Volume Three of E’S shows Kai can fight when he wants to, Yuuki has a soft side-only for orphans – and Asuka really is clueless and beginning to go over to the Moe Side.

plot summary

Kai’s powers have turned against him and he finds himself captive again; this time his jailer is a priest! Wanting to harness Kai’s psychic abilities, Lord Ghibelline confines the young man in the Church’s subterranean headquarters. Kai discovers that he’s not the only psychic in the crooked priest’s grasp, and Kai’s natural compassion compels him to lend them a hand; no matter the cost to himself.

Yuuki, who’s been hired by the local rebels to find a mysterious artifact, is told by the information broker, Leonid, that the very group Yuuki was hired to help has placed bounty on his head. Maria, the granddaughter of the rebel’s leader, demands that Yuuki hand over the psychic in his care; the one with the honey blond hair.

Now Yuuki must unravel the mystery of Kai’s disappearance, the bounty on his head and Maria’s interest with Asuka.

review

Volume Three was disappointingly short. Just when things were getting interesting, the volume ended. One half of the manga was dedicated to a prototype preview of E’S, while the other was the regularly scheduled manga.

Granted, the half of the manga that was Volume Three of E’S was entertaining, and granted the preview manga to E’s was interesting, I still feel kinda cheated. Also, I was disappointed at seeing Kai as a victim, yet again. The boy got no respect at Ashurum from his fellow psychics, he was almost blown to oblivion by a teammate, Yuuki held him “prisoner”, Ashurum sent a psycho mass murder to bring him back, and now he’s the powerless captive of a corrupt priest. Hopefully this is all part of an equation which will make Kai omnipotent, or at least something close. The angst in this manga was on full-throttle and I really wanted to see a pay-off for the investment of having to relive teenage emotions.

The action was toned down for Volume Three, but it wasn’t missed. The action that did take place wasn’t as gratuitous- not necessarily a bad thing- as in previous volumes and furthered the story.

Volume Three’s art wasn’t as dark as One and Two and came as a reprieve from the oppressiveness of the former volumes. The art is still strong in Three but more open and light.

One of the extras for this volume is the aforementioned preview manga: “Prelude to Destruction“, Parts 1 & 2. Yuiga drew this short manga as a prototype/preview for the actual storyline of E’S. Many film producers and novelists will do a short prototype of their work to either pitch the piece to a studio or editor, or to get a feel of the direction their work will go. Yuiga didn’t take E’S in the direction her preview manga went, but she kept the tone of the E’S preview world the same for the current manga as she did in Prelude to Destruction.

The extras which were in the former manga are in Volume Three as well, along with a section which compares and contrasts the differences between Prelude to Destruction and the current E’S.

While I appreciated the opportunity to read Yuiga’s original take on E’S, I didn’t appreciate that Volume Three was so short. Aside from my disappointment with the brevity of the manga, I was also miffed by Kai’s poor luck/ weakness. I hope Volume Four can cash the check the previous volumes have written in terms of emotional investment.

Rating

Volume Three of E’S gets 2.5 outta 4 Kasugai Gummies™!