Chrono Crusade, Vol. 8 [Paperback]

Daisuke Moriyama (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 4, 2006

Deep within Pandaemonium, Chrono fends off hordes of demons while Rosette tries desperately to bring Joshua to his senses. Agents from Militia show up to join the fray - but the real fight begins when Chrono faces off against Aion in a final, climactic battle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: ADV Manga (July 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413903436
• ISBN-13: 978-1413903430
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ending of a unforgettable series..., September 9, 2006

By 

Lena LaFaye (Memphis,TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chrono Crusade, Vol. 8 (Paperback)

The ending to the Chrono Crusade series is tearjerking. Very few other manga series have made me cry at the end. I was secretly hoping there would be a romance between Rosette and Chrono but...oh well. My next stop is buying the DVD series which after reading the manga I have to. I absolutely loved this series and how it portrayed demons and humans. Aion's true conspiracy is revealed, Rosette and Joshua reunite, Chrono...well, I can't say anymore. It feels weird after being sucked into this series to read the ending. It makes me sit back and go WOW. Great manga series!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars STICKING TOGETHER, June 27, 2006

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chrono Crusade, Vol. 8 (Paperback)

It's the end of the line for Chrono Crusade as the series wraps up with Volume 8. Rosette has to lend her lifeforce to Chrono even though she knows she's probably going to die in the process. After all they've been through Rosette is not going to leave him behind. If they die, at least they should die together. But in the meantime, Rosette finds herself face to face with her brother Joshua, but when she begins to convince him that it's wrong to be helping Aion, he turns on her because his romanticized version of his sister doesn't gel with the reality. The last thing Rosette wants to do is fight Joshua to the death, but it might be necessary. While all this is going on, Aion continues to try to reach the core of Pandemonium so he can pretty much reset the Earth and gain his much vaunted freedom, even if it kills millions.

The conclusion of Chrono Crusade is bittersweet, but you knew it would have to end with some tragedy, just based on the relationships of the characters. Rosette was basically living on borrowed time, which she made the choice to do. Nobody forced her to make a contract with Chrono. The thing that really shines through this volume is the unconditional love that Rosette and Chrono give each other. Neither is willing to go on without the other and they stick by each other no matter what. There was always the chance for a romance but due to the situation of the main plotline, meaning the chance for Armageddon, that romance couldn't develop. We also get to see the real Joshua, not the brainwashed one, for the first time except for a flashback in an earlier volume, and why he desired the power of Chrono's horns. Well, I think the reader already knew, but Rosette gets to find out finally how Joshua always felt about her sheltering him. It's a shame to see this series end.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chrono's Journey, February 8, 2009

By 

Aion (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chrono Crusade, Vol. 8 (Paperback)

Note: This review is for Vol. 1-8 and not just Vol. 8.

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The first time I encountered Chrono Crusade (I called it 'Chrno' Crusade for many years!) was when the anime was still being fansubbed. It was random; I saw it was being subbed by a group that was subbing something else I was watching at the time and I decided to give it a go. I ended up following it weekly until the depressing (yet satisfying) conclusion, later going on to buy the lovely R1 slimpack box set. While I didn't give the anime top marks due to the rushed Gonzo 'original story' second half of the anime, I do think of it as a very solid 8/10 series that's great to watch.

Until last month, the above was the end of Chrono Crusade and me - I hadn't started reading lots of manga until long after my memories of the anime had faded and by then I didn't have the motivation required to read the manga online. However, I saw an auction for mint copies of Vol. 1-8 (the entire series) and, since I've always wanted to see the real story in full if I could get my hands on the series for a good amount, I won it.

It's safe to say the cover art of the volumes is the best I've seen up to this point. All of the cover art is wonderful and all of the covers have vivid colours that would catch the eyes of a wandering manga reader in a book store. And, to sweeten the deal further, the lovely colour artwork doesn't end with the covers; every volume has at least one colour page inside the book, the early chapters having quite a few and the near end volumes having only 1 or 2. These volumes were the first I've read to have some colour pages and I hope to see more of the same in my future purchases.

As for the standard black and white pages, the art quality is excellent throughout, thanks in no small part to the manga having been serialized monthly, which means the author had a lengthy amount of time to do his work in. Although I'm not knowledgeable when it comes to good and bad art, my uneducated brain failed to spot any flaws in the drawings.

The only problem with reading the panels I had was following certain parts of the action. A problem that I'm sure certain manga authors have is with planning fights and how the fights should flow from one panel to the next - it must be very difficult to accomplish when they're restricted to a set amount of pages. Some manga authors are good at putting stories together and others are good at putting action sequences together, and I think the author of Chrono Crusade is better at creating stories than he is at making action flow from panel to panel. But don't get me wrong; the fights weren't put together badly and I was able to understand what was going on most of the time, it's just I noticed how I wasn't following the action as well as with some shounen manga (Bleach, Dragon Ball, Naruto...) that I've read recently.

Before getting into anything else, it's best I give a description of the plot for people who, unlike me, haven't already watched the anime before getting into the manga...

Chrono Crusade comes across as rather silly at first: A nun/exorcist working for the Magdalan Order called Rosette Christopher and her demonic partner called Chrono go on trips around America killing demons. In between these character introduction missions is lots of comedy; some of it as a result of perverted jokes and the majority coming from the dialogue between the main two characters...or rather, coming from Rosette's short tempered personality and poor Chrono getting hit. Thankfully, the story becomes much more interesting and deep after those initial chapters - it isn't long before you're shown the tragic events that occurred in the past that resulted in Rosette agreeing to a contract with Chrono where she would give him the power to use his demonic abilities at the cost of her own life (Rosette wears a clock around her neck that ticks away when Chrono uses his powers from that point onwards). Without spoiling too much, all I can really say is that the reason behind Rosette joining the Magdalan Order and fighting together with Chrono is her brother, who went missing prior to the start of the story.

Forgetting about Rosette's brother, the heart of the story is about Chrono and his past as a sinner of Pandemonium (In the Chrono Crusade universe, Pandemonium is the equivalent of what we consider to be hell in our world). Chrono once betrayed his own kind by fighting for Aion (the leader of the sinners) in order to be free from the chains of Pandemonium. However, after the friendship the two shared soured due to a certain person, the two became enemies who walked different paths, leading to the start of the Chrono Crusade story.

What makes the story of Chrono Crusade special is the main theme of the story, which is how people can use what little time they have to the fullest. Rosette is fighting the clock throughout the story as her contract with Chrono causes her to lose a little of her life each time Chrono transforms into his adult/demonic form (he disguises himself as a youngish boy in order not not use his powers and hide his identity) and uses his abilities. Chrono, being the soft-hearted demon that he is, always tries his hardest not to use any of his demonic power, fighting like a human and simply supplying Rosette with ammunition for her guns at times. As Rosette selflessly throws away years of her life in order to save her brother and Chrono tries his hardest not to use his powers in order to keep Rosette alive, you can almost feel the unbreakable bond the two share just by reading the pages; they're the best of friends and yet by fighting together Chrono can't help but drain the life of the person he cares about the most - it's both touching and tragic.

It's very rare in any fictional story for a relationship between two characters to reach out and touch the heart of its reader/viewer, but that's exactly what Chrono and Rosette's relationship did in my case. What kept me interesting in the series wasn't the fact it has nuns with guns (and fairly large buns); it was the relationship of the two main characters. Most of the dialogue came across as natural as the two bonded over the course of the story. They argued and they cried but it was always clear that the two had strong feelings for each other, even if they didn't always express their feelings in words.

Just before shutting up about the story, let me add one complaint about the story that made me give it 8/10 instead of 9/10. I felt that too much story was crammed into the final chapters and not enough was spread over the other volumes. When I was reading the last 2 volumes I couldn't get rid of the thought that an easy to follow story had suddenly become far more difficult to follow due to the author not pacing it brilliantly. Some of the plot elements, one near the end in particular, lost me and it probably could've been avoided if more time had been spent explaining certain parts of the story.

Now that the most important bits are out of the way I can focus on the less important bits, starting with manga and anime differences. Apart from a death scene in volume 7, the anime diverges completely from the manga towards the end of volume 6. But even before the plot diverged completely, there was lots of filler added. For example, Aion appears much earlier (in the flesh) in the anime then he does in the manga, his anime appearance occurring during a zombie outbreak filler story...with him somehow ending up with his tongue down Rosette's throat. Aion also has another filler episode later where it's shown that he uses a human woman (who happens to be madly in lust with him) to kill humans in order for him to use their souls as energy...with Aion somehow ending up nearly raping Satella. Just going on those two examples, it should be clear that both the anime and manga are very different and show the characters in different lights...with Gonzo seemingly wanting to turn Aion into a sex pest.

Before my back refuses to allow me to bend over my keyboard typing, the last thing I want to touch upon is the ending of the manga. Surprisingly, both the anime and manga endings are very similar: Both end in the same sort of way (I can't elaborate without spoiling) and both stories fast forward to the future in the epilogue. If I was to choose between the endings, the winner would be the anime ending because...well, it ended the story in a depressing yet peaceful way. And, although I'm sure it was just threw in to make the story appear far deeper than it really is, I also liked the surprise at the very end of the final episode.

Overall, I loved the story to bits and would recommend it to anyone. If you're looking for a very well done story about someone shortening their own life to achieve their dream, this is for you.

Rating: 9/10

I'm now going to try to rest my poor back. Here's hoping the review helps someone!