Title: To Your Eternity Vol. 8
Author: Yoshitoki Oima
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: December 18, 2018
The Story
Volume eight of To Your Eternity sees Prince Bon embark on a journey with Fushi across the land in order to prove to the world that he is not a work of the devil but someone who wishes to save the people. The Prince’s younger sister Pocoa hides in a barrel and tags along as does the Prince’s human chair, Todo. Kahaku and The Guardians also join the Prince and his army of men on this trek across the world. The journey takes them to several towns but their first destination where they ran into resistance was the town of Ilsarita. There, the head cleric Cylira catches up with them and makes a deal with Prince Bon to hand over Fushi in exchange for the church’s recommendation that he ascends to the throne in place of his brother.
Prince Bon takes the deal but is predictably double-crossed by the church and is sentenced to stand trial for heresy. Fushi is sealed in an iron prison and then had molten iron dumped on him, encasing him in an inescapable stronghold.
Saying more would spoil some of the events of the manga; however, we did receive some nice character development for several of our new characters… all of which I give about another six chapters for Oima kills them off! Some may think I’m kidding but I’m making a serious prediction here! If history taught us anything, it’s that you shouldn’t get any warm fuzzies over any of the characters in this series! Since the story settled down and focused a lot on character development during the plot advancement, let’s take a bit of a dive into what we learned this volume.
Characters
The first big revelation came with Fushi. Fushi’s powers have grown considerably unbeknownst to him. In one town, a girl named Anna was on her deathbed. Rumors of Fushi being a representative of God spread and so he was brought before Anna to save her life. Sadly, Fushi could not do anything to save an animate object so Anna passed away. When he had to show the extent of his power, he simply transformed into Anna and then transformed back, leaving Anna’s copy there as an empty husk. Fushi left; however, Prince Bon received word that Anna had come back to life! Unbeknownst to Fushi, this means that anyone he has come in contact with or has known can be resurrected when he makes a copy of their body and leaves it as an empty vessel. The Man in Black warned Prince Bon not to tell Fushi of this revelation because after being pained by loss so many times, there’s no telling what Fushi would do should he discover he could bring people like Tonari, March, Panoma, Gugu, and others back. It seems extremely cruel to deny Fushi this happiness after watching him suffer so much but it’s actually the most humane thing you could do for him at this point.
Fushi, himself, is reaching new lows for his depression. He has even gone as far as wishing he could die. He’s tired of watching everyone suffer. He even refuses to make new friends because he can’t stand the thought of becoming attached to someone only to see them perish once again. Fushi’s character is just getting deeper and deeper with each and every volume!
Prince Bon is continuing to steal the show here. His flamboyancy is usually reserved for stuck up characters who are simply feigning generosity but Prince Bon breaks that mold by making a character that genuinely cares about people, especially those who serve under him. Sure, his aspirations are to be king and even he, himself, doesn’t know why he wants the throne but it’s still undeniable that he cares about everyone… even Fushi. I know that’s odd to say because he gave Fushi up to get what he wanted, only to be tricked; however, he did so by thinking of his kingdom and his people. He thought about how they could be spared from the church simply by handing Fushi over to them. He didn’t make the decision quickly or lightly, though. It was a tough decision he had to make.. the kind of tough decision a king would make.
Oh, and he can see the dead, too! Creepy!
We received a little bit of shocking information about Todo. Todo offers a gateway into the realm of homosexuality as a topic in this series as he’s infatuated with Prince Bon. It may seem a bit odd but once you discover the reasons why Todo feels that way, it’ll make a lot more sense. Those who have read the volume may feel the need to correct me here for certain word choices but I can’t go spoiling everything, now can I?
Speaking of questionable sexuality… hi Kahaku! So, Kahaku was turned off when he saw Fushi as a boy but once he transforms into Parona, the old Hayase infatuation bursts right out of him! Remember in the last review I said that Kahaku was the first decent descendant for the Guardians? Yeah, forget I said all of that! Kahaku even tried to make a move on Fushi and paid the price for it. I had thought that we had escaped the whole lovey-dovey infatuation over Fushi with him but apparently, we now have to witness it in a whole new light. This also begs the question of who is going to be the next successor? Is Kahaku is a man and can’t have Fushi, does this mean that the Hayase lineage ends with him?
Final Thoughts
Even though we had one Nokker attack, I’m glad it was the only one in this volume. I know the Nokkers play a big part in the story but it was refreshing to see a different conflict take center stage for once. Religion is always a touchy subject but it seems in every story, religion is just your typical “good is really evil” story. Corruption, pushing their ways on others, the church is evil, etc. I know that’s how the history books were written here in the real world but does this really have to be the base of every religious story in a setting such as this? It’s almost like a cop-out plot device at this point in time. I wish someone would do something a bit more unconventional as it’s getting tiresome to see every story with a church in it just end up being some form of corruption.
The would be my only complaint about this volume. Other than that, it’s still a pretty solid read that explores some touchier subjects all while moving the plot forward. Unlike the last volume, we had a better balance of story progression and character development. I think this arc is about to wrap up next volume and then what? Another time skip? Or do we go right into another story? There are a few directions it could go. I would rather see a new story than another time skip. Skipping time again at this point would just depreciate that plot point due to overuse but we’ll see.
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