 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DIGITAL MANGA PUBLISHING | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | REIKO YOSHIHARA / KATSUMI MICHIHARA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | WESTERN / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 150 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | M | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 07/22/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 07/29/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
With Kirie hiding out at Riki’s home, it is only a matter of time before Iason and the all of Eos descends upon both slum mongrels. It was only Guy’s insistence that made Riki turn the other cheek to help the traitor he loathes, so when Katze knocks and demands Kirie, Riki gives him up. Kirie had seen too much and too many powerful people want him, people that Riki could not hope to stop even should he desire it. It was in partial relief that he turned his back on the opportunistic and obsessed betrayer. However, Guy’s lack of understanding of the situation and uncommon sympathy towards anyone in need, no matter how undeserving, drives a potentially irreversible wedge between the two friends. Guy is incensed at Riki giving up Kirie to the authorities while Riki knows his time with Guy is soon to end because he must keep his pact and join Iason again as nothing more than a pet for Iason’s twisted sexual desires. One of the unique things this particular volume offers is an exploration of Katze’s life and personality. It offers some of his back story and quickly becomes a riveting account of a person not only castrated physically, but how he became a eunuch emotionally as well. It is a fascinating psychological portrayal. The state of the lad Kirie had seduced, Kuger’s son and heir to Guardian, Manon, is left catatonic, utterly unhinged by the horrors he saw with Kirie. Kuger’s attention to his son eclipses his grasp of his now unstable role as leader of Guardian might affect them all. What unrest may yet occur remains to be seen. Riki’s return to Iason is fraught with enemies and an unusual twist. He was once a pet to Iason for three years, then returned to the slums only to be caught up again in Iason’s grasp. The Machiavellian plotting of Iason can be difficult to fathom, but his attentions to Riki border malicious to obsession, even, almost, a sadistic tenderness. It is unheard of to have a slum mongrel as a pet. Readers find out that it is also unheard of to have a matured pet, showing that the sex slaves of Midas are young only, further deepening the horror, debauchery and immoral state of the elite. What is even more unheard of, even impossible, is the idea that a Tanugara Blondy could have feelings for a slum mongrel, yet it would seem that perhaps, just perhaps, that is exactly the dangerous situation evolving between Iason and Riki. Why is it so dangerous? Iason is not without his own enemies. As cool and calculating as he is, Raoul is deeply troubled by what he sees transpiring between Iason and his pet. He deems it a threat to life in the Palace Tower and all of Eos. The one who rules Eos, Orphe, is also keeping a close eye on things and he does not seem happy with the situation or Iason’s schemes. Two very powerful enemies to have, yet Iason continues to provoke his fellow Blondies at every opportunity. It is his nature. His full objectives are still not fully known, they are in part perhaps a mystery to him as well, for he does not understand his reactions to Riki, just as Riki does not grasp the full extent of his compulsion to be with Iason. This volume mends on an ominous note with Kirie, trapped in a maze of complete and absolute darkness except for a mystifying sphere that becomes something astonishing. Has Kirie finally succumbed to madness or is there more afoot in this science fiction exploration of human desire at its most extreme and corrupt?
IN SUMMARY:
It is a volume of insights and atrocities in the latest gripping installment of Ai no Kusabi. |
