Cross

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To begin with each manga has 2 or 3 short seemingly independent stories. The characters etc are the same but each story doesn't seem to affect the following one. They are interesting and each develops fairly well but they are stand alone. This changes in volume 3 however. And whilst the plot development in this manga series is fairly scarce in volumes 1 and 2 it picks up in volume 3 and 4. The short stand alone stories are extended into one story and a main theme seems to develop. The underlying storyline about the relationship between Cross and Matsuri is only minimally built upon, ... enough for it to still be there in the background.

As for character development, in this area Cross does better, but it is still fairly sparse so far. The only character we seem to see develop is Cross himself, the insight into his youth was the most helpful to aid readers to understand this character, but other than that we as readers aren't given much. It's fairly clear that he feels something for Matsuri but the glimpse of this we get is quickly snatched away and one could speculate she feels for him too, but again we haven't seen much.

There are a few things which I feel let this manga down. It has taken a long while to get going and even though the storyline is now constant it still feels slightly disjointed. Hopefully the early stand alone stories will be tied into this new story line to give a wider arc, and make their presence have a point. There's also a lot of action pages, and whilst some enjoy this, I do like to have at least one bit of speech on every page.

That is not to say that this isn't a good manga. There are sections of some really nice writing, and some very pretty artwork which is always nice. The characters hold a lot of potential and this has been a very well researched manga with concepts being brought up that can be quite interesting.

All in all I would say if you don't mind the chapters not completely joining up and you like a little bit of action with occult tendencies, then this is a good read. I would say don't expect to become completely engrossed yet but I'd give it a read.

Nanashi Moriko *Not quite a Cross fan girl but did go out and buy the manga to find out what happens next*

27/05/07