145. Children of the Sea, Vol. 3

Children of the Sea, Vol. 3 by Daisuke Igarashi. Translated from the Japanese by JN Productions. (Canada) - (USA)
Children of the Sea series


Pages: 334 pages
Ages: 16+
Finished: July 25, 2010
First Published: June 15, 2010
Publisher: Viz Media
Genre: YA, Manga, Science Fiction
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

What's wrong?

Acquired: Received a review copy from Simon & Schuster Canada.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

Ruka is in shock over the disappearance of Sora in the last volume and not doing well at all. Umi is also acting strangely and stays close to Ruka now. Anglade, introduced in the last volume, has a long talk with Jim about the sea children and then takes off with Ruka and Umi. Very strange things happen and this volume gets a little confusing with where the story is going. On the other hand, a fair portion of this volume takes place in the past starting with Anglade as a boy, his relationship with Jim, and how the sea children came to be with them. This clears up a lot of the background story and continues to make the story fascinating. A wonderful new character is introduced in the past, an old woman named Dehdeh, whom I hope will turn up again as she seems to know much more than she has told. The original disappearing fish story seems to have a much greater meaning now and Ruka has joined Sora and Umi in having a deep, cosmic relationship with the sea. As I said, the story arc is heading in a direction that is somewhat confusing at this point and I don't want to say anything else to give away any spoilers. Overall, this volume is not as good as the first two but seems to be a pivotal point in the story where the next volume is going to pull some more threads together. I love this series; the theme and plot are so different from any other manga I've read and the artwork is beautifully detailed with people of various ethnic groups represented. Vol. 4 will be released in Dec. of this year ('10).