A Graphic Novel by Cab & Federica Di Meo

It has been a hot minute since I posted a Review for a chapter of Oneira, but I figured today would be a good day to get back into some of these episodically-released (at least in the US) comics I slowly get through. For those new to these, I’d recommend looking at a previous review to see what these are all about, but the short story here is that Europe Comics has licensed and translated this manga by French writer Cab and Italian artist Federica Di Meo for the English-speaking market. While Oneira is not from Japan, this is unequivocally a manga in pretty much every way unless you want to be pedantic about it. Federica Di Meo has trained in Japan to be a manga artist and both she and Cab have a firm grasp of the style and vibe of manga, especially stuff from the 90’s – 2000’s.

Continuing on from my review of the third chapter, today I will be looking at Oneira – Part 4 – Gold and Fire. While chapter three was definitely more of a white-knuckle horror story, one that I compared to something like the recent Netflix Castlevania series, chapter four is a small breather until we roll towards the final chapter of this “volume”. Don’t worry though, it’s not filler by any means as the mystery found in this will put you on the edge of your seat just like any fight scene!

“Call on her when nightmares become a reality! In an obscure world gripped by terror, our worst nightmares have come to life, becoming monsters that resemble humans. Faced with this threat, the Epeires corps, an armed wing of the Ordo-Sancti, a powerful religious group, becomes for a ray of hope in a world of darkness. By vanquishing the creatures coming from their own dreams, the Epeires awaken within themselves remarkable occult abilities. They’re able to free those who are imprisoned in their own nightmares and destroy the powerful beasts that have been terrorizing them with magic spells. Arane Heos, a cold and dispirited woman, is a member of the Epeires. A skilled swordswoman, she has slain more beasts than anyone can remember. But a burdensome secret, one that she has only confided to her friend Bastione, is going to put them on a collision course with the zealots of the Ordo-Sancti.”

Gold and Fire is definitely interesting because a layer of mystery gets added to the narrative by way of meeting a new character – Arane’s daughter, Venus. One can tell that due to her travels and work within the The Epeires Corps, Arane does not get to see her daughter too often. It appears that Venus is forced to move around a lot and is being kept somewhat away from Arane, as if she is being hidden away from something/someone. Arane’s page, a man named Bastione mentions that it is possibly time to reveal a secret to the girl, a fact that troubles Arane. Now I really want to know what is happening here!

I have posted this before, but I will go over it again. This book is basically structured as a five chapter manga volume as far as I can tell, and this has been split into five digital files that can be purchased one-by-one on the Europe Comics website or Amazon for less than a dollar a pop. If the website for Europe Comics is any indication, the price for every issue of this is VERY reasonable at just $0.75 an issue, and I think Amazon has them for $0.99 each! That’s an absolute steal if you ask me! Assuming this was a full manga trade, you would expect to pay something like $9.99 to upwards of $14.99 for something sitting at well over 200 pages, so you really can’t go wrong.

There are a lot of companies that break manga up into chapters and sell them piecemeal, which I actually feel is a great idea for the most part. This format works well for this, especially for those wanting to try this series out without too much commitment.

Much like with the second chapter of Oneira, this fourth chapter is a bit of a slow burn, but introduces a lot to unpack for the reader. I can’t wait to read more, so I’d say this is very successful for me at least, considering this manga always hooks me in. The writing and art here are top notch as always, and you really can’t go wrong with this if you are a fan of old-school fantasy manga such as Berserk, Record of Lodoss War, or Ys. Most fantasy manga nowadays are all Isekai, which really isn’t my bag, so a classical presentation here is refreshing. Hopefully, I won’t take so long to post a review for chapter five, so stay tuned for me to eventually finish off this volume!

If you are interested in this book, click HERE

Amazon has it listed HERE

For additional titles by the same publisher, Click HERE