Unnamed Memory Volume 3 Manga Review

With the anime adaptation of Unnamed Memory being delayed into 2024, fans of the series have been left hungry for more content to enjoy. Thankfully, Yen Press are here to save the day with a new volume of the manga adaptation! Let’s dig into Volume 3 and discover what’s in store for us. 

As we reunite with Oscar and Tinasha we find them fighting off an army of undead monsters, summoned by a mage who remembers Tinasha from seventy years ago. This unnamed mage is the one behind many of the strange and dangerous happenings in the kingdom recently, but his plot doesn’t end here. 

Seventy years ago, the Kingdom of Farsas and the neighbouring country Druza went to war, but due to Farsas overpowering Druza in less than a week, the country decided to fall back on a last resort – summoning a demonic beast that slept at the bottom of the Magical Lake situated between the two countries. At the time Tinasha, who was a companion of the king of Farsas, stepped in to seal the beast but not before over 2,000 people from the kingdoms lost their lives. 

Now this rogue mage is hoping to summon the beast once more, in the hopes of wiping out Farsas and restoring Druza to its former glory. Now it is a race against time for Tinasha as she races to defeat the enemy, stop the summoning and keep Oscar out of harm’s way. 

So it probably goes without saying that this instalment of Unnamed Memory largely involves lots of fight scenes. And on top of that, there’s the sense that we’re starting to get to the bottom of some of the plot threads we’ve been following since the beginning of the series. The dynamic between Tinasha and Oscar is also beginning to change, with him listening to her request to stay behind and letting her go off to stop the summoning without him. 

But hearing that Tinasha used to stand by his great-grandfather’s side, Oscar can’t help but wonder if the reason she’s willing to go so far for him and the kingdom is due to this old relationship. Having been hoping to court her affection, Oscar’s left thinking that once she’s broken his curse she may well return to her tower rather than stay by his side as she pines for a world and relationship from seventy years ago. 

And of course, Tinasha has plenty of concerns of her own now she knows the rogue mage came from Druza. Trying to break Oscar’s curse is difficult enough without having to worry about other countries looking to bring harm to Farsas, especially those who might be after her and not just the kingdom. And now everyone knows she’s a Witch thanks to their enemy blurting it out in front of Oscar’s knights, so Tinasha worries about being discriminated against by those she’d become friends with. 

Then there’s the demonic beast, an enemy that Tinasha sealed seventy years ago due to its high magic resistance and an inability to kill it. Despite the fact that her magic has become stronger over the years, it seems unlikely that she’ll be able to defeat it this time either, should the seal be broken. 

Here in Volume 3, it feels as if everything is beginning to come together for this adaptation. Volume 1 struggled to juggle the wordy dialogue while leaving space for the artwork to capture the characters and their interactions. Volume 2 balanced this a lot better, but it’s only when we get here into Volume 3 that it feels like mangaka Naoki Koshimizu has found the right combination. Gone are the overfilled pages of text and now we’ve got an adaptation that contains enough information to be easy to follow and with a better emphasis on show, not tell. And now we can go forward, safe in the knowledge that Koshimizu is sure to depict some of the most meaningful moments of the series in a way that will be satisfying both for manga-only readers and the existing light novel fans. 

As previously mentioned, Unnamed Memory Volume 3 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and continues to be translated by Jeremiah Bourque. As always, the translation for this one reads well with no problems to note. 

Now we’re in for a bit of a break as Volume 4 isn’t scheduled for an English release until January 2024, but that will get us caught up to Japan. So, it’s no surprise that the schedule will be slowing down greatly going forward. Still, these are certainly worth the wait! 

Overall, Unnamed Memory Volume 3 continues on the upward trajectory of the previous book. As some plotlines from the beginning of the series come to a head, we’re getting a clearer picture of the problems Tinasha and Oscar will have to face going forward. 

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.