Genei Musou/幻影夢想 Volume 4
Phantom Dream Manga Volume 4 Review

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Normally, I have no troubles reading manga. Unfortunately with Phantom Dream, I have had the most trouble reading this shoujo manga. That’s mainly because this is a disjointed, rambling manga that doesn’t do much to connect the readers to the characters.

***SPOILERS***

In volume 4, Tamaki has to try to save Eiji’s life, which Shahaku, Guardian of the Sepulcher of Haku agrees to do. However, Eiji’s “mom” is trapped down there and refuses to allow it. Asahi secretly provides the power needed to save Eiji but at the cost of being trapped in the Sepulcher herself. However, she’s granted one final wish to stop Hira with her powers, which she does before saying goodbye to Tamaki. Unfortunately, her efforts weren’t enough as Hira is not completely dead and begins to revive.

For the bonus story, we are given a backstory of Asahi and Tamaki, mainly dealing with Asahi’s abusive and unloving mother.

Ideally, Asahi’s act of self-sacrifice should have been a tear-jerking moment. However, since I’ve never really felt much for her nor Tamaki, I couldn’t get worked up over the moment. Besides, she’s all over the place as a character. Initially, she’s Tamaki’s cheerful lover. Then she switches sides. Now she’s back, only to die. Now that I think about it, I guess it is all pretty cliched. Now, things have been set up so that Tamaki can go rescue Asahi and have a final showdown with Hira in the final volume.

Again, Takaya-sensei’s story presentation is not very good. Things just feel like they happen, leaving the reader further disconnected from the manga and the characters. Often, I felt the need to reread a passage, not because it was good, but because I felt I missed something that got me from point A to B. Eventually, I just got tired of doing that. Its one thing to reread a passage because it is so good, you want to make sure you didn’t miss some small detail. It is another when you feel you have to reread a passage to understand and the thought of doing so makes you want to go to bed instead.

I’ll see how volume 5 goes, but to be honest, I don’t have high hopes. Thus far, Phantom Dream has been rather disappointing.