Love of Kill volumes 4 and 5 arrived together, so I read them together, and I’m reviewing them together.
And you know what? The two books go really well together.
After no-one-believes-he’s-25 Ritzland is shot and left bleeding to death, a mysterious young man, Jinon Won, approaches both Ryang-Ha and Chateau. Throughout volume 4 and into 5 we meet the rest of his cohorts as the heroes (and readers) try to piece together what they’re after. Jinon threatens Chateau with her mother’s life in exchange for Ryang-Ha. She hesitates, and while in the past that may have been because of how difficult that would be, Chateau admits it’s because she can’t get Ryang-Ha out of her mind.
Gunplay continues to be a cornerstone of the series. The art continues to show off the gritty grandeur of these fights, but the hero armor is even stronger than before. I tend to be a bit softhearted when it comes to characters, but I don’t want to see a string of continuous fake-outs. That’s probably my biggest complaint about these two volumes. But hey, that also means Indian Guy is not as weak as I expected, so it’s not all bad? He’s mostly been a gag character, so I enjoyed his larger role with Ritzland out of the picture.
The other main cornerstone of Love of Kill is the romance, and author Fe provides plenty of evidence to show how Ryang-Ha and Chateau’s relationship has grown. This despite the fact the story forces them apart. Absence makes the heart go stronger they say, and that’s particularly true for Chateau here. I’ve wondered before if Ryang-Ha is a bit attached to Chateau simply because that’s how he thinks couples are supposed to act. But even without spouting corny lines, we see him worry about Chateau’s mental state when being blackmailed and losing his jokey edge when she’s not around. It was nice to see this side of him, and Chateau being rather straightforward and letting her emotions run free.
But the story just doesn’t focus on their present — more pieces of info about Ryang-Ha’s and Chateau’s pasts are dropped, and yes, their histories do seem to intersect.
With the way volume 5 ended, Fe mused about whether the story could have wrapped up here. If the anime were to end here, it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad spot for the season to end. But it would almost certainly mean a second season, because at this point, there’s still Jinon’s group to tackle, not to mention the leads’ pasts.
Besides Jinon, who acts outgoing but has a crazed edge to him, there’s the leader, the emo one, and the guy (Nikka) who really wants to know why the boss is interested in Ryang-Ha. With several new characters, the story has opened up quite a bit. Nikka has also the potential to be a wildcard, as he’s already trying to find time to test his skills against Ryang-Ha despite his boss’ orders. Fe introduces all four of them with identifiable personalities and designs, so I’m hoping they won’t go down right away…maybe have them borrow a bit of hero armor to keep them around.
I’m half joking of course, but if you are in the mood for more funnies, Fe’s bonuses will delight. Whether it’s questionable fanservice to poking fun at the characters to extra fluff, these breaks don’t just feel like they’re stuffed in to fill up blank pages.
If you haven’t gotten on the Love of Kill hype yet, with the anime on the horizon, now is the perfect time to get to know Chateau and Ryang-Ha. Definitely glad Fe didn’t decide to finish things off here in volumes 4 and 5, as it’s not often you get this level of intrigue, bullet-ridden battles, romantic developments, and dump truck blitzes. (Won’t explain the last one, just read it!)