Ranked #603

Zetsuen no Tempest (Manga)

Another great work from the author who made spiral.Zetsuen no tempest is another great battle of the brains manga with two ridiculously smart main characters a dead girl and a stranded girl in a shakespearian play.Yes I know it sounds weird and I can't say much without spoiling anything but the manga is great.You will also see many shakespeare references mostly from Hamlet.Art is great,characters too pretty,and decent story so far.Overall if you enjoyed spiral,death note,case closed or any other mystery manga you'll definitely enjoy this

The story of Zetsuen no Tempest is relatively simple. You have two boys, namely Yoshino and Mahiro, who, along with a girl named Hakaze, try to save the world. The gorgeous artwork combined with a mind-boggling story line and complex characters has made this manga one of my all time favorites.

Story:
What sets this story apart from the infinite number of "heros-who-save-the-world" manga is the sheer planning of the sequence of events. Each scene is beaded together very smoothly and you can tell Arihide Sano put a lot of thought into the order of events. Although the plot starts off rather rushed and messy, it quickly develops into an enticing one that leaves the reader with many questions and yearning for more. I have nothing left to say except that the story is planned out just BEAUTIFULLY.

Art:
What can I say, Zetsuen no Tempest has some of the best art I have ever witnessed in a manga. The refreshing realism of the art is just eye candy. Although it is definitely more realistic than most of the mangas now-a-days, it still retains the soft, bishounen appeal. Although the art does develop to appear slightly more deformed, the change is not entirely dramatic.

Character:
The characters are definitely what made me fall in love with this series. You have your usual seemingly sociopathic, tough guy who wants nothing but revenge and an innocent, seemingly average one.However, Arihide Sano was able to break these two stereotypes by giving them dramatic traits that oppose their surface personalities. Neither of these two characters give off the feeling of being "friends", you can still tell they are still concerned about the latter when they are in genuine danger.
Although for the moment we can only base our judgement of Aika on flashbacks, it is made clear that she is not your typical "chirpy, innocent little sister" character. Her character is definitely a mystery. She is shown to be capable of being quite deceiving and shown to be very observant.
We don't see much development in any of the characters except for Hakaze. However, the characters are dynamic and definitely unique in their own ways.

Overall:
This is definitely a thought provoking series that combines several elements into one. Shakespeare, fantasy, mystery, psychological, action, and so many more. To me, this is a great break from the typical "heros-saving-the-world" mangas. Definitely a 10/10 for me! read more