2 out of 5

On the more subjective side of this subjective principle of reviewing things, Steel of the Celestial Shadows has quickly slid into the kind of mange I actively dislike: constant power one-ups as plot devices. This isn’t solely a manga contrivance, of course – there are variants in US / UK books – but the flavor found in manga tends to be limited to battle series, where I’d allow it makes more sense. When it creeps into stories that otherwise have the vibe of dramas, it immediately chills my immersion. Because ‘Steel’ plays with some supernatural / spiritual elements via a cast of onmyoji – spiritual practitioners of different stripes – I knew to allow for some degree of power battles, I guess I was just hoping we wouldn’t lean as hard into it in volume 2’s chapters as Matsuura does, in which a rolling series of “reveals” are basically: here’s a power for you, and here’s a power for you, and here’s a one-up to your existing power… That kind of stuff just diminishes most tension for me.

Additionally, Matsuura absolutely backpedals into where they want the story to be over the course of a couple chapters. This is the less subjective part: the story structure makes little sense beyond being a delaying tactic. There’s a hard stop after volume 1’s battle during which failed samurai Konosuke has completely lost his memory of volume 1’s events, including those of the characters he met / knew – Tsuki, and his manservant. Eventually, we come to understand that this is a curse put upon him by the “bad” onmyoji, and that in itself is a nice wrinkle, but we spend multiple chapters in this memory lapse, which doesn’t accomplish much this early into our tale: we’ve hardly had a chance to get to know Konosuke, or Tsuki, and yet Matsuura depicts this sequence with immense dramatics, trying to force our connection with the characters; also, since we learn the cause of the issue pretty quickly, the memory stuff is too clearly just filling story space – twiddling Konosuke’s thumbs while other stuff happens with Tsuki and her kidnappers.

Later in the volume, Matsuura commits a secondary sin (for me) of doing flashbacks for new characters: we meet Aki, a medium, and setting aside the abruptness of her introduction, we learn plenty about her through her personality and powers as a medium; still, pages are dedicated to doing flashbacks to justify some phrase she utters or action she takes – sequences that once more can’t have much impact when we’re still getting to know a character.

There are also some quibbles to be had with pointless overlap in the storytelling, but that can be bundled under what I’ve already highlighted.

Visually, Daruma’s style remains strong, and I’d say her visual characterization is excellent: it’s very stylized, with lavishly animated angles for everything, but it’s consistent in that approach. The pages are never a bore to look at. And standing back from my criticisms, I do like the overall direction of the story, wrapping some history around a supernaturally-themed hero’s journey of a sort, picking up at the hero’s already lowest point. A forming mystery regarding the onmyoji is enough of a hook to lure a reader onward, and I’d suppose if blending that basis with fight manga-style power one-ups sounds fun to you, then my complaints will probably matter very little.