+Anima, Volume 7

This seventh volume of +Anima continues the adventures of the characters introduced in the first volume: Cooro, the cheerfully impetuous crow-winged boy; Husky, the sulky hot-headed mer-boy who can't stand girls; Senri, the silent older youth whose right-arm is that of a bear; and Nana, the chatty bat-winged girl who main defense is her ultrasonic scream. This volume takes up the story as our favorite +anima kids enter the country of Sailand, which is where Husky came from and, we discover, where more of Senri's past lies waiting. Two new characters are introduced: Lady Crystala, a no-nonsense Sailand trader with an upper-class bearing and a seeming soft-spot for +anima, and Daisy, a feisty coyote +anima girl who is Crystala's devoted slave. There are six stories in this volume. The first five are part of one story arc where we find out some things about Husky's past and still more things about Senri's past, most particularly how he came to have the book he keeps pressing flowers in. The sixth story is a story about Senri told in flashback, one that ends on another cliffhanger moment. In "Dark Tunnel", Husky gets seperated from the others in the dark tunnel that leads to Sailand. After getting rescued by Nana, he promises to finally reveal why it is so important for him to go to Sailand. In "Crystala and Daisy", the kids finally enter Sailand and Husky reveals that he has come to see his mother, a Sailand noblewoman whom he hasn't seen since he became a +anima. When Cooro and Nana fly ahead to check out the city, they discover that in Sailand +anima are slaves. They are rescued from the town guard by Daisy, a coyote +anima girl who puts them under the protection of her mistress, Lady Crystala. In "Sailand Law", Cooro and Nana learn that in Sailand all Kim-Un-Kur and +anima are slaves and that they're only safe if they wear Lady Crystala's slave collars. When they fly back to check on Senri and Husky, though, they discover that their friends have been taken by slavers. In "Market", Senri and Husky have been seperated and sent to different markets (we also learn that Husky's earrings mark him as being a son of Sailand nobility, which makes him a more prized commodity). Cooro and Nana meet a band of escaped +anima rebels led by a fierce eagle +anima youth named Kazana. But at the slave market where Senri has been sent, Lady Crystala is there and Senri recognizes her during his auction in a very touching scene. In "Wish", Kazana disrupts the slave auction, calling for all +anima to join his rebel group, Wish, and not to trust Crystala but Daisy and Senri side with Crystala. And learning that Husky has been sent to the capital city of Stella, Cooro, Nana and Senri set out with another trader named Ed to try and get there in time to rescue him. In the sixth story, "Six Years Ago", Ed tells a story of Senri's past and we learn how he first came to be owned by Crystala, who took pity on him, and that she was the one who gave him his book to help him

+Anima 7 is a great manga! Continuing the series, the group of young kids with animal 'gifts' that help them survive in the harshness of the world, follow Husky to his home town where he hopes to find his mother. They encounter a world where individuals similiar to themselves, +Anima, are treated like inferior beings and sold as slaves. Beautiful artwork carries the reader through each page, and before one realizes it, the book is finished and you're eager for the next one!

This was a really good read and added a lot of fun to the series.