Title: The King’s Beast Vol. 2
Author: Rei Toma
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Romance, Fantasy
Publication Date: May 4, 2021
The Story
The second volume of The King’s Beast sees Rangetsu still untrusting of Prince Tenyou… so much so that she runs away from him, giving way to a wild goose chase. While running, she thinks hard about how she’s acting and decides to finally stop, asking Tenyou if she can trust him. Tenyou assures her of his goals and what he wants to accomplish, causing her to solidify her thinking and make her decision to stick by his side.
Meanwhile, Taihaku surveys the whole incident and even though he feels Tenyou is being easy on her, he goes to reprimand her for her actions personally. That’s when he catches Rangetsu changing and discovers her secret… that she’s really a girl. He could immediately report this but something inside of him decides to hold the secret to himself.
After everything settles, Tenyou takes Rangetsu to meet the first prince, Oushin, and his beast servant Teiga. After learning a bit about him, Rangetsu returns and spars with Teiga, discovering that he’s quite weak. Teiga relies on his special powers in battle and not his hand-to-hand combat. Rangetsu admonishes him for his lack of skill but Teiga says that Oushin spends all his time indoors, never goes anywhere, and has no enemies so there really isn’t a need to sharpen his skills. Rangetsu finds this deplorable and decides to keep watch over Oushin as well. This is when she discovers that an innocent female Ajin is on trial for a murder that she didn’t commit and Oushin was asked to intervene in the trial. Without hesitation, he called for a guilty sentence and that pissed Rangetsu off.
She convinces Oushin to let her have one day to look into the matter but the evidence she finds won’t change anything. She has a pretty good tongue lashing for Oushin that calls for him to take a different action on the case. Tenyou is told everything and commends Rangetsu for standing up for her beliefs but now this might cause a change in the way people see Oushin which means that Teiga seeks out another spar with Rangetsu, finally taking his training seriously!
Characters
Rangetsu didn’t really change all that much. She simply made up her mind about whether or not she could trust Tenyou and is now acting upon those beliefs. The more and more time she spends with him, the more those beliefs are becoming affirmed.
The focus here was put on Taihaku, Oushin, and Teiga.
With Taihaku, you can tell that he wants to follow the rules and turn Rangetsu in for lying about being a boy. What Rangetsu is doing is, technically, a high crime as only female Ajin with unique special abilities are granted a rare leniency and allowed to serve as a prince’s beast servant. Since Rangetsu has no powers, this means that she is in complete violation of the law. Despite wanting to turn her in, Taihaku keeps it to himself; however, it doesn’t mean that his act is noble. He’s waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill Rangetsu and make it seem as if it were an accident or just part of the line of duty. He is definitely somebody to watch.
Oushin, on the other hand, is sick and terminal. He wants to use his remaining time to live a peaceful life and doesn’t like bothering himself with too many things. This is why he immediately votes guilty for the trial. He has become lost and empty inside… someone who simply occupies a position as a warm body. However, through Rangetsu, perhaps he’s beginning to realize that there is still purpose left with his remaining time, causing a bit of a change in him. We’ll see how this all ends up in the future.
The same can be said about Teiga. Oushin’s personality and emptiness has been a direct reflection on Teiga as a whole. He has special powers so he doesn’t need to train… and he feels that he doesn’t need that training because Oushin doesn’t really need much protection due to his apathy. Once again, Rangetsu instigates a change of attitude in him and he, suddenly, wants to take training a bit more seriously.
Final Thoughts
The second volume of The King’s Beast was just as enjoyable as the first. Rangetsu is slowly becoming an influential character. Her actions are beginning to positively affect others which makes you wonder how long this is going to continue until something drastic happens. It’s pretty obvious that the drastic event is going to be the unveiling of Rangetsu being a girl, thus causing a ton of commotion. That much is painfully obvious for this series. How will Tenyou react to it? How will all of the other people she touches and changes react to it? Will it be enough to defend her or will they all turn her backs on her?
One of the biggest recurring themes in these first two volumes is the two-faced nature of humans. No matter how nice they seem, once their backs are against the wall, it’s easy for them to just pin the blame on Ajins since that is what society expects. All Ajins are guilty and all humans are innocent. Why take the hit for a crime when you can just pin it on an Ajin and be done with it? If they find out Rangetsu is a girl and realize what she did was a crime, would there be any humans that stand up for her? I think that’s what this series is truly trying to set up. They’re having Rangetsu make all of these connections early on only to go with the big reveal.
When it all happens? Who will stand with her? Who will turn on her? That seems to be the hook for this series… the biggest question is when is all of this going to happen? My best guess is right when Rangetsu has enough evidence to find out who killed her brother. That’s when all of this will become the proverbial monkey wrench into the gears.
Or, I could be wrong! That’s the fun thing in thinking about stories such as this! What I think would happen versus what actually happens! I can only see if I’m right on a volume by volume basis… so let’s check out Volume 3 and see if my hypothesis is the path the series will take!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
