I have this tendency to forget I pay money to Crunchyroll every month for access to anime AND manga. I remembered last night and I found this little gem that I hadn't heard of yet so I'm super glad I remembered!
Two-Hundred years ago there lived a brother and a sister. The brother dreamed of immortal life and found a way to accomplish this by creating monsters, called Larvae, that reap the souls of the living, thus the brother became the Grim Reaper. His sister's magic was the only one who could stop him. And so she did and to ensure that the Grim Reaper would never win she created the Argent Cavalier a group of knights tasked with killing the monsters her brother created.
Cyan becomes an Argent Cavalier after witnessing both of his parents' deaths at the hands of Larvae dedicated to defending humanity and Lady Reinette the current head of and a direct descendant of Lemuria the Grim Reaper's sister. After a devasting attack by larvae, Cyan realizes that sometimes you have to embrace the darkness in order to defeat it.
I really enjoyed this right off the bat but I found it even more enjoyable after reading Irono's inspiration for the story at the end of this volume. He takes the Festival of Lemuria and the story of Godfather Death (Grimm's brother) and came up with this really unique tale of soul-stealing monsters who are fueling the Grim Reaper's immortality. There are so many dark fantasies that include the Grim Reaper so it's always fun to come across one that is unique while pulling elements from other tales.
Cyan is a great lead character but gotta admit I love Jade. Their motivation is the same of course (mostly) but Jade is just way more laid back than Cyan. Cyan is kinda wound up like a top. Even Reinatta recognizes that and doesn't tell him certain aspects about the magic she uses. The art is absolutely gorgeous, Irono is exceptional at making the character's expressions, especially in their eyes. I found myself watching for a change in their eyes probably more than any other facial expression while reading this, in many cases all Irono does is simply remove the most color from their eyes and it has a profound change in that character's emotion. I'm sure other manga artists use this technique but I don't believe I've ever noticed it before, or at least not to the extent that it stood out to me here.
Overall, a solid start to what looks like it will be a really fun dark fantasy series. I'm reading the second volume currently and I'm enjoying it immensely!
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