Interesting take on political intrigue by the hand of Natsume Ono, one of my favourite mangakas. Fully recommended to those who liked the masterpiece that is "Saraiya Goyou", along with those who liked "Pumpkin Scissors" or "Taihou no Stamp".

No spoilers ahead.

First things first: Excuse my poor english.

Story 8/10:

VERY character focused. A story with a simple premise, that later on gets more complicated, but not to the point of being extremely convoluted.
It does not overload the reader with characters, motivations and unnecesary exposition about what's happening; everthing is explained in a few words when it must, and most of the dialogue is fairly natural, no exposition for the sake of advancing the story among characters who know what's happening already.
Most of the thrill actually comes from not knowing who knows what and who's lying and who does not.
If you are looking for action, tho, you must look some other way. It's practically inexistant.

Art 7/10:

Following the typical artstyle of Natsume Ono. Some will find it weird, but i find it soothing and stimulating at the same time. I specially like the expressions, most of the work woes into these and it shows. It's one of the few mangas that have going back time and time again to particular drawings just to try to find exactly what's the meaning behing this or that stare. The rest is mostly secondary.

Character 8/10:

Mysterious characters with untold backstories and interesting but not readily apparent motivations populate it's pages. There are hardly any characters in the entire manga that one would calify as "bad people", and none outright evil.

Most of the main characters get developed along the story, not because they change during it a lot (It is not a long story) but because you discover more about their intentions, clarifying past doubts about why they do what they do.

Enjoyment: 10/10.

This being the most personal section, I must say I love this kind of story. I just put some piano (Max Richter, I am looking at you) and read the whole thing in one go.

Overall:

Truly recommended. It's an intelligent, pleasant work, worthy of any library, be it composed of mainly manga or otherwise.

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