Agents of the Four Seasons, Vol. 1: Dance of Spring, Part I

3.5⭐

Have you ever seen an upcoming title with a premise so good, a story so beautiful, that you want to read it right away? But when it comes out, you find out that the summary is pretty much the story and that's it? Well, that's this book for me. I love the concept and the story, but sadly the execution just fell flat in every single way.

The story takes place in the land of Yamato, in a world where the four seasons bestowed their powers onto humans who then act as their agents. The agents' duty is to bring the seasons into the world, each protected by a retainer. This book serves as an introduction to all the four agents in Yamato, but the plot heavily revolves around the agent of spring, Kayo Hinagiku, and her retainer, Himedaka Sakura. Hinagiku got kidnapped during an attack meant for the agent of winter, Kantsubaki Rosei, and was kept captive for ten long years. She has since returned, but the incident left a deep scar for all the parties involved.

...and really, that's about 85% of the book. The remaining 15% is about history repeating itself and the exact same tragedy is happening to another agent, but by the end of the book, nothing has been done about it. The writing style is poetic and introspective, so naturally the portion of internal thoughts and emotions outweighs the amount of plot progression. As much as I sympathize with the characters, too much of something is never good. There's also a LOT of telling instead of showing, and it was especially bad in chapter 4 considering what happened. It's like reading a summary instead of a full story, and it's also extremely repetitive since we're reading about the same event over and over again from various perspectives.

Not sure if I'm gonna continue with the series, but since there might be more action in the next volume, I want to at least give that one a try before deciding.