My first exposure to this manga was from a manga music video of it several years back which was a finalist in Otakon’s AMV contest (I believe this is the MMV in question for those interested). The art immediately grabbed me and I found it just as striking in context. Aki Irie’s style feels almost like a throwback in places, as the way she draws the eyes reminds me more of shoujo manga from the 1970s or 80s instead of the year 2009 when this volume was first published in Japan (and Irie only began working as a professional manga-ka in 2002 so it’s not as if she is a creator with roots in that time period). Irie’s use of lines, lovely shading, and subtle use of screen tones are wonderfully pleasing to the eye and it makes Ran and the Gray World one of the visual standouts of the year 2018.
Ran and the Gray World’s story isn’t as immediately compelling as the art is but, with art this pretty, you get a bit of slack. Ran is from a family of sorcerers and her mother is often away, sealing away the doors to somewhere awful. So Ran’s father and older brother are the ones who have to put up with the hassle of raising her. Lately, she has been rather attached to a pair of too-large sneakers, which either grant her the ability to grow up or she grows herself up so that she can wear them.
Either way, it means that Ran is often bolting out of the house with shoes and getting into just as much trouble as usual, except she now looks closer to 19 than a pre-teen. This is easily the part of the book I liked the least — during one of Ran’s escapades she catches the attention of an adult man (young adult but still at least ten years her senior) and he is clearly interested in pursuing her sexually and Ran does not get this at all. So far the story hasn’t become predatory, and I doubt that this relationship will ever happen thank goodness, but it was still enough to make me nervous and a bit on edge for the rest of the volume.
I certainly hope that he doesn’t play a major role in future installments, partially since Ran’s magical world is so delightfully interesting and intrigued and he is simply not a part of it. What is Ran’s mother spending all of her time protecting that no one else can? Who is Ran’s new teacher, mentioned at the very end of the volume and causing her father to straight-up flee the house in the bonus pages? And why do so many of the magical characters have streaks of white in their hair, are they all related? I’m hopeful that all of these questions will be answered in future volumes and I intend to check back in with this series to find out!