Agents of the Four Seasons Volume 2 Review

When Yen Press released the first volume of Agents of the Four Seasons, I was delighted, given I was a huge fan of Kana Akatsuki’s work. But nothing could have prepared me for the emotional depth and weight of this series: something that we’re now getting to experience as part of the spring anime season thanks to Wit Studio! And now I felt it was time to get back to the source material and see how the second half of Dance of Spring plays out.

We pick up right where we left off. The Agent of Autumn, Nadeshiko, has been kidnapped by the same group of insurgents that took Hinagiku in the tragedy that unfolded a decade ago. Now her guard, Rindo, is beside himself with worry for his young master and has no idea where to even start when it comes to finding her.

Luckily for Rindo, the other Agents are at hand to help in the search. Hinagiku and Sakura want revenge on those who did them harm all those years ago, and thanks to their friendly relationship with the Summer Agent Ruri and her guard Ayame, they’re more than willing to help in the search too. And then there’s the Agent of Winter, Rosei, who also bears so many scars due to Hinagiku’s kidnapping and won’t allow that to happen to another. Together, the four seasons prepare to fight back. But it’s not just Nadeshiko they need to worry about; Hinagiku and Rosei are being targeted as well.

Having spent a volume setting up the world and introducing us to the four Agents, Dance of Spring’s second part goes all in on the action. But that’s not to say it’s less dense or emotionally heavy because it’s absolutely still both of those things. Everyone involved with Winter and Spring has trauma related to the attack on Winter Town when they were children. Sakura who lost her master for so long and can’t forgive all the adults who gave up the search; Rosei, who felt it was his fault as the target of the attack; and Itecho, the eldest of the four, who could do nothing to protect Hinagiku or hold Rosei together afterwards. And of course there’s Hinagiku, who made it home but insists the old her is dead. And in all this time she still hasn’t seen Rosei face-to-face. What will happen once she does?

It’s impossible not to flip through these pages with baited breath, praying that in the end these characters will be happy. They’ve been through so much already that they deserve that. And there are happier moments, sweet interactions between the cast befitting their young ages, and glimpses of a bright future. Akatsuki might be writing a story that’s filled with grief and hardship, but it doesn’t wallow in misery. And that’s the beauty of it. There’s no escaping what these characters have been through and the scars that has left on them, nor what they will continue to face due to those that stand against them, but this is not a series that is unnecessarily cruel. Everything serves a purpose in the end.

And that extends to the insurgents as well. In this book, we meet the one responsible for holding Hinagiku captive all those years, and it becomes clear that, yes, they are evil, but in some ways they’re just a byproduct of their environment and the things they’ve experienced. That doesn’t change the hatred we and the cast feel toward them, but it does make them interesting characters in their own right.

Outside of the emotional turmoil of this book, there are plenty of action scenes as the cast inevitably ends up fighting the enemy, and quite a lot of political intrigue too. The group that kidnapped Nadeshiko aren’t the only ones the Agents need to worry about; there’s a group that are devoted to Spring and go about their beliefs in entirely the wrong way. People you thought you could trust aren’t necessarily standing on the right side either. Ultimately, the Agents and their trusted guards may be the only ones who can trust one another. By the time you reach the end, you understand why this storyline was split across two 350-page releases. There is a lot happening (too much if it were any other writer), but it wraps up very satisfactorily while paving the way for future books. I was very impressed, but given Akatsuki also penned Violet Evergarden, a series that is similarly incredible, perhaps that should come as no surprise.

Agents of the Four Seasons Volume 2 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press under the Yen On imprint and continues to be translated by Sergio Avila. The translation reads well, although I felt there were a couple of times where Ruri and Ayame’s names were swapped by accident. They’re twin sisters, and I appreciate it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of who is who in a scene, but there are just one or two instances where the surrounding text didn’t make sense with the name we were given. But that is a very small quibble in the face of what is otherwise very good work. As with the first volume, this one also comes with colour pages, including a fold-out that doubles as a character profile sheet.

The series is still ongoing in Japan, with 8 volumes currently available there. Here in English, Yen Press has released Volumes 3 through 6, with the next release being #7 in October. Yen Press also releases one of the manga adaptations. As mentioned earlier, there is also an anime adaptation currently airing (available on Crunchyroll), which you can read my thoughts on in our Spring Preview. 

Overall, Agents of the Four Seasons Volume 2 brings an end to the Dance of Spring storyline and leaves me with anticipation for future storylines but also in awe of Akatsuki’s writing. There are so many things I could say about this series, but when it comes down to it, there’s nothing else like this. Particularly nothing else that can balance such delicate and difficult subjects in a way that’s so engaging.

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