Bryce's Blog

I hope everyone is doing well, even if you are not looking forward to
any of the festivities to come later in the month.

Things are still a
little rough for me, but I am doing better and still glad that I can
do as I like.

A while back, I
noticed that a series I had been slacking off with had finally
resumed publication here and managed to secure of a copy of the
latest volume.

Today, I will be
reviewing that title, which is called The
Case Study of Vanitas Volume 10 by Jun Mochizuki.

As I have given a
series synopsis in an earlier
post, I will not go over it again.

After Domnique got
taken hostage, Noé and Vanitas have been forced to fight at the
behest of Mikhail, with the intention of having Vanitas come back to
him.

However, when
settles, more questions arise.

While the previous
volume was a bit of a let down, mainly due to things being not as
exciting because things progressed as they did in the anime
adaptation, that does mean that things are guaranteed to be terrible,
so I have to try and remind myself that things have not gone downhill
at this point.

After reading this
volume, I have to say that I liked it quite a bit, though still not
quite to the extent that I would have liked.

From the moment that
I opened up this volume and started reading a few pages, I found
myself engrossed enough in that I did not want to stop reading it.

As I have said
countless times before, one of the most important things in a work of
fiction is how thing begin, as the beginning is supposed to transport
the reader to another world, thereby giving them the temporary escape
that they desire.

While this can be
accomplished in a vary of ways, depending on the genre and the medium
used to present it, The Case Study of Vanitas, like other
manga, is published in a serial publication, which means that things
need to start off in a way that makes sense based upon how the
previous installment ended.

In the last volume,
Mikhail demanded Noé to drink the blood of Vanitas or Domique would
die, to learn about what happened to Luna, which ultimately led to a
clash between Noé and Vanitas and the final panel suggesting that a
decisive blow may have been dealt.

Here, in this
volume, things start with a bit of a flashback and then pick up from
that moment of the seemingly decisive blow, which did capture my
interest and kind of reminded me of what had happened, even if I do
not find it that much exciting because things have still pretty much
gone the way they did in the anime adaptation.

If things had not
started off here, there would have been a chance that things would be
more interesting to me, seeing as the meeting between Xai and Oz in
volume
22 of Pandora Hearts was so much better than it was in the
anime, even though the anime encounter happened first, but it could
have also gone very much wrong because I do not see how this volume
could have started in any other way.

Fortunately, both
Jun Mochizuki and Square Enix, or whoever they had compile this
volume, decided to start things off on such a good note.

Hopefully, future
installments will be able to start things off just as well as this
one did, but considering how much time had passed between the release
of volume
8 and the previous volume, I would not be surprised if a good
beginning like this does not excite me, especially if the anime
adaptation resumes once there is enough material.

I also liked how the
whole amusement park incident concluded.

Even though I was
not particularly fond of this part of the series, mainly due to how
it took 2 years for the official English volume release of this
series to continue and how faithful the anime adaptation was, there
was something here that I really enjoyed.

Once the fight
between Noé and Vanitas came to an end, with Domnique agreeing to
jump from the ferris wheel, Mikhail loses control of his book of
Vanitas and it begins to eat him, but before Vanitas could do
anything, a person that Domnique calls grandfather and Noé calls
teacher appears, saying that he was shown something that was
satisfying to him.

While things were
still playing out much like they did in the anime, I found the
appearance of Noé’s teacher to be a whole lot more exciting here
because the man, who wants to now be called Comte de Saint Germain,
came off as a much bigger mystery and far more dangerous in this
volume by the way Jun Mochizuki portrays things, which is helped by
that panels being black and white.

I want to know who
this man that has the moniker of shapeless one really is and what his
intentions are, seeing as he likely has no regard for living beings
because he let Mikhail do as he pleases and only stepped in now to
prevent him from going through what had possibly happened to Luna.

If this was
practically a one for one shot of the events of the anime, right down
to the artistic choices in portrayal, like how the fight from before
felt, I think I would have been greatly disappointed because I can
tell this is supposed to be exciting stuff and there are bound to be
people reading this volume after watching the anime.

Thankfully, Jun
Mochizuki did not let me down with the first appearance of the Comte
de Saint Germain, which makes me feel like giving her a top score if
I could.

Hopefully, the
future installments will have moments as exciting as this, as this is
what will keep people coming back for more, but seeing as anime in
general is getting more faithful to the source material these days, I
would not be surprised it my excitement is ruined.

The thing that I
liked the most though was how the penultimate chapter ended.

Even though the
ending is very important, as I have stressed before, the penultimate
chapter is just as important as both the beginning and the end,
because the penultimate is supposed to be the transition point that
helps the audience know the end is near, thereby it needs to help the
ending in giving the audience either a sense of satisfaction, if it
is a standalone work or the final installment of a series, or wanting
more, if is is an installment in a series.

While the words and
actions of the Comte de Saint Germain do create some question that
already makes me want to get my hands on the next volume, which has
yet to have a release date at the time of my writing this review, I
think the ending of the penultimate chapter has me way more intrigued
because of what we know is to eventually come and how things have
changed in this volume.

After Noé and
Vanitas finally stop fighting and the Comte de Saint Germain takes
Mihail away, Noé finds Vanitas waiting on the roof for somebody, who
turns out to be Mikhail, and some bits of the past get revealed with
Vanitas saying that he killed Luna with her own power because
somebody stole her name and that he wants to track down the person
responsible.

Now, I am currently
suspecting that the Comte de Saint Germain may be responsible, with
how easily he saved Mikhail and saying soething that suggested
Vanitas had met him before, but I still wonder who exactly could have
taken Luna’s true name and made Vanitas decide to take the path he
did, which makes me wish I could preorder the next volume.

Not long after
Vanitas says all this though, Mikhail says the books of Vanitas does
something to them, making them less human, and that he is the only
one who can understand Vanitas, to which Vanitas says that if he can
choose how he dies that he wants Noé to kill him, with the volume
ending by showing Noé extend his hand to Vanitas, who reaches out
to him with what I want to say is a smile.

From the beginning
of this series, we knew that Noé was going to kill Vanitas because
he said that he would eventually kill him at the beginning of the
story, but this exchange, where the Comte de Saint Germain’s
motives and goal are still unclear and the confirmation of things
that could be guessed from volume
8, where we saw marks on the arm of Vanitas, shows that these
events have strengthened the bond between Noé and Vanitas, making me
look forward to a possibly tragic end that leaves me as satisfied as
I was with how Pandora Hearts came to an end.

This is what I
really want to see in a work of fiction like this and both Jun
Mochizuki and Square Enix, or whoever they had put this volume
together, made a good call to put this moment near the end of the
volume.

If these moments
were not featured close to the end of the volume, I think I would
have been alright with it, as I think the penultimate chapter would
have actually been even better as being the end of the volume, but it
could have also been worse because I think this moment only works
well being at or near the end.

Fortunately, the
right call was made and it ended up allowing the volume to end on a
high note.

Hopefully, future
volumes will have the last one or two chapters eing as good as this
penultimate chapter was, but seeing as determining the best moment to
start and end a volume can be, I would not be surprised if things get
worse.

Outside of those
things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at
least that can stand out as much as I what I talked about.

Because things
started off on a great note, even if the anime kind of ruined the
excitement, the Comte de Saint Germain came off as a bigger threat in
this volume than he did in the anime counterpart of his first
appearance, and the penultimate chapter of the volume has me excited
to see what comes next, this was a great read.

Although I liked the
book, there are some issues.

However, aside from
things that are too minor to talk about, such as typos, and the
already noted possibility of it taking a while for things to get
exciting if you saw the anime adaptation, I cannot think of anything
that really bothered me.

As a result, I will
have to say that there is nothing worth mentioning.

Considering that
there was quite a bit to like and nothing to really hate, unless you
want to get real nit picky, this was definitely worth reading.

I mainly recommend
this to fans of The Case Study of Vanitas, as they will like
this the most, though it may be possible to not find much excitement
for those that watched all of the anime adaptation.

As for everyone
else, this might be worth giving a try, but I recommend checking out
the previous volume first to get the most enjoyment out of it.

If you liked this
review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on
either Patreon
or SubscribeStar,
so I can continue following this series or possibly find other
worthwhile reads for you guys to check out.