Newish review up over at AnimeNewsNetwork, this time for a new-to-English-print SigIKKI series, House of Five Leaves.
While Natsume Ono’s previous works have left me a on the underwhelmed side, I found I enjoyed House of Dead Leaves. Her subtle charaterization was a lot nicer and less over-dramatic for the sake of being so. The Ero-period setting worked well and I think her art’s improved a lot too, House of Five Leaves being one of her more recent series.
In hindsight, I think my C+ grade for the art was a little low but my decision there was based on how extra subjective I think it is to people’s tastes. Natsume Ono’s art is always an easy deal-breaker as I see it. Personally I liked it here but the masses at large? Eh, maybe not so much by first impressions.