Pandora Hearts Volume 4 - Mobile Edition

Manga
Pandora Hearts Volume 4
By Chris Zimmerman
March 9, 2011 - 10:38

Yen Press
Writer(s): Jun Mochizuki
Penciller(s): Jun Mochizuki
Letterer(s): Alexis Eckerman
ISBN: 978-0-316-07611-1
$11.99 US

For all its flaws, Pandora Hearts continues to keep the audience’s attention with its assortment of crazy characters and Victorian era settings. Despite the slow progression of the plot, Jun Mochizuki manages to pack in enough twists to prevent reader’s interest from waning.

This volume invites us into the Cheshire Cat’s home. Full of abnormal imagery such as flowers sprouting from the ceiling, upside down stair cases, and faces protruding from the ground, the over the top scenery allows Mochizuki to unleash her artistic flair.

Following that, Oz and Gil take a trip into another dimension, where the pair find themselves assaulted by the Cheshire Cat. The battle is broken up between different scenes involving multiple characters that give us several shocking revelations, none of which I’ll spoil here, though I will say, we get a glimpse of what took place between Oz and the Vessalius family.

Even with all the big reveals and teases, Pandora Hearts still suffers from a poorly paced plot. With four volumes and counting, the story still hasn’t made much progress. The narrative feels as though it’s being written on the fly with no clear direction, which is never a good thing when you’ve introduced a mystery as complex as that of Oz’s exile to the abyss.

While the series seems to be killing time, one can’t knock the fact that its shown improvement. As slow as the plot progression is, the development of the characters coupled with the slow reveal of their pasts is enough of a hook to keep readers coming back. Still, there’s only so long that can last before readers realize Mochizuki is just digging a deeper rabbit hole for herself.

Rating: 7/10