Comics & Manga

Ragna Crimson Vol 1

Some light spoilers ahead.

A set of beautiful books caught my eye recently at my local BAM. Published by Square Enix books here in America, and authored by Daiki Kobayashi Ragna Crimson looks to be an exciting fantasy series with a straightforward, upfront appeal.

And, it is, for the briefest of moments! There are a lot of unexpected bucks to the trend. Having watched Princess Connect: ReDive recently, Ragna Crimson feels practically subversive in that context.

To be sure though, and you will absolutely see dragons and a ton of action! Maybe too much action. This first volume runs at a breakneck pace of introducing the lead characters, a tiered hierarchy of villains, and a fighting system. You know how shonen manga tend to be, right?

The pacing is honestly, just completely out of whack. Though some may find it engrossing, I found it to be a bit too much. You will meet and un-meet characters, have expectation placed and shattered in fairly quick succession. With three chapters of one-hundred some pages each, I found myself thinking that there were certainly a few good stopping points for a more traditional 20~ish page chapter structure you might see otherwise. It does look like later books will start to slow it down in that regard, but I haven’t read yet to confirm for myself.

Unfortunately not aiding the pacing of the story is Kobayashi’s amazing artwork. If you’re at a point where you’re reading manga for the artwork, this is certainly a safe buy. So many scenes are titanic with emotion, scale, and detail. It was somewhat overwhelming for me, in terms of story, but stopping so often to admire his style was genuinely a treat. It’s about half an inch or so oversized (I assume this is the format of the magazine the series runs in, Gangan Joker), so it’s fun to hold and pore over.

Summary Type Spoilers:

Ragna is, at first, a weak dragon hunter, but holds a close relationship with the strongest hunter, a young (12!) girl named Leonica. Without getting into too much detail, their relationship is a bit on the bizarre side at times. Not like, baaad, but, a little too close at times. This element will probably be the main turn off for some.

Later on, Ragna will effectively get a new personality. After that, he will make a new frenemy of sorts, the set up and payoff of which also read as overly verbose, hostile, and strange without much acknowledgment by the story. At this point, Ragna has become solely focused on his goals with no flair or, at the moment, real obstacles.

As I write this, an anime adaptation of this manga will be starting soon, which will open this up to a new audience. I’m admittedly very curious about what the reaction will be, and I intend to pick up the second volume. This says to me that Ragna Crimson is good, certainly gorgeous, and enjoyable, but os a rocky start in the department that matters most; story and characters.

This book goes for 12.99, and if you see it and all the gorgeous cover illustrations, buy it if you’re curious!

-JPL