Le Chevalier d'Eon Volume 2

Rating T+ Genre manga Publisher Del Rey Manga External Links Le Chevalier d'Eon Volume 2

A mysterious force is turning people in France into "Poets," or vicious, murderous monsters. One person killed by these creatures is Lia, the sister of D'Eon, our protagonist. D'Eon is a member of King Louis' secret police, and he is investigating the Poet murders. And when D'Eon needs it, his sister, who has somehow descended into his body, emerges to become the Sphinx, destroyer of Poets.

There's a lot to like about this story. It sounds weird on paper, and it is weird, no doubt about it. It's a bizarre, supernatural murder mystery/action story set in historical France. Many elements of history make their way into the story, too, including some characters, such as Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, one of the creators of the Dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts, and des metiers, the world's first encyclopedia. There are historical references, too, like mentions of the Bastille and D'Eon's job as a member not only of the regular police force, but also of Louis' secret police.

The art style is mature, but this is still a manga. The characters have large eyes, but they're not transforming into super-deformed caricatures all the time. This keeps the story more serious, even in its few lighthearted moments. The character designs, though not generally that extraordinary, deserve mention, if only because of Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, who, even by the story writer's admission, looks a lot like Marilyn Manson. I don't think manga styles are as diverse as American comic book styles, but I prefer the darker, more mature look of Le Chevalier to something like Tsubasa

The dialog is pretty well written, actually, and I haven't been able to say that about a manga in awhile. It must be the more mature content, content which is actually mature and isn't just juvenile silliness parading about as maturity. There is some amount of French mixed in, which is fine, I guess, but it's one of those situations where, if the characters are supposed to be speaking French all the time, and we're reading it in an English translation of that French, why do some phrases appear in French? It's like in movies, where you know the characters are supposed to be speaking French, but they still say "Monsieur" instead of "Mister." I guess writers think it adds flavor or something. But nothing to really complain about.

I'm eager to know the whole story of Le Chevalier. I missed the first volume, and the television show is even more intriguing to me now. There's a lot of action, for action fans, and there's a deep mystery with lots of vague Western religious allusions, in the very Japanese style (it's weird to think of Western religions as "foreign," but that's what they are to the Japanese -- and as such, they are exotic and strange).

I haven't given a perfect score before now, but I feel confident that Le Chevalier d'Eon is the sort of book that I'll be giving these scores to in the future. Highly recommended.