Zetsuen no Tempest - Chapter 1

Zetsuen no Tempest
by Saizaki Ren
Iron Illness is an epidemic that has killed almost a thousand people in several towns in Japan. Only one person can stop it: the most powerful sorceress: Hakaze Kusaribe. However, she had been trapped in an island by her own kind. But she had found a boy, named Mahiro Fuwa, to help her in stopping this epidemic and in freeing her from prison. It's now upto Mahiro, and his childhood friend Yoshino Takigawa, to save the world.
(There's already a summary for this at Baka-Updates but . . . it's kinda long. Ehehe)

The pretty chapter cover showing the main characters watching a moon-like heavenly body illustrated artistically already screams that this is my type of series~ Haha! Much more when I saw the raw! I have never seen any other manga that has so many butterflies in just one chapter. And you see, I freakin' love butterflies. I'm incredibly bias to butterflies that I sometimes check out shows or comics that has a butterfly in one of its pictures, in its titles, and so on~

I didn't understand what the hell was going on when I was reading it raw, but I was already so amazed. But now that the translation/scanlation is out, it turned out to be even better than I expected!

The story had been very interesting. Yeah, it's the usual main characters saving the world thing, but there aren't much story cliches or something for that sort. In fact, there are a lot of things have been unusual/different here. Like for instance, one of the main guys is in a canon relationship from the very beginning. Even if their relationship seems to be not doing very well, a main character in an official relationship at the beginning in shounen series are seriously rare. It's also not very usual for me to encounter a story with the "chosen one" thing that starts with the main character discovering the power and has troubles at first try but will later do well on it. We were fast forwarded by one month in this manga, and the discover is just shown through flashback. And speaking of the "chosen one" thing; usually the chosen ones suddenly gain that power because of inheritance (in other words, it's in their blood) or because of an unexpected encounter that they had no choice but to do it. While in this one, the main character who got the power actually has a choice of accepting it or not; and it so happened that he accepted it. He only became a "chosen one" in a way because he's the lucky boy who spotted the magical bottle. So in other words, the main character had a choice on whether he would choose to gain the power and go on with this adventure or not. Wow, I am always impressed when I see something different.

The genres of this manga seems to mainly include: fantasy, supernatural, action, adventure, and mystery. I think it has some comedy and drama too, and maybe even romance. I think the genres have been mixed very well. I wish there had been more silliness in this though . . . so that it'll be more enjoyable. Haha! But there had been so many amazing scenes . . . enough to have me very awed and entertained. Well, yeah, even though it's not funny all the time, it does crack some jokes from time to time. Hakaze's usually responsible for that. Haha! But it knows when to be funny and when to be serious.

As for the art . . . it's really beautiful~ I'm enthralled~ The clothes had been pretty fashionable too~ (at least with the main duo) Action scenes are terrific too! It's kinda one-sided for now, but still, they had been so awesome! Heck, if the story's not your type, but bias to art and/or action stuff, then you might still be able to enjoy this manga~ Hehe!

Now about the characters, I believe the main ones are these three: Hakaze, Mahiro, and Yoshino. I think all three of them had been great~

I include her in the short list of leading ladies that I actually admire~ *usually pissed off with shounen leading ladies* She seems to be the most powerful character in the series, but unlike other leading ladies with great powers, she's not helpless enough to need bodyguards protecting her 24/7. She's a strong woman and didn't go in despair mode when she was imprisoned. She's also smart enough to find a way to save herself and do her job even though she can't exactly use her power. I also think she's a fun character~ Heck, she provides most of the comedy in the series. Haha!

Once you see Mahiro show off his powers, one word best describes him: COOL.
The person whom he loved the most is his younger sister . . . and he's doing anything he can to find her murderer . . . I am seriously a sucker for loving brothers. Hehe.

There's nothing special about Yoshino as of now, aside from the fact that his childhood friend now has extraordinary power and he got somehow involved in the case he's in. But for an ordinary guy, I find it cool that he was able to think calmly and find a way to escape when a gun was pointed at him. I don't think he's the type that does combat sports but he was able to disarm a professional (well, she seems to be). I am very impressed with this boy. He's not only brave, but had brains too. It's totally unlike other ordinary guys in shounen series with guns pointed at their faces.

This manga is totally my kind of thing. And I think that I'll be seeing best friend moments from this as well. I love best friends in anime~ I also love the protagonists very much~ And as if I could resist the butterflies! Hahaha!

I think it's pretty obvious that I'm totally following it! Haha! So of course I highly recommend this awesome new manga~