One of my favorite genres of manga is the fantasy/mythological story. So it's really no wonder that I enjoyed Makoto Tateno's 'Angelic Runes' manga so much. Having read several other manga series by Tateno ('Happy Boys', 'Yellow' & 'Hate To Love You'), I knew that this manga artist had a good drawing style, but I didn't know that she could tell such a fantastic otherworldy tale.
The plot of 'Angelic Runes' is easy enough to follow. The main character, Sowil, was born with an unusual sort of magic that no one else seems to have. Determined to find out who and what he actually is, Sowil goes out in search of his father. While traveling, Sowil happens upon a village and sees the townspeople about to bury a couple of children alive. The children turn out to be twins who also were born with strange abilities. Like Sowil, they killed their mother while being born by literally burning their way out of her womb.
Sowil convinces the villagers to allow him to take the children with him, thus saving the twins from being murdered. He finds out that the male twin, Erudite, has the ability to hear angels talking, and the girl twin, Allueh, has the ability to hear demons talking.
The angels in the story seem to be traditional biblical or Christian names, for instance, some of the demon names are Lucifer, Leviathan, Mammon, Baal and Belial, and some of the angelic names are Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, Raziel and Teriel. All of these demons and angels actually do supposedly exist in one form or another if you look them up.
The real mystery of the series is trying to figure out where Sowil and the children got their powers. It's pretty obvious that Sowil's father was supernatural in some way, and it looks like he may have had the same ability to use magical runes that his son has now inherited. Even the angels and demons don't know how Sowil received his powers, so they seem to be helping him out by trying to lead him to various clues about his heritage.
One of the most interesting aspects is that Sowil's master and mage, Taurus, reveals that it is really Sowil himself who is keeping the truth of his father's identity hidden. Sowil seems to have subconsciously cast a spell on himself and everyone in his hometown so that none of them remember anything at all about his father. An interesting conflict of interest to be sure.
While searching for his father, Sowil and the twins run into many different supernatural creatures that manage to keep the story interesting and exciting. There are several small battles waged in which Sowil uses his magical runes to keep himself and the children safe. Pretty soon it is obvious that Sowil just may be one of the most powerful supernatural beings around. It seems to be fate that he met the twins, and there is no doubt that those children will likely play a big part in the ending of the story.
I would definitely recommend this story to anyone who likes fantasy manga. You can currently buy the first volume (published by DMP) from akadot.com and save almost 40% off the cover price. You can also pick up a copy at any Dayton area Barnes & Noble store (if they don't have it in stock, simply ask them to order it). According to Barnes & Noble's website, you can go ahead and pre-order the second volume as well (even though the second volume won't officially be released until 6/28/2011).
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