Sword Oratoria Vol 4
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Deep in the dungeon, the rogue town of Rivira is under attack by a new breed of monsters and it's up to the adventurers to defend it! Luckily, some of Loki Familia's best have the situation well in hand. But when Aiz faces-off with Hashana's murderer, she has a personal score to settle as well - why does this murderer know "Aria"!?After an unsettling defeat, Aiz's desire to level-up and become "strong" burns inside her more than ever, pushing her challenges in the Dungeon to the extreme. So her request that Finn and the others leave her behind in the lower levels must be for her singular goal...right?
Volume 4 is off to a cracking start as there's an all out battle right from the beginning, and the pace is quick throughout as everyone is fighting and pulling off some insanely badass moves. I love how well drawn the battle scenes are, not to mention the magic circles and how this far in to the series...world building is still being woven in.
Finn and Riveria really kick some ass this volume! And you know...Aiz and the others too, but it was nice to see two of the older members getting their moment to shine. There's a rather ominous cut scene thrown in, if you can call it that and the Bad Guy seems to know about Aria? There's plenty of worrying developments, and little breadcrumbs dropped, to be honest.
Unfortunately Aiz didn't get to question the Tamer/murderer about Aria, and she thinks if she'd been stronger she could have, so she's having a little bit of a crisis. Which provides us the perfect opportunity to get a glimpse of some of her memories...and you know...that gives us some more clues and adds to the mystery.
Aiz and Riveria team up and remain behind in the Dungeon for an epically drawn and super tense, edge of the seat battle that see's Aiz push herself to her limits. It's nice to see that she does actually have limits. Not in a mean way, but everyone bigs her up so much, it's nice that she's not completely over powered etc.
This volume leaves us with plenty of questions about Aiz and her past, but it does end with a cameo from Bell and a splash of humour to lighten up the tense volume!
Sword Oratoria Vol 3
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Aiz and her friends make their way to Rivira, the town nestled deep within the Dungeon, only to stumble upon a macabre murder! After determining the culprit must be extremely powerful, everyone seems to think a member of the Loki Familia is the most likely suspect?! Meanwhile, on the surface, Loki embarks on an investigation of her own, delving deep into the sewers to get to the bottom of a mystery that may affect her children's future--as well as that of all Orario...
CSI: Sword Oratoria...I mean, Sword Oratoria Vol 3, see's Aiz and co (minus Bete) head in to the dungeon for some chilled roaming about....before getting involved in a murder mystery on floor 18! Meanwhile Bete is with Loki who's out for revenge after the events of the previous volume.
Guys, I'm becoming more and more convinced that Bete is a softy, much like Loki secretly is! Bete gets quite a nice amount of page time this volume, as well as his own time to shine, which I was quite pleased about because I'm curious about him!
Volume 3 brings us plenty of action and mystery as both teams have a mystery of their own to solve. Loki is starting to try to put pieces together, as is Finn down on level 18. The volume ends with a shock surprise twist and leaves us with plenty of questions that are hopefully going to be solved in the next volume?! It's certainly a compelling volume...
Sword Oratoria Vol 2
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
The peerless Sword Princess can't seem to forget the sight of a young boy running away from her. Watching his receding back brings up memories from her own past and she begins to question her sole ideal of devoting everything to become stronger. For the first time ever, is Aiz is a bit troubled by her heart like any normal young girl??
Is it wrong of me to say that I'm enjoying Sword Oratoria more than I am the main series? The main series has had a few volumes where nothing much has happened to be honest, but so far Sword Oratoria has been action packed for each volume and I'm loving it!
As we rejoin Aiz and co, the quest is over and Loki Familia have to sell all their drop items before they head out to celebrate...unfortunately it turns sour thanks to Bete and THAT incident happens. You know...the one where Bell overhears something and gets upset and runs away. Yep. That happens. It's interesting to see it from another perspective, because when you see it from Bell's POV you kind of think one way about the characters, but seeing it from Aiz's you see them in a new light.
Aiz is kind of struggling with her feelings and dreams of the past, and the others are determined to cheer her up...which means a girls day shopping! Plus Monsterphilia is approaching and of course...something goes wrong. *cue ominous music*
The art for this series is completely gorgeous, and I really loved how Lefiya's magic and magic circles where drawn in this volume, as well as the backgrounds. I know it's an odd thing for me to focus on, but so often the backgrounds are just kind of...there, it's nice to see backgrounds that have had effort put in to them, and are nicely detailed!
There's plenty of action to go with the humour this volume, and the Gods...or at least two of them, are definitely up to no good and there's a sense of something shady at the end...but what? I have so many questions and there's so many little plot threads throughout, it's another excellent volume!
Sword Oratoria Vol 1
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess, is known as one of the most powerful warriors from one of the most powerful groups in the city of Orario: Loki Familia. With them, she ventures into the deepest parts of the labyrinthine Dungeon beneath the city, stalking the monstrous denizens that lurk there and vanquishing them with the blazing light of her sword. But when she meets a certain white-haired boy, the encounter will change both of them forever...
So, the light novel version of this is completely brilliant, and I've been super excited to check out the manga and see how well it compares! There's some stunning colour pages as well as a full colour contents page and I really appreciate the art I'm not going to lie! It's incredibly detailed and rich and the battles are gorgeously drawn, as well as the magic circles and attacks and so on. The characters are drawn both gorgeous..but also cute. I really do love how the facial expressions have been drawn. Bells in particular are drawn hilariously!
Something the manga does well, is Aiz's inner decisions over what to say to Bell and so on, they're presented incredibly interestingly and I really loved how they where presented. This volume is action packed, with fighting and battles from the start as well as the beginnings of a mystery and we have Aiz's first meeting with Bell! Quite a lot happens in this volume, without it being rushed and its a fairly chunky volume! There's a nice pace throughout the volume too. It keeps you reading and keeps you wanting more. There's a nice amount of detail too, we do go over things we already know about the world etc from the other series, but it's actually a good refresher!
I have to say, I think this is one of the best light novel to manga adaptions, it's managed to keep the mystery and intrigue, and all of the characters are presented perfectly!
