Manga Review – Sacred Blacksmith Vol 2 by Isao Miura and Kotaro Yamada (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Manga
Length: 192 pages
Publisher: Seven Seas
Release Date: August 6, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1937867652
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd volume in the Sacred Blacksmith series
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars
“The Market Festival has come to the city of Housman, where a fabulous blade known as the “Demon Sword” is put up for auction. Recently knighted Cecily Campbell’s newest mission is to guard the sword at all costs. There’s just one problem: the sword has the mysterious ability to transform into a beautiful woman known as Aria.
Still, it’s all fun and games at the festival, and Cecily and Aria become fast friends–until a huge fire demon appears! The demon will stop at nothing to steal Aria, even if it means reducing the entire city to ashes. Can Cecily and her companion Luke–the Sacred Blacksmith–save the citizens of Housman from a rampaging demon and its master plans?”
This is the 2nd book in the Sacred Blacksmith series. I didn’t like this book quite as much as the first one. I did enjoy the introduction of the Demon Sword and some of the revelations around demons.
However, the focus of this book was very….busty to say the least. There seems to be a huge focus on the “strong” female characters nearly bursting out of their cloths; as well as a nice nude scene of a supposed young girl to start out with (sarcasm here). I don’t mind nudity, but I got sick of how disproportionate some of these women are…I am also not a big fan of child nudity portrayed in a sexy way.
The main heroine is still fairly ditsy (although a bit better than the first book). Luke (who the author blatantly admits to putting on the cover to get more female audience for his manga….nice) doesn’t have a ton of page space; although he does remain my favorite character in the series.
The drawing is good but not great. It’s easy enough to follow but there’s not a ton of background detail in some of the scenes.
Overall an okay addition to the Sacred Blacksmith series. I am not super thrilled with the characters or illustration in here but the story is getting more interesting. I am going to read the next couple books in the series because I already have them and then after that we will see. I would tentatively recommend to those who enjoy fantasy manga.
This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
