I’m glad I’ve been sticking with the manwha series Queen’s Kight. I enjoyed volume 1 and volume 2 but in the back of the mind I was wondering a bit about what was going to happen because Rieno the darkly handsome yet temperamental semi-immortal Knight (who seems to specialize in kidnapping young girls, locking them up in his castle in the wintry land of Phantasma with a plentiful supply of sleeping “herbs”, all in order to bring spring to the land) and Yuna (kidnapped spunky schoolgirl whose emotions seem to control the weather, spring comes after she falls in love with Rieno) have been living a rather isolated existence. I was wondering when I would start to see some of the plotting, backbiting, and drama that I expected after reading Kim Kang Won’s other series I.N.V.U. It all became clear in the third volume of Queen’s Knight as Yuna is shipped off to the main palace — she’s going to have to negotiate the trauma of dealing with court politics! Yuna is assigned 3 new Knights (the aristocratic Ehren Furst, fighting hothead Leon Per, and the harpist Schiller Licht), she endures her coronation as Queen, meets the scheming hereditary princess of Plantasma, and is surprised when Rieno randomly shows up in her bedroom. The nobles at the court are plotting to bring eternal spring to Phantasmia by interfering with Yuna’s feelings towards Rieno. Will their love (is it love) survive? Will Rieno be less moody? How will Yuna manage her knights and what is going to happen at the upcoming tournament?
I am liking the fantasy setting of Queen’s Knight, and I find the whole storyline about Yuna bringing spring to a wintery country with the power of her emotions amusing because of the thematic similarities to the Persephone and Demeter myth. It’s a nice light read with attractive art.

Love Manga’s News Round-up covers all the stuff that happened last week.

I read Cromartie High School and it is a great High School Fighting Manga that is a parody of High School Fighting Manga. It features a studious guy, Takashi Kamiyama, who through a quirk of fate has ended up attending the worst high school for juvenile delinquents in Japan. Takashi is always looking to the horizon, about to burst into an impassioned speech about the value of pacifism or studying while his classmates torment him by eating his pencils. It really skewers stereotypes about the style of fighting manga characters, and hey, it features a stoic character who looks suspiciously like the flamboyant lead singer of of a classic British rock group, so what’s not to like?