrelenting in its portrayal of a man without a sense of compassion, forgiveness or morality. The manga ends in many ways as it began, coming full circle. The answers to Zen’s questions are like bullets, damaging to any they come to. 

IN SUMMARY:
Blank Slate concludes in the final shocking and violent volume!