It’s a sad truth that the vital first impression readers get about a comic comes from its artwork. Less known, however, is that comics are often sold on the last few strips. The latest comic often represents the face that readers are greeted with when they enter the website. What’s more, readers will often click onto previous comics and start reading a comic backward rather than start at the first strip. If the story doesn’t make sense and doesn’t show something to hook the readers, then often those people will move on without bothering to view the archives. This can be a problem with storytelling comics as plot and story isn’t always in-your-face interesting.

An example of this lies in Circumstances of the Revenant Braves. CRB’s story is complex enough that it cannot easily be read from the end to the start without completely confusing the reader. CRB’s roots lie in manga, and utilize some of the traditions found in Japanese comics. I first learned of CRB through the cartoonist’s signature art on the Megatokyo forums. Sadly, while the signature art was colored, CRB was mostly greyscale penciled sketches. Its appearance is rather unrefined, especially when compared to the vast number of inked strips out there; this roughness helps CRB stand out from its peers as Kristof S. is actually a good artist who can draw realistic people, clothing, and backgrounds with a minimum of lines.

The story is perhaps a touch harder to explain. It shares many traits with the Magical Girl genre, with granted magical powers meant to fight evil entities and all of that, with one significant difference: Kanzaki Kei is a boy. Unlike Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki, Kei remains male when using his powers (which appears to be for fighting Vices, or dark spirits that leech the positive aspects of humanity, resulting in people manifesting their worse traits). In addition, with the defeat of the first Vice, certain patterns are emerging. I already suspect which secondary characters will have Vices of their own that Kei will fight and overcome. But despite this probable predictability, CRB remains a diamond in the rough, well worth reading and watching as its rough edges are smoothed away, and the gem inside emerges.