The coup d’etat is underway; or rather, it began six months earlier with Jean’s crazy orders to visit all 13 districts with barely a moment of downtime between them. Will Schawn, an immature prince, ascend the throne and disband ACCA, at the risk of splitting the country into numerous civil wars? Or will Jean, heavily backed by the highest authorities of ACCA, take the throne instead and leave the world as it has been for the past 100 years?
As I finished up my second interaction with this story, having first seen the anime adaptation, I was once again struck by how odd it is that the story can so quickly and easily shift from being “an extremely slow burn” to “this story feels like it should be rushed but isn’t”. While the sixth and final volume is a little bit larger than the preceding five it isn’t by much; Natsume Ono’s pacing feels very planned out but it’s still striking to see just how much more quickly the story moves as Jean visits the last few districts, learns his family’s history, and plans for the coup with Jean at the center get squared away.
Revisiting this story also helped crystallize some of my thoughts on it, one of which is “I wish Mauve had more to do”. She’s the head of ACCA, a major player both behind the scenes and on center stage, and yet she often feels sidelined because the story needed Jean to have very few, if any really, close allies. This is Jean’s story after all and almost everyone affected by him (Schawn, Nino, several other members of ACCA etc) are all men. Even the story of how Jean’s royal mother came to be living as an ordinary woman in Badon is less about her and more the story of her retainer who followed her and how Nino became wrapped up in surveying Jean’s family for years. It’s not a case of a story that is completely devoid of female characters but it feels as if Ono carefully moves them out of the way for some reason to focus on her male casts when given a chance. I recall having a similar feeling when watching and reading my favorite work of hers, House of Five Leaves, and now that I’ve read enough of her works I feel as if I’m seeing a pattern and I’m curious about it.
Now that I have finished reading the original, manga version of ACCA, I am pleased to report that the anime was actually quite the faithful adaptation and I didn’t spot a single missing scene. At this point I still prefer the anime ever-so-slightly, partially because it was the version I experienced first, and potential fans shouldn’t feel pressured to consume one over the other. If, like me, you find Ono’s character designs a little off-putting at times then perhaps the anime, with softened designs as well as full color and music, will work better for you.
However, if you find the pacing of the anime too slow you may be better off reading this six volume series instead of sticking around for 12 anime episodes. Either way the story is a slow burn with a beginning that feels almost inconsequential and an ending which is a thoughtful commentary on governments. I’m curious if Ono’s current series Badon will be brought over in the near future; I do not believe that it’s confirmed that the two stories are related but the title is the same as the name of one of ACCA’s 13 districts and since the story revolves around selling smoking products (a significant plot point in ACCA) I suspect they are.
I’d certainly enjoy seeing more stories set in this world — Ono has left herself quite a bit of room to tell all manner of tales there, so hopefully it won’t be long before her next American release!