vignette00's manga / #supernatural(38)

Half-hearted fantasy involving a royal family who has very specific connections with a certain angel. Predictable with a central conflict, if you can even call it a conflict, that results in a meaningless angstfest for the two main characters. Achille was one-note (naive, enthusiastic, ultimately responsible) and admirably makes a selfless decision to give up love in the third chapter, but even though he's supposedly different from his grandfather Grain, he might as well be just a conduit for Grain to spend the rest of his life "touched by an angel," as it were. This is a solid PWP -- personality, what personality? Meanwhile Raphie seems tormented by an "affliction" and a past traumatic relationship, except neither seem to actual register on his characterization. Maybe he cares about "his affliction", maybe he doesn't; maybe he gives a shit about Grain, but mostly I can't understand why he does, or really if he does. Finish all that off with work-a-day and unremarkable artwork and a worldbuilding that is so light it might as well be transparent, and you get the blah sandwich that is this story.

The story seems simple in the beginning: Legna is an Oracle, a kind of fortune-teller meets courtier for the king (who is himself a teenager). In order to unlock the answer to his most recent dream, one in which someone intends to kill the king, Legna undertakes the Aruosumente, a dream trial where he must match up ten tarot cards with ten people in his life, so that he may turn the wheel of fortune and discover the would-be killer. Except that's where things get tricky. Legna, it turns out, has been living in a little cocoon, completely shielded from the politics surrounding his own position as Oracle, the death of his father, and even the circumstances of Lante, the captain of the Black Guards and one of his fellow courtiers To complete the tarot-matching stage of the Aruosumente, Legna must begin unraveling the years he's spent turning a blind eye towards the complexities of the outside world, and in the process, reevalute his role in the court and the intentions of everyone around him. Aki's art is fluid, simple, and mesmerizing, and her characters are a fascinating mix of expected tropes (the headstrong king, the strict but deadly loyal adviser, the day-and-night twins, the wiley scientist) and unexpected twists. Sometimes the twist is that Aki's not interested in making any one character too good or evil. Legna is loyal, inflexible, trusting, and blunt -- Aki is smart enough to not compromise on any of those traits in an attempt to appeal to the reader. The same with Lante, who starts off as if he's a joker hiding a heart of gold and tears, but turns out to be much more complicated, in part because that characterization is exactly who he is. But where Aki succeeds the most is the knitting together of court intrigue and dream logic. Tarot cards are an easy crutch to lean on, as it adds perceived """depth""" and a pre-constructed way for your narrator to arrange the other characters in the story by traits they may not have yet displayed, but Aki uses it to her full advantage. At every turn Legna turns over another interpretation of the people in his life, especially Lante, and the tarot cards only underscore, never trample, on the plot. Legna goes through his trial like the protagonist in a video game, and part of the appeal of Aruosument is how very much it feels like an open world honeycombed with mysteries waiting for you to discover. Even when the story gets a little too videogamey (a shady conversation with a disgraced character in a dungeon, really?), there's always a little touch of humor or the unexpected. This is Game of Thrones meets Persona-4, and that's 100% meant as a compliment.