Scarlet Soul volume 1

In which Shoujo is mistaken for Shounen. 

This is something I found in my local library. It sounds like a shouen fighting story given its premise, paraphrased as "girl from a family of exorcists literally takes up her big sister's sword to fight off an invasion of evil demons". It's not.  Maybe this is due to a slow-paced start, but the first three chapters aren't like that at all.  The actual content of the chapters give far more weight to the heroine's relationship with her best friend / love interest, so it's more like shojou. I suppose the cover should have been indicative of that. 

Anyway, the first three chapters establish the situation of the heroine, Rin Shirano. She is an outcast from her household for a number of reasons, and feels directionless in life. Her only supporters are her best friend, Aghyr, and her big sister, Lys, who, incidentally, is the only living member of her family. Then ominous news arrives, and Lys disappears. It is one of the longer uses of Call to Adventure that I have seen. Until the end of chapter 3, there isn't much of the premise to be seen. A lot of smoke but no fire. 

This isn't a bad thing, necessarily, just not what I was expecting. Even the climatic scene of this volume is light on the fighting, and places more emphasis on Rin's emotional growth. That is definitely a good scene. Rin has great character development in this volume. 

The art is beautiful. That is unqualified. The characters look great, the environments looks great, and the scenes of tragedy have this vividly gruesome vibe to underscore the tragedy. 

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Scarlet Soul volume 1" a C

Click here for my next book review:   Lizzie Newton - Victorian Mysteries V1

Click here for my previous book review: BOFURI - I don't want to get hurt so I'll max out my defense - light novel volume 2

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.