07-Ghost Volume 2 cover image

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Once there were two rival empires:  the Barsburg Empire and the Raggs Kingdom.  Barsburg destroyed Raggs.  Teito Klein, a former slave and orphan, discovers that his father was the King of Raggs.  Once a cadet at the Barsburg Empire Military Academy, Teito hides in the Barsburg Church of District 7, where three bishops and seven legendary ghosts seek to affect his destiny.  With the divine magical jewel, the Eye of Mikael, in his possession, Teito seeks to uncover the secrets of the murky past – his own and the world’s.

As 07-Ghost, Vol. 2 opens, Teito fights off an attack from Mikage, the friend who freed him from imprisonment in Barsburg Empire Military Academy.  But Mikage is not himself.  Will he risk himself to save his best pal, Teito, again?  Later, Teito begins studying and training to take the bishop exam.  He meets a classmate, Hakuren Oak.  Is he rival, friend, roommate, two of the three, or all three?

THE LOWDOWN:  The 07-Ghost manga is the debut work of the creative team of Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara.  The deficiencies and rough edges of the first volume made that obvious.  I found 07-Ghost Volume 1 overstuffed with characters, subplots, and back story, and the action frantic and unkempt.  With each chapter, however, the creators are sanding the rough edges, and in 07-Ghost Volume 2, the story is a lot smoother and makes more sense.

I found the art in the first volume to be “a maelstrom of heavy inks and chaotic page design.”  The graphical storytelling has calmed quite a bit from the first time.  The composition is still too much high energy, which makes it difficult for consistently coherent storytelling.  But 07-Ghost shows potential to get better.  It must have improved at some point, as the manga yielded an anime series a few years ago.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for shonen military fantasy will want to try 07-Ghost.