Drug and Drop Volume 1 Review: A Beautiful Transition Period

The manga group Clamp has a ton of manga out there. Sadly, they have a few that they for one reason or another decided to abandon altogether. One of them is “Drug and Drop,” the sequel to “Legal Drug.” Dark Horse has graciously given US manga fans the first of two volumes of this series and, like “Legal Drug,” it has a profound story.

Picking up right where “Legal Drug” left off, Kazahaya and Rikuo are sent on another job. This time it’s for a shop owner who wants them to go inside a mysterious building to retrieve a shell that is the other half of the one he gave them. Of course, this job contains some supernatural beings.

This volume is 90% this one chapter. That’s right, this one chapter is about 113 pages long. In manga terms that is insanely long. Despite the long length, the chapter is a well written one. The mission and what happens to them on the mission is handled very well. Not to mention that Clamp does something ballsy and make it all about Rikuo.

You see, even though Kazahaya has the special powers, all he really does is get possessed. Rikuo is the one who does all the work, if you can call it that. The conflict is sorta like a moral struggle in a way. Yes, it does sound like plenty of other manga stories, but it does not feel forced or corny at all. In fact, it’s handled in a very mature way.

Also, Clamp decides to do a little fan service by making the shop owner Kimihiro from ‘XxxHolic.” What his role in the whole story is a bit of a mystery and it does feel like it’s nothing more than fan service.

Another plot element introduced is Kazahaya starts the manga with a dream about his sister Kei. She was introduced in “Legal Drug” but here it seems like Clamp decided to go more into detail about her in this series. It’s a shame that Clamp abandoned this series seeing as how there are so many questions that could’ve been answered about Kazahaya and Rikuo.

The art style, like “Legal Drug,” is pre “XxxHolic” with it looking like a typical shojo manga but, with Kimihiro, you can see the style morphing into “XxxHolic.” That’s not a bad thing per se, it it’s just that here it looks like Clamp really does want to concentrate on “XxxHolic” more than “Drug and Drop.”

“Drug and Drop Volume One” has an interesting story that’s executed well with art that seems like it is going through changes. It would’ve been great if Clamp continued with the series, but this and Volume Two is all we sadly have.