Title: Queen’s Quality Vol. 6
Author: Kyousuke Motomi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance
Publication Date: December 4, 2018
The Story
Volume six of Queen’s Quality begins a training arc. While everyone is gathered in the mansion, they receive a message from the Byakku clan, inviting Kyutaro and Fumi to do some training inside of a place called Seichi. We learn that the Byakku and Genbu clans have a long history together. The Byakku clan fell to an epidemic but its survivors moved on. The Byakku clan owes a great debt to the Genbu clan for everything that they did in order to help them during the epidemic, including losing the lives of some of their members.
One day while Kyutaro and Fumi are out shopping, they are ambushed by a mysterious man whose face is concealed with bandages. He attempts to kidnap Fumi by placing Kyutaro under a spell; however, Takaya was nearby and thwarted the kidnapping attempt. The mysterious man ended up being Akiyama, the messenger from the Byakku clan who was putting them through a little test. He warns them that their training will be just as severe, if not, more punishing than this. The arrangements are made as Takaya decides to tag along on the training session. He elects Ataru to join them as well to which Akiyama agrees.
When they arrive, Fumi is taken by one of the Byakku’s representatives. Ataru and Kyutaro are left to find the village on their own. They eventually arrive and after going through a bathing ritual, are reunited with Fumi. This is when they are taken to Seichi, which is not a physical village but rather a deep section of the mind vault! Here, they have to find Kyutaro who resisted the Byakku’s spell and is in danger of running into ghosts, which are like mother bugs but can take on familiar forms and even possess people. Out chapter comes to a close when we see Kyutaro fighting a mirror image of himself!
Pretty interesting volume as we got some BIG backstory moments on both Kyutaro and Fumi as well as the history of the Byakku and Genbu clans and how they are related to one another. So far, the training hasn’t been really intense but it was all just warm-ups for the true training inside of the mind vault. I had a feeling it would be something like that from the onset with the way they were setting it up. After all, they’re all sweepers so what other training could there really be? So far we’ve had to deal with bugs but ghosts seem to be on an entirely new level. Given the fact that it’s constantly raining in Seichi and that the rain is made up from people’s memories, we clearly get an idea of just how hard this training is going to be.
Really interesting concept!
Characters
Fumi, once again, gets a major dose of development but we’re just given tidbits of it. Still, those tidbits were enough to be considered major points in her character. Essentially, the Genbu clan were hospitable people and took in many people, including former members of the Byakku clan… like Kyutaro, for example. Akiyama does state that he has a strong suspicion of Fumi’s past which is why the clan was interested in getting in contact with her. Takaya, another former member of the Byakku clan, would be Fumi’s uncle if all things were proven to be true.
That revelation supports the fact that Kyutaro felt he knew he all this time as a girl named Fuyu. That would mean Fumi’s real name would be Fuyu Nishitake. Considering that Kyutaro’s parents died during the epidemic and were former Byakku clan members as well, it ties everything together and even supports what Ataru said Kyutaro back when he was a bug handler about knowing her past as well. While we still don’t have concrete evidence, the fact that Fumi is in Siechi training, we’re going to get the lid blown off of this mystery rather soon. The fact that its raining memories in the world of Seichi can’t be a coincidence, either.
Final Thoughts
While this volume of Queen’s Quality was a little bit on the slower side with a lot of slice-of-life filler elements thrown in, we did get teased with some big reveals on our two main characters and we did get a nice set up for a training arc which looks to be really interesting. Plus, that cliffhanger at the end where Kyutaro was engaged in combat with his doppelganger served as a nice tease as to the kind of scenarios they’re going to be facing from here on out.
All the while, this is still a classic training trope in the sense that you have to overcome your inner turmoil and learn to accept yourself, otherwise you fail the test. We’ve seen this used quite often but there’s something about Queen’s Quality that makes it feel a bit fresh. Still, it’s a great tool to help a writer develop their characters as you can use a few liberties on the plot side of things to shape your characters any way you want. While it doesn’t feel as natural as letting the characters breathe and develop on their own, it does serve as a meaningful method to help nudge that development along.
There’s a lot more one can do with this tool than just develop your characters, though. It has me looking forward to volume seven to see if something like this can be used a bit more uniquely.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
