Manga: Graineliers

Graineliers
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Rihito Takarai (Ten Count) pens anything but a garden variety fantasy! In a world where the seeds of plants are imbued with power, the wheels of fate begin to turn for Luca, an illegal seed cultivator, when the government-sanctioned Graineliers come to take away his father, who in turn hands Luca a rare and powerful seed...! 

The synopsis for this volume sounded intriguing, and I'm always on the lookout for something a little bit different. Graineliers certainly sounded like it was going to be original and unlike anything I'd read before and it certainly delivered. 

The art is gorgeous and detailed throughout the volume and as for the story? We're thrown straight in to the plot with no messing around. The world is rich and interesting and we get a lot of background on it in just this first volume. There's still things I want to know but we get the basics. It's certainly a unique world, and I'm excited to see more of it and how it works...and how the seeds work! This volume is just a very detailed taster! 

Luca and Abel are brilliant, I love the friendship between the two of them and they cracked me up more than once. Their banter was hilarious. Luca is quite stoic and quiet and Abel is a bit more amiable, more open and loose and willing to joke. Abel's dad is pretty hilarious too and I'm hoping we get some more of him! 

I'm curious to see more of Luca and what's happened to him and how it'll affect him and where his character is going to go in the story. Chloe is intriguing too, at first she kind of seems like an annoying kid but then BOOM plot twist....and I'm so ready to find out what that's all about. 

There's some nice comedy elements to the volume, and I really think Abel and Luca are a good character pairing, they play off of each other nicely with Abel being the more outgoing of the pair. The chilli peppers scene was brilliantly hilarious. Hugues provided some nice humour too and I'm hoping he's going to be a permanent fixture! I haven't decided how I feel about Nicolas yet though, so I guess I'll just wait and see on that front. I'm thinking I probably won't like him much after his ominous comments at the end of the volume, but who knows. 

We cover a lot of ground in this first volume, meeting characters, key events taking place, getting to grips with the world and how it works and so on. Not to mention having the main plot kicking off as we end the volume. I still have questions and we have some mystery elements regarding Luca's father that are going to be fun to unravel. I'm so excited to see where the story goes and get some clues to try and puzzle it all out! This is looking to be an original and entertaining series and I'm impressed with this first volume!