Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: May 19, 2015
Price: $13.00
Creator(s): Kenji Saito (Story), Akinari Nao (Art)
Format: 192 pgs., B&W, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-3163-0221-0
Age Ratings: Older Teen
ICv2 Ratings: 2 Stars out of 5
When a manga volume is shrink-wrapped in plastic it will undoubtedly create certain expectations in your mind before you start reading it. Luckily in this case those expectations were largely unfounded as Trinity Seven gets off to a decent, if not ultimately forgettable, start.
The story opens with Arata living a perfectly normal life with his cousin and childhood best friend. The only thing is that the sun is black which seems odd to him. After a few pages of build up, we finally learn that Arata is actually living in a world that he created using magic and that his actual city was destroyed by something known as the Breakdown Phenomenon. Now Arata is joining a school for mages in order to figure out the secret to this phenomenon and how he can get his friend back.
Trinity Seven wants to be a lot of things. It wants to be an above average school comedy. It wants to be a sexy harem romance. It wants to be a thrilling action series. Sadly while it tries its best to do all of these things well it only barely manages to succeed at any of them.
It's not as though this series isn't off to a decent start but sadly none of the jokes or action scenes are particularly memorable and will likely fade from the reader's memory within only a few days of picking up this volume.
This is a series for readers who like their fan service to be a bit more on the campy side. How campy? One story within this volume revolves around characters being trapped in a room while all the female characters have to use the bathroom.
Trinity Seven isn't going to blow anyone out of the water but it might kill an hour or two while waiting for something better to come along.
--L.B. Bryant