What I love about “07-Ghost” is its complexity, its intelligence and well-planning but also how it is able to balance humor, dark and deep storylines but yet maintaining and enjoyable storyline as each volume progresses. Exciting, dark but also featuring an enjoyable, deep and fascinating storyline, “07-Ghost” Vol. 3 is recommended!
Image courtesy of © 07-Ghost. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: 07-Ghost Vol. 3
STORY AND ART BY: Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: ICHIJINSHA, INC.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: VIZ Media, LLC/Shonen Jump Manga
RATED: T for Teen
RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2013
One evil god, two rival empires, three unlikely bishops and seven brave ghosts make for one fantastic adventure!
The paths of one evil god, two rival empires, three unlikely bishops and seven brave ghosts converge in the destiny of Teito Klein, a boy who vows to master a powerful artifact known as the Eye of Mikael in order to lay bare the secrets of the world’s—and his own—murky past.
While Teito trains rigorously to pass the Bishop Examination and gain worldwide travel privileges, a crime perpetrated by one of Ayanami’s henchmen rocks the Barsburg Church. When Frau is framed, can Teito put aside his quest for answers to save the one person who has shown him the true meaning of sanctuary?
The Barsburg Military Academy has infiltrated the church in hopes of retrieving Teito Klein, the vessel of the Eye of Mikael.
Meanwhile, a few of the bishops know of Teito’s background and hope that they can protect him by having him take part in the Bishop’s examination in order to become stronger but also to prepare himself to fight against darkness.
But as KOR attacks are escalating around the city and now a new threat, WARS (when a KOR has managed to take over a human’s soul and body) is going after Teito.
Meanwhile, a traitor is in the church and the history of Frau is revealed in volume 3 of “07-Ghost”!
What is “07-Ghost”?
In 2005, Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara created a fantasy manga titled “07-Ghost”. Serialized in “Monthly Comic Zero” published by Ichijinsha, the manga is currently on it’s 14th volume and won a double-first prize in the third Zero-Sum Comics Grand-Prix which was chosen first place by readers and editors, a rare feat.
In 2009, the manga series received an anime and drama CD adaptation and while the manga was licensed by Go! Comi (an imprint of American manga publishing company, Go! Media Entertainment, LLC.) in 2009 but in 2010, the company’s website expired and the license to the series was picked up by Viz Media.
“07-Ghost” is set in the Barsburg Empire which is divided into seven districts. The series introduces us to the upcoming graduates of the Barsburg Empire Military Academy and the main protagonist Teito Klein.
Teito is a person that no one at the Academy talks to or appreciates. For one, they consider him sort of like a teacher’s pet, because he doesn’t have to do certain things that the other students must go through. Also, he is a former slave of the Raggs Kingdom. But he does have one friend and that’s Mikage.
Teito tends to have frightening dreams, about his father dying and trying to give him a message. Seeing a pool of blood.
One day, Teito was going to turn in his report to Mr. Shigure until he overhears the heads of the academy talking about him. How he has exceptional abilities and is a candidate for the Eye of Mikael. It is revealed that the Barsburg Military dissected the entire royal family of Raggs in order to find the stone which belonged to the King of Raggss.
Immediately, memories start to come back to Teito and memories of the military leader Ayanami killing his father. As Teito surges towards him, he is held back and imprisoned.
Mikage frees Teito and not wanting to get Mikage in trouble, Teito pretends that he had taken Mikage hostage. As Teito escapes, Ayanami tries to stop Teito but Teito barely escapes with a shield.
As Teito escapes from the Academy, he ends up landing on a perverted bishop named Frau who takes him into the church. Because he is in District 7, anyone who escapes to that area is protected by the church and the Barsburg Military are unable to interfere. So, for now, Teito is in good hands as he tries to recuperate from his injuries.
While at the church, he learns about the guardians of the church and is told about the legend about the God of Death, Verloren, committing a heinous crime in Heaven and fleeing to Earth. He invaded people’s hearts and terrorized them. So, the overseer of Heaven sent Seven Rays of Light to punish Verloren. They were known as the Seven Ghosts and have sealed the evil Verloren. And the church has seven statues that protect the land.
Meanwhile, the military of Barsburg are intent in capturing Teito from the church and General Wakaba wants his military to use anything necessary to bring Teito back. Even if it means blackmailing Mikage to get to Teito.
But other dark entities working for the evil Verloren, known as the KOR are interested in Teito as well.
In volume 2, after threatening to kill his family, Mikage is possessed and sent to retrieve Teito. But for his love for his Teito who he thinks of his family, Teito immediately sacrifices himself to save his dear friend. The tragedy makes Teito despite the Barsburg Academy even more, but Frau knowing the hurt in Teito, finds the reincarnation of Mikage in a small dragon, who instantly bonds with Teito.
Wanting revenge against Barsburg Academy, the Church realizes that Teito is the Mikael Stone that they are after, but also know that he is a target and tells him that he must be trained to protect himself or else the KOR’s will get him.
Also, Teito has a new roommate, a cocky individual from a royal family, Haruken Oak who joins the church.
Will Teito accept the training that the church will have him endure? Meanwhile, the Barsburg Military Academy lays out plans to find a way to infiltrate the church and retrieve Teito.
In volume 3, as the Barsburg Military Academy has infiltrated the church, the WARS begin attacking both Teito and Haruken. With the Church knowing they have been penetrated, Teito learns the truth about the man known as “father” and raised him. He also learned that Verloren’s body was sealed by the eye of Mikael and had slumbered for 1,000 years.  While Verloren’s soul was sealed by the Eye of Rafael and wanders the Earth to unable to enter Heaven and is forever reborn into human bodies.
But it appears that Barsburg Military Academy has more than one plan than to capture Teito, they also have a plan to target Frau.
Find out what happens when the traitor is revealed and also learning about the past about Frau and also the man who raised Teito in volume 3 of “07-Ghost”.
The main characters of 07-Ghost are:
- Teito Klein – The main protagonist and a former slave of Raggs. He has been having nightmares of something terrible, but for Teito he is starting to realize that the nightmares are memories and that his father entrusted him with something special before he was killed by the Barsburg military. He is not friends with many people at the Barsburg Military Academy because he receives special treatment, but in truth, Teito has exceptional fighting/magic skills. His only good friend is Mikage. But when Teito finds out that members of the Barsburg Military were responsible for his father’s death, Teito escapes from the military and is a wanted individual.
- Frau – A perverted Bishop who saved Teito after his escape from the Barsburg Military Academy. He is a member of the 07-Ghosts (Zehel) and is often teasing Teito.
- Castor – A bishop who watches over Teito and a member of 07-Ghosts.
- Labrador – A bishop who loves to garden and brew herbs for medicine. He watches over Teito by giving him things to protect him.
- Mikage – Teito’s good friend and both have promised that they will die together as best of friends. Barsburg Military Academy tried to blackmail him by threatening to kill his family if he did not bring back Teito, but since he considers Teito as family, Mikage has sacrificed himself to save his dear friend. But to later be reincarnated into a small dragon.
- Ayanami – The antagonist and Teito remembers him as the person responsible for his father’s murder.
- Haruken Oak – New at the Church and becomes Teito’s roommate. Part of royalty but has his reasons of becoming part of the church.
It appears that with each volume of “07-Ghost”, a significant bombshell is revealed. But with each reveal comes more questions, especially for this third volume.
We learn that Bishop Ver Kreuz, the man who raised Teito has a past of why he was excommunicated from the church and why Barsburg went after him. Meanwhile, we learn that Frau is able to wield the scythe of Verloren and now the Barsburg Military Academy wants it back for some apparent reason.
And without revealing too much, the traitor inside the church is finally revealed!
With so many developments featured in volume three, it does help to flesh out some of the complexities found in the previous two chapters and making things much more coherent, with various terms and also finding out more about what is inside Teito.
But while two major bombshells are revealed, it also opens more questions that I’m sure readers will find out very soon in upcoming chapters.
The character designs features quite a bit of closeups and some of the artwork for the action sequences do get a bit confusing at times and at times, I felt as I was lost and had to go back and read a certain area and find out who is who as the artwork tends to use a lot of line, less shading on characters (some designs are just all white and gray while blacks are utilized primarily for clothes, hair and line art). But it’s a style that I have gotten used to.
Overall, “07-Ghost” is becoming more exciting and deeper as the story progresses. While the earlier chapters deal with Teito being trained as a Bishop, we also see his friendship with Haruken, begin to mature and Teito not wanting to lose anymore people close to him, he’s willing to become stronger. But it makes it difficult when the church has been infiltrated by the Barsburg Military Academy but it appears that Frau is in their target sight as well!
What I love about “07-Ghost” is its complexity, its intelligence and action but also how it is able to balance humor, dark and deep storylines but yet maintaining and enjoyable storyline as each volume progresses.
Exciting, dark but also featuring an enjoyable, deep and fascinating storyline, “07-Ghost” Vol. 3 is recommended!