11eyes is a manga based off the visual novel of the same. Satsuki Kakeru and his childhood friend Minase Yuka found themselves dragged into the “Red Night”, a mysterious dimension with a black moon and red sky. They weren’t the only ones there, though: beings called the Black Knights tried to kill them for some unknown reason. Luckily, other people with special powers were also in the Red Night, including Kusakabe Misuzu, a female onmyoji who wields the five legendary swords.
Soooo 11eyes was quite popular so I don’t wanna spoil it for anyone. The manga is based off Misuzu’s route for the most part, so it had to cut out most of the stuff about Yuka’s special powers and Kukuri’s relationship to Kakeru’s sister, whatever that is, I do not know because I haven’t seen the anime or played the VN. However, despite the limited number of pages and the difficulty of adapting a long visual novel into a three-volume manga, Ayano Naoto-sensei did a pretty good job. The manga captured the main story from start to end and tied it in with Misuzu’s character arc quite well. Kakeru also showed a lot of character development, which made their romance quite nice to read. Ayano-sensei did mention that he didn’t want to write a half-baked story and that really showed in how complete 11eyes turned out.
Perhaps the only thing I didn’t like about this manga was Misuzu’s…jinggly Thai eggplant sword thing which apparently was the strongest sword of the Kusakabe family. Yeah I know it’s supposed to look creepy but it just looked yucky, eew. I used to go shopping in morning markets with my dad and they had whole chickens on sale with their abdomens cut open. You could sometimes see the chicken’s ovaries with the yolks attached, and that’s exactly what the sword’s hilt reminded me of. Eew.
I was surprised Yukiko was one of the datable characters in the game, because the manga set up so much emotional bonding between her and Takahisa, Apparently she can end up with either of the dudes depending on what the player chooses, which is pretty interesting.
For those of you who have watched the anime and is curious if ending is any different, the manga’s ending is the same as the game’s where Demiourgos… did stuff. Spoiler: (I think the manga incorporated part of Kukuri’s route where she absorbed Kakeru’s eye thing, granting Demiourgos a consciousness. So basically the manga’s ending is a perfect end where everyone resurrected with their memories of the Red Night, including Kukuri herself.) End Spoiler.
Overall, pretty enjoyable manga. Exceeded my expectations.
bonutzuu 