Review by Karl Verhoven

Kyonosuke was home-schooled after an accident that left his face badly scarred. When he eventually has to join the school system at fifteen he’s relentlessly bullied, but the compensation is a friendship with Akira, who identifies as a woman. With both their fathers violently intolerant of their relationship, by the end of Scars 1 they’d run away together, altering their appearance as much as possible and finding employment in a restaurant far away.

Much of the opening volume was harrowing, presenting a level of bullying well beyond that usually seen in graphic novels aimed at teenagers, after which showing how Kyonosuke became scarred was almost an afterthought. Here Brandon Arias rescues that scene via a brilliantly conceived turn of the emotional screw.

However, having built the series on Kyonosuke and Akira, Arias switches focus to the characters who’ve taken them in. For story purposes we don’t need to know anything other than them being a kindly couple, but instead there’s an entire backstory and it’s very similar to Kyonosuke’s experiences. It explains the understanding, but occupies around half the middle volume of what’s planned as a trilogy without adding much. “Life can be cruel sometimes, but there’ll always be someone who comes along to help you through the hard times” is the lesson given.

That’s followed by a skiing trip, the purpose of which is to foster jealousy, but given the bond between the two lead characters, it’s unconvincing, and that removes the power from what develops.

Arais has also loosened the art, and lacking the shock value of the earlier material unwanted attention is drawn to some sketchy and poorly proportioned figures.

By the end the story appears back on track, but that won’t be confirmed until Scars 3 appears. Overall, though, this disappoints when compared to the strengths of Scars 1.