This is one of those books that plops you down in the middle of the action without explaining anything, then drops bits and pieces to help you catch up. Except, by the end of the first volume, there haven’t been enough details dropped to really be able to piece the whole thing together.
The plot, as near as I can tell, this that there’s a magician serial killer loose in Hong Kong. The style of his murders has resulted in his being labeled “Jack the Ripper.” The killer, it seems, is a renegade of the Guino Clan, and is murdering women in a form of magic that lets him use their blood and entrails to see the future. The Guino Clan, in response, sends Carno, a young magician who is more than a little wild, and doesn’t have good control over his powers or strength. Accompanying him is his “sister,” Roselite, who raised him and has looked 10 years old since Carno was five. Or seven. I think the translation actually says both. Jack’s current target is a young woman named Monica, who he and his underling have been purifying, but she’s rescued by Carno and Roselite. For now. We’ll see how that goes.
There are also modern Knights Templar, which is a secret weakness of mine. They find Carno after the As Yet Unexplained loss of his biological family. The Guino Clan is apparently not a clan in the biological sense, but more a collection of magic users. According to the cover blurb, they also live in another dimension. That isn’t explained in the book itself, but it helps explain a few things. Several times, I thought the book was actually saying Roselite is actually dead, but I’m not sure. The volume ends with the storyarc still underway, so I assume I’ll know one way or the other by the end.
Oh, and “Jack” gives his underling his eye. By somehow turning it into goo that comes out of his mouth and enters his underlings eyesocket. Except it may not have originally been a real eye.
Carno is also apparently only one of two main protagonists, with the other one not showing up this volume.
Is this a confusing manga? Yeah, pretty much. Things are clearer by the end than they are in the beginning, but still not cleared up enough to completely say what’s going on. Apparently, CMX realizes this, and pretty much details out what we can expect to be explained in the next volume. It’s also pretty interesting, with an apparently complex mythology, plot, and system behind it, and has interesting characters. And Carno’s Super Power (and what’s been revealed of his nature and origin) alone is enough to warrant reading at least a little more. One thing I did find extremely offputting, though, is that the volume starts off with a woman being murdered, and the displaying her body in a somewhat sexualized pose with her chest spread open, and her insides pulled out.
And this, I think, ends the adventures in new CMX shoujo. (I actually would have thought this one was shounen, just reading it, but I’ve checked several places, and they say shoujo.)
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