Spiral, Vol. 4: The Bonds of Reasoning Volume 4

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning 4 is now the fourth entry in the ever growing Spiral series. Unlike the other book in which the mystery of the Blade Children is trying to be explored, this one attempts to take a turn towards the dynamics between the characters. Spiral 4 continues with the continuation of the events after the previous books in which Ayumu is faced with his first ever loss. The tricky Rio Takeuchi defeated him in a game of life and death and he failed to have full confidence in his choice and made the wrong decision. Because Ayumu is constantly feeling pressured to be as intelligent as his brother, Kiyotaka, he feels crushed. Fortunately Hiyono steps in and begs Rio and Kousuke for a rematch for the sake of Ayumu. Once again she is seen as the one who is to help Ayumu realized his full potential and to try to get him to start believing in himself. Needless to say, through trickery of her own, she is captured and the new game of reasoning begins. Unfortunately, at the end, this new game isn't resolved forcing you to get the next entry in the series. All of the characters in the cast do make an appearance in this one, however the main focus is on Hiyono, Ayumu, Rio, and Kousuke. One of the themes that I love about this book is that it tries to show us that we need to have faith and just believe in ourselves. A reader will see that that is all the characters are trying to get Ayumu to do, but he just cant believe in himself. Fortunately, at the end of the book it seems as if, driven by the fact that Hiyono's life is on the line, that he must believe in himself to save her. We must once again commend Kyo for her splendid writing. Everything whether it be the dialogue between characters, or just the actual monologue that the characters has works well. The only negative thing that some people might see is the fact that when one character says something in one scene, another character, who is in another place, has the same thought. However, I believe that this is how reasoning works in that, in most cases, you can figure out the other persons next move. Though the trump card that is thrown to defeat the other person's move is always amazing in this book and unexpected! Eito Mizuno did a fantastic job with the art this time and kept our favorite characters looking the same. I must commend the addition of the specialized font for some of the scenes with Hiyono for it is always nice to see it. Pros -Book is read in the traditional manga format -Cover art is different than the previous -Characters and scenes are drawn with such quality that it looks like it could be near high quality images of an anime -Suspense is the driver of this story -Nice choice of focus between the four characters -Modern-English Sounding Translation -Ayumu is a pretty amazing character Cons -Must have had to read the book before this one to understand the first chapter -What is the mystery of the Blade Children? -Less extras Extras -Spiral W