Loveless, Volume 7

I have to agree if you haven't read or seen any of loveless, you are clueless. THis is a must have on anyones, really great. and even though i've seen all the anime of this, the manga i wait eagerly for each new one to come. Bought this and now waitting for 9.....the waits for each new book is the only thing bad about this book. btw- I REALLY hope theres going to be another season^^ So i guess what i'm saying is this is a must have, or at there very least must try.

As usual Yun Kouga is a tease. We get a few answers, mostly ones we've already figured out on our own, and a few teasers that raise more questions than are answered. Volume 7 picks up at the beginning of Soubi and Ritsuka's trip to Gora to finally get some answers about Seimei at Septimal Moon. Soubi, as coolly composed as ever shows little fear to be going back to the place he has insisted on never returning. Obviously Ritsuka's order made an impression on him. Perhaps he's really motivated by exacting revenge on Nisei, whom he has sworn to kill, and maybe in the hopes to see Seimei again. Kio comes along, because presumably he's the only person they know with a car, and an adorable and informative tete-a-tete unfolds between the two. Ritsuka finally faces the hard evidence that Seimei isn't the tender person he believed him to be, when Kio recounts evidence of abuse he'd seen on Soubi. Ritsuka makes him strip and sees the evidence for himself. We meet up with the Breathless pair at Septimal Moon who offers up more answers, and Soubi and Ritsu finally have their reunion in what I feel was terribly anti-climatic. The volume ends in the midst of a battle between Ritsuka and Soubi against Nisei going solo. We see that Seimei has no loyalty to anyone, not even his new fighter, and also some more cryptic and disturbing glimpses into his intentions towards Ritsuka. The bonus chapter at the end finishes with an adorable exchange between Ritsuka and Yuiko and then Ritsuka and Soubi that shows Ritsuka coming out of his shell more. The storyline is still slightly convoluted but there's plenty of angst, gorgeous illustrations, and witty dialogue to make up for it. My only real complaints are the various discrepancies such as this volume plays out as if Kio and Ritsuka had never met when they did meet in the end of Volume 2 at Yokohama. And the scars that Soubi reveals, we're led to believe, are just the beloved markings on his neck. Ritsuka has seen them dozens of times in battle. I saw a scanalation of Volume 7 when it was first released in Japan that showed Soubi revealing to Ritsuka the words `beloved' burned into his chest. There was much debate over this as we have seen Soubi topless before and never saw those marks. I think Yun Kouga is inconsistent at times anyway but this is just fantasy so who cares. It's a fun read and I'm already dying for Volume 8 to come out!