Laughing Under the Clouds Vol. 1 – Review

About

Under the curse of Orochi, the great demon serpent reborn every 300 years, Japan has been shrouded in clouds for as long as anyone can remember…

The era of the samurai is at an end, and carrying swords has been outlawed. To combat the rising crime rates, an inescapable prison was built in the middle of Lake Biwa. When brothers Tenka, Soramaru and Chutaro Kumo are hired to capture and transport offenders to their final lodgings in this prison, they unexpectedly find themselves faced with a greater destiny than any of them could have imagined.

Thoughts

I really liked this first volume, and definitely had a few friends in mind who I knew would enjoy this series. My favourite thing about this volume was the relationships between all of the characters in this story, both past and present, and I’m excited to see these relationships grow throughout the rest of the series.

I find it a little funny that this is listed as shojo on Goodreads, because it gives me more of a shonen vibe given the art-style and tropes. This has happened with a handful of shonen series listed on Goodreads, which makes me wonder if it’s possible that they’ve been shelved this way accidentally? If this is in fact actually a shojo due to the minor romance subplot of the story, then I apologize, but also like that’s awesome, because I’ve never read a shojo like this in my life. I know this might be a weird comparison but I liked this, the way I loved Beyblade and Yugi Oh growing up…because the bond between these characters was already so strong from the beginning, and there are overlapping storylines that help build the world. I’d compare the romance subplot to something like Ray and Mariah (Rei and Mao in the Japanese version) in Beyblade. It’s just enough where it doesn’t pull the reader away from all the other things happening in the story. It raises the stakes! Plus the story was cute. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll leave it at that.

I had so much fun with this story, and loved the world building and characters so I gave it a full 5-star rating!

I think a better comparison than Beyblade would be a film like 47 Ronin, since it has that romantic element to it but it’s an action, adventure with fantasy thrown into the mix. So if you’ve seen that film, you’ll definitely like this manga.

I can’t wait to check out the rest of the series!

Rating

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Check out my other manga reviews and recs!

One thought on “Laughing Under the Clouds Vol. 1 – Review

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