Highlights

Following a skip of three years isn’t easy when you haven’t read a series before. And that’s exactly what has happened in this volume of Sand Chronicles, but luckily, Ann tells us what has happened during that time, so we aren’t missing much. Ann is now 20 years old and graduating from Junior Collage, and has a Junior High reunion in her old town of Shimane. One she is hesitant to go to due to old feelings she still has for her friend, Daigo. Before that however she meets up with another old friend and learns what he’s been up to in the year since they last seen each other. At her reunion, she talks with old friends and meets up with Daigo again. In a touching scene at the singing sands at Kotogahama Beach, Daigo tells Ann his feelings. Ending, in my opinion, on what was suppose to be a touching scene but it kind of lost most of the emotional turmoil with the squeaking sand as she walked away.

After the time skip of six years, Ann has grown matured from the crying young woman we saw earlier in this volume. She has locked away her hourglass which was a symbol of her past, and has vowed to her self not to cry. After an incident on a train, she meets up with a new man, named Keiichi Sakura. After a few weeks, I assume, of dating he asks her to marry him. During this time, Ann and Keiichi get everything prepared for their wedding; Ann begins to see more of how this man truly is. Finally this volume ends with Ann heading to Okayama to 

meet up with Daigo and a fear that I’m sure will make more sense next volume.

Overall

I wasn’t sure what I was getting when I first picked this volume up. As a shojo series, I knew it was involving romance, but I had assumed that it would be straight forward. Not only two chapters with a time skip of six years between them. It is an interesting idea; one that I haven’t seen used much. It is a neat touch, but sadly short. If this volume was a bit longer, it would have been better, but as it stands this is only something that a person who enjoys shojo series would truly enjoy. It’s a quick read and at only 2 chapters one that you can easily knock out at the store.

I will give that the art was nice, made me think of the art of Ouran Host Club. Which means that there is more emphasis on the scene in general than what is not important. If a panel is just showing a building, then you can see the curtains, windows, even the tiles in the roof. If it is just two people walking, don’t expect to see much of a background in some scenes where the characters are connecting with each other.

It sounds silly but I enjoy the glossary at the end of this volume and others like it mainly to explain some terms that we in the West would be unaware of. Things like a Coming of Age ceremony, to certain slang terms, and even how marriage legalization works in Japan. Little bits of information like that, helps understand how things work in the story.

ComicsOnline gives Sand Chronicles Volume 7 2.5 out of 5 hourglasses.