neko's thinkbox

Ar Tonelico II Vol.2 Cover

Spent the whole morning in a waiting room at the hospital, the doctor being over an hour late for appointments – best conditions to keep reading manga! And I’m sure a lot of people were just wondering what kind of moonrunes I was reading there. （笑）

In b4 Replekia~

Well, what it said. :P So. This volume…

Nah, come here. It means…

It’s very literal and might sound weird… Hope it’s not too far off. Besides, I don’t get the punctuation in the manga… it’s odd.

So. This volume started with a bang, Luca being featured as the new Holy Maiden (she didn’t sing EXEC_SOL=FAGE/. though, weird – then again what Cloche sang above wasn’t METHOD_REPLEKIA/. either), planning to sing “Hibernation”^[4] and Cloche rebutting with taking control over the Infel Phira, and attacking the Goddess. Raki wards off the attack, counter-attacks, Robo-Jakuri intervenes, yada yada. Basically the same as in the game.

And sadly, the whole second volume sticks to the original story all the way through. In this aspect, I was a little disappointed. I enjoyed recalling the story up to that point, yes, but it was not really what I expected, or what I thought the first volume made me expect.

Praise my l33t scanning skills. T_T

Praise my l33t scanning skills. T_T

There are certain changes indeed, but those serve mainly as a means to shortening the story (e.g. only one small battle on Gaea, no silly games/trials, go immediately to the Heart of Gaea). As such, we never meet Laude, the Shopkeeps, the IPDs, Cosmospheres and Dive Therapy (what a shame!) – it means some constellations are slightly different: for example, the downloading of the Metafalica Hymn Crystal (handed over by Alfman, also present at the Hill of Metafalica) was done by Croix. And so on.
But the song was still incompatible with Cloche, Luca was struck by lightning (she even had that short flashback of Frelia in the Dive Machine at Kanakana Pier), and she turned into Gaea; then Promise Hill, Infelsphere, etc. As I hoped it was not, it is sadly an almost 1:1 copy of the story now. Nevermind the plot, I was fine with it all along; but I wished there was a more… original story.

Well, there was one noticeable difference, and that was Jakuri’s character: In the game nonchalant, ambiguous and shady; in the manga, cooperative, talkative and much less misanthropic, although she still does throw her song magic into her allies’ vicinity. As with Cloche, it’s nice to see a change, but a great part of her personality and her enticing mysteriousness is now lost. Not saying I liked her mischievous agenda plotting better, but… yea. Still, better than no change at all.

Introducing herself at the Grand Bell already, and explaining everything. She's not the Jakuri I know and wub :(

Introducing herself at the Grand Bell already, and explaining everything. She’s not the Jakuri I know and wub :(

Apart from that, there isn’t much that stood out this time. Well, the Replekia part was awesome, yes, but that’s it. I still am enjoying the good design, the occasional humor bits (usually triggered by Soope and/or Cloche’s weakness for cute stuff), and am looking forward to reading the Volume 3, which is already the last one. And it has only covered 2 Phases out of 5! And I can’t imagine it’ll be able to cram the last three Phases into the last volume… well, unless they skip almost the entire Infelsphere and climbing up the tower.

I just don’t hope my criticism above is the reason why the third volume only got 2 stars out of 5 from User Reviews at amazon.jp… I’m still hopeful. Aya Megumu, don’t disappoint me.

By the way, I miss Cynthia and Sasha. :( Then again, if their sacrifice was required to keep Spica away… so be it.

To brighten up the mood in the end, here’s the omake 4koma printed on the back cover. (Won’t translate that one now though, sorry. May add it later.)

Infel with her extremely 'cold' jokes, and Jakuri, as nonchalant as ever. xD

At least in the 4koma, they’re just like we know them: Infel with her extremely “cold” jokes, and Jakuri, as nonchalant as ever. xD

1. Well I think it’s not “their” anger per se, but I think it sounds better like this. :3 [↩]
2. Wanted to write “concentrate on your anger”, but that would sound… weird? [↩]
3. Here, furiously as in “full with anger”, not (just) “vehemently”. [↩]
4. EXEC_HAIBANATION/., which is used to transfer the souls of all the people of Metafalss into the Infel Phira and let them live their own perfect life without interaction, you know, that “mass Dive Therapy into Frelia” explanation. [↩]