A review by avjung27
Laughing Under the Clouds, Volume 2 by Kemuri Karakara

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I’m pleasantly surprised by Laughing Under the Clouds 2. We’re back to the three brothers of the Kumo clan, together again under one roof with only a little bit of hijinks. But, we barely have time to rest and relax before the brothers must face off with a new enemy, Naoto Kagami. A member of the government but also a bit of a crazed killer, Naoto gives them a run for their money, well at least Soramaru. With Tenka stuck at the clinic, surrounded by lower ranking government officials, Soramaru must rise to the occasion in attempts to take out the enemy to the family.

Okay. I’m surprised I got as pulled into the second volume as I did. I was pretty lukewarm on this series at the start, but I’m really, very much enjoying it this time around. We get some backstory on various characters, such as Shirasu, which was nice. I had been assuming that he would be a part of the Abe family or at least connected to Hirari in some way. I’m still not exactly sure this isn’t true, but I like that we don’t just have the same families connected and friendly from the past 600 years ago. We don’t know enough about the yamainu for me to truly judge them, but I like the concept of their creation.

Very, keep your friends close and your enemies closer vibes.

There were a few moments that I didn’t love about this volume. I thought the classroom scene was unnecessary. Was the cross-dressing just fan service or an attepmt at fan service? I can’t tell. It wasn’t enough of the plot to feel like it was actually needed, so it feels just kind of meh in the long run. It felt like they could have introduced

Botan back into the story in a more creative way?

I like that we do have some questions about the appearance that can be answered at a later time.

I’m hoping we start to pull away from Soramaru’s inferiority complex. I don’t actually mean that. I just am starting to get a little like, okay we get it he feels less compared to his brother. I just want to see some growth coming up soon, since we have been just wallowing in our sadness for a while. I did maybe say, yeah you couldn’t beat a random samurai previously of course you can’t suddenly beat a seemingly main antagonist for no reason bro. It does seem like he’s fighting stronger and stronger opponents and then getting sadder and sadder that he wasn’t able to beat them. Slow your roll there, Soramaru. Even with training, you can’t jump twenty levels and expect to be able to beat them. Go back and find an ex-samurai to fight again.

I was a little surprised with the ending. I didn’t think we needed to know

that Tenka is the vessel at this point. I thought it was a shocking enough ending to have Soramaru going along with the yamainu to the prison. I think the mangaka could have held their hand on the orochi a little bit longer.

I do think that basically the brothers would get over all of their problems if they would just open up and talk to each other, but I doubt that these three are going to be sitting down and having a heart to heart any time soon. 

I plan on continuing to read this series, though I’m not certain I will be purchasing it all right away. I will probably go nice and slow and make sure it’s still something I want on my shelves after finishing each volume.