Title: Queen’s Quality Vol. 21
Author: Kyousuke Motomi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance
Publication Date: February 4, 2025
The Story
The deep lore continues here in Volume 21 of Queen’s Quality! We dive deeper into Kaede’s (Fumi’s mother) past which also involves Tsubasa’s past as well. We watched as she and Yanagi grew closer together and then, one day, Yanagi confessed his feelings for her and she accepted them haphazardly. They covered how they had Fumi together; however, before all of that happened, she continued to care for Tsubasa as a child until, one day, she fell into a coma and Tsubasa made the decision to leave to enact revenge on the snakes to protect her for everything that she had done for him.
That is until one day he meets Inoue who feeds him information about Kaede being sent to the New Byakko Village to give birth to Fumi and live a peaceful life. Through both Tsubasa and Fumi, Kaede learns to be caring and not the cold-blooded killer that she had been. Unfortunately, this caused Yanagi to track her down and he did so by using a boy named Rokuro who was one of the children that Kaede tutored while being in New Byakko Village. They had a special bond which made him rather easy to manipulate. Yanagi had a disgusting and terrible plan for when he found her, though… something that would foster the darkest forms of despair in her heart.
Characters
I think the biggest development in this volume was not only Kaede’s past and all of the events leading up to explaining how she came to be in the present time but we were finally given the true identity of The White Queen, what she really is, her goals, her purpose, and everything else in between. The only thing that was left out; however, was how Fumi ended up becoming The White Queen. I’m sure we’ll get to that part soon as the volume ends with the backstory unfinished. There is more to be told here but we were given a massive chunk of it.
Tsubasa’s role was diminished a bit in this volume as it focused mainly on Kaede; however, it was for good reason. His sworn duty for vengeance was a nice way to put him aside and focus on Kaede but it showed that despite how the Suzaku Clan had used him, he remained pure at heart for so long. He was always eternally grateful to Kaede for saving him and giving him motherly attention… something he wouldn’t have had otherwise. He felt as if he owed his life to her and if that meant going on a snake-killing spree to protect her, then that’s what he would do. At the end of the volume, he does reappear and he is still a bit noble; however, more parts are missing in how he came to be a slave to the Suzaku Clan.
Through Kaede, we also get to meet Toko, Kyutarou’s mother. Kaede and Toko often meet inside the mind vault. Although their meetings were infrequent, they were quite meaningful whenever they held them. Toko was part of the Genbu Clan and it was through her that we learned about Takaya a bit more as well as his origins. She gave Kaede her contact information and offered her a place of salvation amongst the Genbu should anything happen. While nothing was made official in this volume, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots and understand just how Fumi made her way into the protection of the Genbu Clan and how that can deepen her relationship with Kyutaro.
Overall Thoughts
As we dive deeper into the lore of the series, we are starting to see all of the missing pieces of the puzzle slip into place. The big reveal of what the White Queen truly is wasn’t all that surprising… in fact, I was a little disappointed with it because it seemed like the cheap way out. I was hoping for something more grandiose, like a unique being or entity but what we got also worked. Even though it was a bit predictable, it does change our thinking about things when it comes to what we have been dealing with along with what we might deal with as the series wraps up.
One thing we know is that Yanagi is completely insane and ruthless. He is depicted as peaceful and loving in the earlier days of the flashback but you quickly learn it’s just a façade and that he is cold, cunning, and calculated. He is willing to do anything, play any role, and make any sacrifice to see his plan come to fruition… even if it has to span over multiple decades which it has. Every single move he made was carefully calculated to cultivate his end goals. This makes him a truly dangerous villain and probably one of the best-written cold-hearted villains I’ve seen in quite some time.
This was another great volume; however, I think the huge lore dump will be coming to an end with Volume 22. There are just some loose ends to tie up to get us back to the present and have everything make sense and the series looks primed and ready to do just that before heading into what should be the final battle between the Genbu and the Suzaku Clans. Can’t wait to see how things begin to wrap up!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
