Once again, Pandora Hearts delivery as the fantasy action series every Kuroshitsuji fan should be reading. It has managed to evolve from its original form as a riff on Alice In Wonderland into something all its own, complete with its own mythology and world building courtesy of Jun Mochizuki. The more I see of Gil and Oz's past as well as Gil's life during Oz's stay in the Abyss, the more of these scenes I want to see. The introduction of Vincent adds a much-needed element of conflict into Gil's life and the subplot involving Philippe leads to some interesting developments involving both Oz and Alice's pasts. Once again, I'm looking forward to the next volume in this series! ( )

This series is still dropping names all over the place like the mean something, but they aren't really going to explain anything so EVERYTHING remains all confusing. Continuing to also rain characters down from the sky and explain none of them. ( )

This book adds quite a bit of backstory to our characters’ pasts. When B Rabbit/Alice asks about Oz’s parents and Oz runs into a young boy whom he sympathizes with; we get some flashbacks into Oz’s relationship with his father that explain a lot about his personality.

We also find out more about what happened to Gil during the time when Oz was in the Abyss. Additionally we are introduced in more depth to the Nightray Dukedom and get to learn more about Vincent and Echo.

As with previous books there is an action packed fight between B Rabbit and an escaped Chain. With all these escaped Chains our characters are beginning to suspect something is afoot…

The artwork is well done and pretty easy to follow. The plot is getting fairly complex and jumps between groups of characters abruptly...so the story is harder to follow. I had to go back and reread things a number of times to make sure I understood what was going on. Because of this I didn’t like this book quite as much as volume 2.

Overall a well done addition to this series. Things are getting a bit convoluted and complex to follow. However, I am enjoying all the interesting background we get on our characters. I plan on continuing the series. ( )

At this point in the series, Break looks like a creepy user, Vincent is just plain creepy (but also a devoted brother?), and Gil is obsessed with Oz. And Oz is an idiot who throws himself into danger without a single thought.

Again, aspects of Philippe's story and the girl contractor in the previous volume should probably have been combined. Philippe and his father's story is a bit stronger than the girl contractor's, but it still falls flat in the end. Philippe, having served his purpose, ends up being completely forgotten, which doesn't gel well with Mochizuki's efforts to make both us and Oz care about him at least a little. Not a single person asked “Who's going to take care of Philippe now?”, and it bothered me.

One question that occurred to me after I finished this volume: How can killing a Chain free its contractor if damage inflicted upon a Chain affects the Chain's contractor? Wouldn't killing the Chain also kill the contractor? Maybe there was an explanation that I missed.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

I definitely like the series. I just wish I didn't have to go backward, so often, to figure out who someone is or what is happening in the story. I feel a little like the crazy rabbit with missing pieces of "memory."

I know it is not just my inexperience with Manga, because there are several other series I can follow with no problem.

( )