Review by Frank Plowright

Flower of the Deep Sleep began cheerfully, but gradually morphed into a haunting tragedy, with the revelation dropped to end Vol. 1 upsetting for lead character Yuuki. Her relationship with her twin sister has been troublesome, but her sister lying asleep in reality while preferring to live in a dream world shocked Yuuki. Also involved are brothers Ryuune and Ryuunosuki, each with their own psychic talent, complementing Yuuki’s visions of the future. A fair amount of catch-up text accompanies Yuana Kazumi’s attractive portraits opening this volume.

The key target for Yuuki is somehow rescuing her sister from the world of dreams, but Kazumi opens by following Ryuune, delving into his childhood, and how his ability to see into the dreams of others affected it. Beyond that Kazumi piles on the tragedy in what develops into an emotional ride well beyond the usual teenage drama, and the additional supernatural elements drive the feelings.

Halfway through there’s a shocking scene reconfiguring Yuuki’s intentions. So far she’s had visions of the future without being able to affect what happens, so she’s only seeing it in advance. Now, though, she’s determined to change the future she’s seen. It involves manipulation, temptation and heartache for the full emotional roller coaster.

As before, Kazumi tells the story predominantly through the use of faces and expressions, but the people are delicately well drawn. In places, though, she slips into something more allegorical or  abstract, with an illustration of a rose and breaking glass especially memorable, and the black patterns separating reality from elsewhere are an appropriate visual device.

Before the end Kazumi takes another surprising turn, addressing issues of self-esteem, yet rather than being a trivial last minute inclusion they’re fundamental to everything that’s happened. It’s a clever device. Flower of the Deep Sleep is gloomy, but this emotionally draining tale with supernatural overtones is unpredictable drama, and as it’s only two volumes there’s no committing ten years to following a manga series.

Paperback editions from Tokyopop are long out of print, so the best way to experience Flower of the Deep Sleep now is via the Viz Select digital editions.