0 no Soukoushi
Parfum Extrait 0

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Parfum Extrait 0 is a short manga by Kaori Yuki. Kanede is a perfumer with a heightened sense of smell and great detective skills. Kanade’s keen sense can cause him to have sensory overloads and he maintains a strict diet in order to maintain his sensory advantage. Besides his excellent sense of smell, he is very observant and notices things others cannot. He meets up with his cousin after saving her from a group of men sexually harassing her and mistaking her as an American due to her Western appearance. They work together to solve mysteries as they unintentionally get caught up in a ... strange events.

The concept of the story was interesting but unconventional for a manga. Each chapter is 3 separate mysteries so they can be pretty easy to understand. The mysteries they encounter are bizarre and unusual. Unlike the characters often seen in Kaori Yuki’s works, Kanede and Anais aren’t dark and brooding, but are quite charming and pleasant. There is some symbolism as well as different scents can refer to different emotions or actions. One scent can be either death or another can be love.

The art style is really detailed and the characters are well drawn as is expected of any Kaori Yuki work. The atmosphere has elements of suspense and mystery a fair bit of levity. Both characters have really excellent chemistry with one another especially considering the fact that are cousins. Anais is more down to earth and laidback in comparison to her serious and passionate cousin. She often has to correct him whenever he tends to get ahead of himself. Anais can be a bit ditzy at times and too impulsive for her own good. The dialogue is pretty good as well.

It’s a fairly short story but it does its best to cover as much plot development as it can possibly can. The plot does tend to be disjointed, rushed and somethings weren’t explained in full. Because of the brief story, the characters were not fully fleshed out and this was a bit unsatisfactory, mainly because Kanede and Anais were so likeable. Parfum Extrait 0 would have been so much more enjoyable if it was longer. However, it was still an excellent read and highly entertaining.

Story: 7/10
A perfumer that plays the role of detective by using his amazing knowledge of scents and sense of smell, you have to admit this is at least an interesting premise. Unfortunately the mystery (the cases itself) is a little bit on the weak side, undermining a great protagonist.

Art: 8/10
Fantastic art-style. The characters look good and the scenes are clear on what's going on.

Characters: 8/10
Intriguing main character and interesting heroine. Overall these 2 are what carry the whole manga.

Overall (8/10) and conclusion:
Great characters and a innovative idea. I will be looking at the author's other works.

Overall, not an unpleasant read. I appreciated the unique angle - a perfume maker with a keen sense of smell (unintentionally) using his skill and olfactory senses to solve mysteries. I think that this could have gone a lot farther than 3 chapters and I am sad that it didn't. Honestly, even though while reading I was thinking "man, this is kind of stupid", I still quite enjoyed it.

The character development was non-existent, as to be expected in such a short story, but you get the sense that there are some interesting backgrounds that could have been explored had the work run ... longer.

The art was ok - there were a couple of pages that made me stop because something felt slightly off - a misplaced eye on a face, etc. - and the main character's (Kanade) art wasn't consistent.

In terms of the story, it just really doesn't go anywhere. It can't. It's 3 chapters long. There are so many things hinted at that will never be explained and that is incredibly annoying.

Would I recommend it? Surprisingly no, despite the fact that I basically liked it. The reason is simply because of the shortness of the work. No, you don't have to invest a lot of time into it, but beware that you are likely going to be left unsatisfied.