Maddies Manga

Shio isn’t the only werewolf in his pack, and in volume two we finally get to meet his brothers! He and Sakura continue developing their friendship in this volume, much to the dismay of said brothers. Will his father’s order to let them be really be enough to keep the older wolves at bay?

Scroll to the bottom for a link to sample and buy volume two!

Author

This series was written by Aoi Nui.

Genre & Tropes

Youth drama, fantasy.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This series is currently ongoing in Japanese with three volumes currently published. Volume four will be coming out in May!

TL;DR rating

I loved this volume even more than volume one! I’m actually really enjoying watching the story slowly develop Sakura and Shio’s friendship. We were also gifted with some found family themes from Shio’s wolf pack, and I’m absolutely loving it!

My thoughts on this volume (Mild spoilers!)

This is such a lovely, unique series… I can only hope that it will be given an English licence one day so that more people can discover it.

In volume two, we’re finally formally introduced to Shio’s two brothers! It’s through them that the “importance of family” themes are brought to this volume. While these themes are more so on the slightly dark and heavy side, I’m not complaining at all. As Shio is the youngest of the pack, and has a rather sad history that we finally learn about in this volume, it makes sense that they’re both overly protective of him. I am hopeful that we will be given more werewolf lore in the following volume, as I have quite a few questions raised from learning about Shio’s past.

While this volume still focuses more on Sakura and Shio’s relationship, we’re given extra perspective thanks to the two brothers. While neither brother particularly like Sakura, they both treat her in very different ways, allowing us to see her react to very different situations. Sakura still sees herself as a “see-through human” even after befriending Shio, and it isn’t until one of his brothers calls her out on her self-deprecating nature that she realizes that she’s potentially causing harm to Shio. I mean, when one of the brothers threatens her with a “if you hurt Shio, I’ll kill you”, she point blank says that no one would be sad if she died. Like, girl! At the very least Shio would be sad! The boy who invited you over to his house for a barbeque, that you’re currently at! Why would she think he wouldn’t think anything if she were to disappear!? Thankfully she’s quick to understand the harm she may have been causing and finally stops referring to herself as see-through.

The heavy family themes found in this volume don’t just come from Shio’s side, as we also are introduced to Sakura’s deadbeat father in this volume. While it’s never explicitly stated exactly what happened with him, the fact that he cut off all contact with his daughter and started a new family makes him an absolute deadbeat in my eyes. Say Sakura’s mom had told him to stop writing, a proper father would make sure he still had some way of staying in contact with his child, right? Total deadbeat.

Once Sakura and Shio return from their trip of seeking out Sakura’s father, we are greeted with a scene that caught me completely off-guard—Shio’s father going out to meet Sakura’s mother. I’m not sure why, but I really wasn’t expecting them to have any interaction whatsoever. While up until now I haven’t been able to get a good read on Shio’s father, his speech about how all of the wolves in a pack work together to take care of the kids had me decide that he’s a somewhat scary man with a good heart. After all, it really does look like Sakura has won him over at least a little bit, if not just for the fact that she’s been constantly looking out for Shio.

Poor Sakura’s mother probably thinks of him as a more eccentric man, as while she was worrying about her daughter being missing, a strange man invited her to his house and then began talking about wolf packs. While everything ended on a positive note, there’s absolutely no way she doesn’t find him to be at least a little strange.

And finally, with the final revelation of this volume… I’m really hoping things are cleared up quickly. I wasn’t expecting it to get so dark so quickly, nor was I expecting it to end on such a cliffhanger. I’m counting down the days until I can get my hands on volume 3!

Check out a free sample below!

You can check out volume two of this series for yourself below!