It looks classy. The art's superb, while the setting and premise are promising. Queen Kuraria likes sneaking out of her castle and having adventures, to the fury of her master-of-arms who's liable to punish her physically for this. This will put her in a predicament when she loses her copy of the castle key, because she can't just walk through the front gate and say "whoops". There's even a unique visual hook. Female knights in manga and anime tend not to wear their helmets (sacrificing defence for visual appeal), but this manga does the opposite. The queen of Mitera can wear any clothes she likes... but she also has to wear a knight's helmet. Yes, from a suit of full plate armour. This is bizarre, but memorable. (It would be dangerous in real life, though, because you could stage a palace coup, kill the queen and replace her without anyone realising.)

Then you start reading, though, and... hang on. The artist's lingering a bit on the female body, isn't he? The volume's last chapter has a little bald sleazebag whose superhuman athletic skills let him remove any woman's knickers or bare her breasts. He's on the rampage in a crowded bar. (Ironically, though, this is one of the volume's better chapters, because Kuraria's in serious trouble after getting pickpocketed by him and because the climactic action sequence is lively and entertaining. But also sleazy.)

The writing's variable. I wasn't interested in that macho warrior who hunts an unba, or in the Multiple-Choice Line-up where various women wear helmets and some bloke tries to identify the real queen. This volume's best chapters put Kuraria front and centre.

On balance, overall, I quite like this volume. Its opening chapter is nice (including the misjudging of a lizardman) and I was surprised in a good way by the long stretches of dialogue-free visual storytelling. It's an interesting use of the comics medium. At its best, this is a respectable fantasy and a good example of the genre done well. It's a fantasy realm of lizardmen, water spirits and giant man-eating monsters. There are savage mindless apes called unba and a smooth, smiling, voracious thing like a ten-metre axolotl. Unfortunately, though, it's fanservice-heavy and doesn't yet have narrative momentum or a point. If this series is going anywhere, there's no sign of that yet.

That was a lot less generic. I'm getting enthusiastic about this manga now. The first fifty pages show the unba getting organised and storming a castle. Six-metre-tall man-eating apes get serious. Our heroes are screwed. Mitera's a tiny country, after all, comprising one castle and 15,000 people. Less than five percent will survive this attack. Where they escape to is the land of Sepoiya, which is pretty damn weird. Its giant inhabitants look like walking pears, with tall cylindrical bollard heads and comedy faces.

Sepoiyan females, though, have normal human proportions (because of fanservice). They're the warlike ones. (The men are bigger, but not built for battle.) They don't use bladed weapons. When Kuraria's friend Olavie goes into combat, she straps a van-sized pile-driver to each fist... but even she can have trouble against an unba.

This is a charming volume, with supple storytelling and an impressive flexibility of tone. I loved the children's reaction to a Sepoiyan, for instance.

Yup, it's still good. I now like the first volume more in hindsight, because the weaker-looking chapters were actually set-up. We can see the story reason for the Multiple-Choice Line-up, for instance. (It was a rehearsal and a test, now needed for real when Kureria goes off on a solo mission for three months.)

The plotting's still supple and fluid. There's a big surprise fairly early, followed by interesting developments. Serious baddies appear towards the end. The fanservice has dwindled almost to nothing. I liked the Kuraria-Ruba relationship. This has turned into a genuinely decent fantasy saga and I'm planning to buy all the other volumes next time I'm in Japan.