D.N.Angel New Edition, Vol. 3 by Yukiru Sugisaki: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

D.N.Angel New Edition vol. 3 by Yukiru Sugisaki

Third volume of this new omnibus edition consists of two stories. First, the latter part of Stage 2 (vols. 6-11), where Dark gets lost in the mirror world. Daisuke goes after him, and the only way to rescue him is to find the feathers of his memories. It’s a bit hasty, confusing sequence, but Daisuke succeeds in the end. He also learns that he likes having Dark around, and wonders what will happen when he’ll eventually leave for good.

The story takes place in the holiday island where the class has travelled. Riku is still missing, so Daisuke goes to find her. Everything should be romantic, but he shies off confessing to her, mostly because of misunderstandings, and because he kind of fears she’ll like him back, which would mean Dark would go away. So Dark takes matters into his own hand.

Another confusing sequence of events follows, where Krad manifests and he and Dark fight. We learn that the magic of Krad and Dark is too much for the hosts and it corrodes the hosts until there’s nothing left, the reason there’s a limit to how long one can host them. Only, it seems Krad doesn’t care, which is why Hiwatari is always sickly.

The second story is called The Second Hand of Time, and we get the first part of it (vols. 1-4). Daisuke’s class stages a play and decides to have an all-male cast. Daisuke is chosen to play the female lead and Hiwatari is the male lead. In a confusing twist of events, a new boy (man) shows up in the class and declares himself as the producer. He changes the classic love story so that the male character is Dark, played by Hiwatari.

Turns out, the man is really after proof that Daisuke is Dark. But Daisuke manages to trick him with the help of Wiz and leave, as Dark, to steal a legendary item, The Second Hand of Time. But things go wrong for him, and he, as Daisuke, gets sucked into a dreamworld, while Dark remains in the real world. Dark goes after him, accidentally taking Riku with him. The volume ends with Hiwatari launching his own operation. But is it to save Daisuke or end him and Dark for good?

This was a great volume, even if it was a tad confusing at times. Both Daisuke’s romance with Riku, and his friendship with Hiwatari progress. I still believe that the latter is more meaningful for them both; Daisuke prevents Dark from ending Krad, because it would mean the end of Hiwatari too. The romance with Riku is childish (though in all fairness, they’re 14) and exists for trope’s sake. But I won’t be getting my wish for a BL story here.

There was a longer extra story about Risa and Riku’s childhood, and like before, excellent full colour character plates.

Full colour character plate of Hiwatari.

 

Hiwatari as Dark for the play.