Crimson Wind is the follow up to White Guardian, which I reviewed just recently so you may want to read that review first if you have yet to read White Guardian. I’m going to be honest here. I had some issues with this volume, which surprised me because I really liked volume 1 of the Landa Series. The story starts out with our main characters, Linth and Sei and what I feel is probably the best scene in the whole volume and the only scene Linth actually appears in. The beginning of this volume really delves into Linth’s insecurities about Sei’s past relationship with Touri. Since Sei and Touri are both senior members of the kingdom, they still have to interact with each other and there are clearly unresolved feelings. This is all fine and good but the writers decide to deal with it by going into flashback mode to explain to us (and Linth believe it or not) how Touri and Sei met and SOME of what happened in their past. I don’t have a problem with the flashback. My problem is that by the end of the book, we are never brought back to the present with Linth and Sei so his feelings never get addressed. I understand that this is supposed to be an ongoing series so additional books should be coming but I thought this was such an odd way to leave this volume. I felt cheated and rather irritated that instead of bringing the story back to Linth and Sei, they decide to end it with a side story with two completely different characters in another land nearby. It really feels like they were rushed for time or desperate to get this book out so they just threw it together.

All that aside, the flashback to Sei and Touri’s past is nice as Sei now becomes the uke instead of the seme and Touri is the aggressor. It’s cute to see Sei so much younger and less experienced. However, there are still many unanswered questions stemming from this volume and White Guardian. White Guardian ends with this “mystery” person from Agore who instigated the attack on Landa and appears to be setting up a future story regarding this whole incident but nothing is addressing in Crimson Wind. Also, both White Guardian and Crimson Wind talk about this person Sei lost that meant so much to him yet we still do not know who it is or what happened. If you have a consistently produced series, then a cliffhanger is doable, but Duo Brand isn’t exactly doing that. White Guardian was first released in Japan in 2003 and Crimson Wind was 2005, two full years later. That’s too long in my opinion to be leaving so much hanging in suspense. I have no idea if there is an additional volume to be released so knowing that I would have to say buy at your own risk. I think this could be a great series if there was better consistency but as it is right now, I think it is a gamble to get too involved with these characters.  

Character Design = A

Plot = C+

Translation = A+

Sex = A-

Illustrations/Book Design = A-

Overall Grade = B+ (normally these grades would warrant an A- but I feel the issues with the plot justify knocking this down to a B+)

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White Guardian is the first book of the Landa Series and is written by Duo Brand, which is the team of Haruka Akatsuki and Nobuyoshi Watanabe. This story is about the kingdom of Landa, which is surrounded by water and therefore has the largest navy in the world. One of the navy’s great commanders is General Sei and is one of our main characters. The story starts out in the middle of a battle at sea where unbeknownst to our general, the prince of Landa, Prince Linth Highwind Belc Landa IV is masquerading as one of his new ensigns. Needless to say, the General ends up having to come to his rescue and gives him a good ear chewing. Afterward, the prince decides to pay the general a visit in his private quarters to thank him for saving him and to apologize. What he doesn’t expect is that the general plans on taking him as thanks. The scene is played out as a rape scene; however, our prince (Linth) has had his eye on Sei since he was quite young so he doesn’t put up much (or any) resistance. Linth reveals his royal lineage and brings Sei back as his aide to help clean up the corruption running rampant throughout the kingdom. Keep in mind that this is merely the introduction to the book. The story delves further into their budding romance, which faces some conflict at the appearance of a past lover and an impending invasion by a nearby kingdom.

 
I really like the character design in this one. Each character is completely different from the other, they are all manly and our General Sei comes complete with facial hair and a scar, which makes him ruggedly handsome. I also love how the general’s eyes are done and how his smile is drawn. It is very unique and makes him very sexy. The plot is a good one and is also different from your usual yaoi fare, so that’s a nice touch. The sex is plentiful and though not overly graphic it is graphic enough to earn its 18+ rating. There are six sex scenes in all and not all based on our main couple. Once scene is a rather graphic rape scene (not the initial one I discussed above either) but it does set the stage for a nice “healing” scene later in the story so it was worth reading through. The illustrations are nice but could use a little work regarding human anatomy in general. The translation to English was nicely done and there were no hiccups to be had in the story. It is a definite add for the serious yaoi collector and was satisfying enough for even this hard yaoi enthusiast’s tastes. The follow up to this story is Crimson Wind and has already been released.

 
Character Design = A

Plot = A-

Sex – A-

Illustrations = A-

Translation = A+

 
Overall Grade = A-

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