This was 6-volume book when released in Europe, but Dark Horse collected it in two larger volumes. Isabellae is the daughter of a samurai and a Druidic witch. When the story begins, she's searching for her younger sister, as they've been separated since the death of their parents. Isabellae takes after her father, a practitioner of the sword who earns a living that way, while Siuko's gifts run more towards their mother. Isabellae sometimes sees both her parents' ghosts, but Siuko sees only her mother, as she's banished her father from her thoughts.
The first half of the book is about Isabellae's pursuit of her sister. Along the way, seemingly against her will, she collects a band of friends. Masshiroi, pretty boy archer/thief. Jinku, a kid who decides the way of a pacifist monk is not for him. Yori, an ape they find on a ship full of the undead when the chase moves from Japan to China. Qiang's a widowed outlaw looking for either an exciting death or a new purpose.
The second half jumps ahead, with Isabellae and her gang having reached Ireland. this is apparently part of some grand destiny meant for the sisters, of which Siuko was aware and Isabellae was not. John Lackland's trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to put Ireland under his control, so it seems obvious the destiny is to help the various tribes and clans work together to oust the English.
As it turns out, "destiny" might be short for, "other people's notions on how to use you," as the Druids', and the girls' mother's, plans to liberate Ireland are someone different from what the leaders of the clans think, to say nothing of Isabellae's opinion. This leads to, on a larger scale, the question of what one is willing to accept for freedom, as well as how one defines that term. Who are you willing to ally with to win, if the alternative may mean subjugation for another 800 years? Can you call it freedom if those allies end up replacing the old overlords?
For Isabellae and Siuko, it's a question of what really matters to them. Each of them have been driven by their parents' desires up to this point. Siuko, by their mother's plans for them to save Ireland. Isabellae, first by the need to protect her family as her father did before he was called away to war, later by her promise to Siuko to carry out their mother's dream. But Isabellae is determined to do that on her terms, even as others insist it happen the way they plan. And when things start to go badly, both she and Siuko reach for who really matters to them.
While the first half had the occasional strange element - the ship of undead, an angel held prisoner in a starving village, Siuko's bodyguard, who's essentially a golem - the second half goes all in on the mythological or supernatural. Creatures of ancient Irish mythology emerge to attack essentially everyone. The angels show up with their own plans for the island, ghost armies come crawling out of the ground like we're in Lord of the Rings.
Gabor's artwork is very pretty, and none of the disparate elements look out of place. The violence is lovingly rendered in panels shaded entirely in red, or unearthly eldritch light. Characters leap and twist and fight with perfect grace. They get battered and bruised, thrown to the ground and pummeled until it seems like their bodies should burst, but they get back up. Raule is perfectly fine keeping talking to a minimum during those scenes, saving it for brief panels where characters react or make plans before the next round, then letting Gabor go back to work. Basically, if you like reading fight scenes in comics, you do worse than Isabellae.
But once the story starts leaning into monsters, the art might be too clean. The mythological creatures look very detailed and seem like they should appear terrifying, but the effect doesn't come off. The leader, Bres, looks more or less like a handsome guy. Long dark hair framing his face, thin nose, etc. He just happens to have a bunch of tentacles draped over his shoulders like an elaborate feather boa, which he uses to smack, rip or toss the hell out of anyone who challenges him.
I think the terror is meant to be in how casually he wreaks havoc. One of the clan kings challenges him, and in the next panel, Bres steps on him. Not even a large panel; a small one in the middle of the page. Splat, so much for that guy, who's next? A single swipe is enough to cleave a man in half, lengthwise. But we've seen Isabellae cut men's limbs off with a single swing of her sword when she was a child, trying to protect her sister. People get dismembered or maimed so readily in this story by plain old mortals, a demigod or whatever doing the same isn't that impressive.
I think the book's stronger when it stays focused on the family unit. Isabellae and Siuko in this awkward situation of having little in common, but seeming to tolerate each other because the way they've drawn meaning in their lives demands it. Isabellae arguing with her father's ghost. The little band she assembled around herself and how she struggles with the feeling of responsibility that conveys. Once it turns into a possibility of ridding Ireland of the English, in exchange for angels possibly bringing on a localized apocalypse, the scope gets a little too large, and the family stuff sort of struggles to push into the forefront through the fighting. Points for going big, though.
And with that, we kiss the "I"'s good-bye!
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