Subject: Manga Reviews: Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, vol. 1 | Author | Messages | Billy Aguiar
Posts: 84
 | Posted: 9/25/2007 9:09:01 AM | Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, vol. 1
Seven Seas
$11.99, B/W, 216 pages, Available Now!
Story and Art by Ei Itou
Rated for 16+
Reviewed by Billy Aguiar
2 1/2 Stars
In Victorian London, the nun Sister Meg and her young charge Angela hunt down demons as agents of the Church. Angela has the advantage in that pursuit in that despite her youthful appearance, she is much older and eternal, surviving wounds that would instantly kill anyone else, at the cost of her soul. In this first volume we are introduced to Meg, Angela and the Scotland Yard detective that learns over the course of the volume to merely stay out of their way. They also recover a cursed Japanese sword which leads them to a magical confrontation with a Japanese sorcerer who is rather bloodthirsty in her efforts to recover items that had been stolen from Japan, while by the end of the story Meg and Angela have to face a different cursed weapon to get a replacement for one that was destroyed earlier in the volume.
This is part of Seven Seas Strawberry line, which is intended for yuri titles, ones that focuses on or at least have female to female relationships. I would consider that a stretch for this volume, though of course things may change in later ones, since the level of closeness in this volume is the same you would find in many other manga volumes. Since Angela is basically unkillable and kept artificially young by her lack of a soul, there are a lot of scenes of her in adolescent clothing being ripped apart or covered in her blood until she is in position to strike the killing blow. The characters are balanced in that Angela is the killing machine that is needed to defeat the demons but Mega is needed for all the normal day to day activities that they need to do so that Angela is dependent on, even envious of Meg, But there isn't much more than that (I don't consider the bathing scene that naughty, I may be showing my jadedness) so this has to be looked along the lines of a slasher horror manga, and in that area it is a solid title, but nothing truly out of the ordinary yet.
This volume has a slightly larger format that Seven Seas is using for at least some of their Strawberry line titles.
This is a weekly manga review here on the CBG site, but don’t forgot to check out my other review site, Prospero’s Manga for more manga reviews.
www.gomanga.com
Vol 1. ISBN: 1-93316-458-1
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