Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn vol. 15

If there’s one character who has defined this title since its second arc kicked off in vol. 9, it’s Phobos.  The sinister-looking and sounding “sister” of Clarion certainly made an impression when she first appeared.  That impression being, “SHE’S CLEARLY EVIL!  WHY CAN’T ANYONE BESIDES CLARION SEE THIS?!?!”  Much to my surprise, mangaka Koshi Rikudo actually put in the work to convince us that Phobos wasn’t the villain she initially came off as.  Spending time with Nene and Clarion appeared to soften her as she learned more about humans, humanity, and life on Cenacle Island.  While it was clear that there was some bad stuff lurking in her past, it seemed that the character’s future was actually going to be happier than what I was expecting.

Until now.

The main draw of vol. 15 is that we finally see Phobos’ true colors and history.  This results in one of the more action-packed volumes of the series as a whole, and entertainingly so.  While light comedy and general cuteness has always been this title’s stock-in-trade, artist Rin Hitotose has shown off their ability to deliver an impressive action scene more than once in this arc.  They get more of a showcase here as the fight scenes involving Phobos not only have a kinetic appeal to them, but an emotional one as well.  Anyone who has been reading comics as long as I have will likely see the twists coming in this volume long before they actually arrive.  This won’t matter as Rikudo and Hitotose have already done the hard work in getting us to care about the characters involved in all the fighting going on here.  It results in a cliffhanger ending that had me going to Amazon to find out when the next volume would be out…

…and being immediately disappointed by the fact that I’m going to have to wait until DECEMBER for the resolution.