JBoc924
Resident Evil: The Marhawa Desire got off to a great start with its first volume, setting the stage for the plot’s central mystery, all while wrapping it with some lovely scenes of zombie-killing action. Things get taken up a notch with volume 2, and now it’s made more clear just what type of threat our main characters are dealing with in the titular school.
Ricky has quickly become my favorite character in the book. I initially came into the story with the wrong assumption that his youth would result in him being more of an annoyance, but I was satisfied to have been proven wrong with that. I would actually love for him to play a role in a future game (or one based on this story). I think he fits in nicely with the other young characters we’ve seen in the series throughout the years. In this volume we see him become more hardened by what’s going on around him, learning to adapt to the horrifying outbreak scenario. It grounds his character nicely, making sure he’s not portrayed as an invincible zombie-killing machine.
His uncle Doug, on the other hand, didn’t really get much more development in this volume, in my opinion. But it was really nice to learn more about his past with the school’s headmaster, Mother Gracia (who plays a bigger role here). Speaking of Doug; Chris and his BSAA comrades are still attempting to make contact with the professor, and we do follow the team for a few scenes in this volume.
While at first you may have questioned the decisions Mother Gracia has made, especially concerning her firm choice to not let the outside world know about the outbreak at the school, after reading through the flashback scenes you end up getting a better understanding. And she becomes an even more dimensional character because of prior events. But even so, things at the school have reached a point where some outside help is truly needed. And that’s where I believe the BSAA will come in during the next volume.
This volume ends with another crazy cliffhanger, and it serves to form greater ties with the game in the series it leads up to. I’m two volumes in, and I’m already loving this just as much as some of the stories from the actual games. Stay tuned for my review of volume 3!
