Night of the Beasts Vol 5

[meganbmoore]

This volume was mostly about the history between Mikage, the priestess who founded Aria's line, and Kagara, the demon who killed, and was killed by, Mikage 400 years ago.  Now, here's the thing:  I like the "enemies as lovers"  bit, but very conditionally.  As a general rule, you have to convince me that no, nothing about the plot could possibly work without it, such as in Basara, for it to work.  That Romeo and Juliet "oh, woe, our families hate each other and instead of using our brains and dumping them, we will angst a lot and then kill each other" stuff isn't my thing.  At all.  (Side note:  I don't really call the "oh, I've heard so much bad stuff about you that I'll reject you until you prove that you're not so bad, or at least willing to make really dramatic gestures for me that usually involve a trail of dead or unconscious bodies" bit "enemies as lovers" as it's more "bad boy/good girl" most of the time.)

There is, however, one time I'll almost always fall for it:  when you bring in reincarnation and make the "enemies" part against the will of the principles. Siblings/friends/lovers/whatever forced into being enemies due to that pesky past lives things almost always works for me.  And since Night of the Beasts is centered around that, Japanese mythology and a strong heroine, it's no wonder I love it so. 

The backstory of Mikage and Kagara both did and didn't play out the way I expected it to, if that makes sense.  Let's face it, there are, after all, only so many ways you can have the priestess's bloodline carrying both the priestess's guardian spirit and the demon, with their eventually being born in her descendants.  Though, ah, I'm not quite sure how they went about it.  Though it could have been one of those post-death creation things.  Still, as in most mytholoft-based stories, the point is getting there, not where you're going.  Shiomi should be applauded, though, for managing to portray Kagara as a viscious, vengeance driven killer, and as a sympathetic character.

That said...is Shiomi actually going to manage to work in a happy ending here?  Seriously?  Not, mind you, that I'm remotely complaining about a happy ending, but I had pretty much pegged it as "Aria saves the world from Kagara, but has to kill Sakura in the process as Kagara, you know, lives in Sakura's body."  Then again, her goal has been more saving him than saving the world all along, anyway.

There was also(as I suppose Shiomi didn't write QUITE enough to fill 6 full volumes) a backup story called Song Road that was basically a fun post-apocalyptic thief-hunt road trip with a side of romance.  It was good, but I mostly bring it up because I want to comment on the fact that heroines named "Yuri" always crack me up.  Especially when they land the cute boy.