Ok, I've come to terms with Sora being a guy, but how in the world is Anglade a guy? Such strange art!

Anyway, other than not being able to figure out characters until someone else refers to them as "him" or "her," the story continues to spin in interesting ways, now connecting to mythological stories of the sea and stars. Curious to see how it progresses, and what the final crisis is that some of the characters fear. I'm also interested to see the recent anime; I suspect that motion and color will really bring this story to life.

The dialogue is not a huge part of this manga, but I like this insight about words, from Ruka:

Sometimes I lose my voice too. Like with my parents and my teachers. In my head, I have so many things I want to say to them. And the thoughts go around and around...but the more I try to put them into words...the more I can't say anything. Because when you put it into words...then everything you can't say with words doesn't exist, right? (192–3)

A final note: I would be much more worried about Ruka than her parents are. "Oh, our daughter ran out of the house at night during a typhoon, and we haven't heard from her in hours? Ah well, I'm sure she's fine. She'll turn up eventually."