

The characters’ various roles, such as mage, knight errant, and artist, aren’t yet fully fleshed out, but this isn’t the cause of much confusion. Balgyary, talking feline royalty, is another cool character, although he has yet to receive much depth. Their dynamic drives a lot of the conflict, so it’s good to see them developed so much early on. The majority of the page-time is devoted to developing Siluca and Theo’s personalities and relationship, which is an effective choice on Yotsuba’s part. This volume does a good job introducing a fair amount of characters and lore without overwhelming the reader with too many fantasy words and concepts right off the bat. Does Record of Grancrest War get off to a good start? The series’ debut volume collects its first six chapters, which introduce the core cast and some basic lore. It’s written and drawn by Makoto Yotsuba, and based on a novel series written by Ryo Mizuno and illustrated by Miyuu. Record of Grancrest War, published by Viz Media, recently caught my eye as a fantasy manga with potential. I’ve delved into more horror and boys’ love, but one genre I still haven’t read much of is fantasy. Over the past year I’ve tried to expand my manga reading beyond just popular shonen series.
