Go With the Clouds North by Northwest vol. 4 by Irie Aki (2020)

Irie Aki’s “Go With the Clouds North by Northwest” is an entertaining manga series and I’m really enjoying the overall storyline, but with one volume released a year, it’ll take a long while until readers receive any closure. But for those who are OK with that, then definitely give the manga series a try!

MANGA TITLE: Go With the Clouds North by Northwest vol. 4

BY: Irie Aki

FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Kodansha Ltd.

PUBLISHED IN USA BY: Vertical Comics

RATED: ALL

RELEASE DATE: November 17, 2020

Unbeknownst to Kei, his little brother Michitaka has a dark power and an even darker history. Freyja has gone into hiding to escape him, but Kei helps Sigrún track her down—exposing her to potential danger. Meanwhile, a mysterious detective is hot on Michitaka’s trail…

Against this backdrop of tension and fear, Kei continues to explore the stark beauty of Iceland, though nothing in his new surroundings could be starker or more beautiful than Lilja. As their mutual antagonism reaches new heights, could something else be developing between them?

Irie Aki is best known for her series “Ran to Hai Irono Sekai” and was selected by the jury as a recommended work at the 2012 Bunkacho Media Keijyutsusai Manga Bomon (2012 Media Arts Festival Manga Division).

In 2016, Irie created a new manga titled “Hokuhokusei ni Kumori to Yuke” (Go With the Clouds North by Northwest) which is now being released in English courtesy of Vertical Comics.

The manga series begins with Miyama Kei, a Japanese teen living in Iceland and having rolled his car. Surprisingly, he begins to have conversations with his car.

Is Miyama crazy? Weird?

While camping out with whatever he has inside his car (and waiting for people driving by to help him out), while sleeping, a mysterious woman comes and takes his blanket.

Was it a dream? When Miyama wakes up, his blanket is missing. Who took it?

As his car is fixed, we start to learn that Kei takes on paid jobs of finding people.

Among one of the people he must find is an older man that a former actress is smitten with and has a distinguished laugh. Needless to say, this is an easy job for Miyama because the man is his uncle, and his home is where he is currently living at.

We learn that Miyama’s parents died in an accident. He has a young brother, who is currently staying with their aunt and uncle in Japan, while he lives and works in Iceland. And we learn that as a child, his interests were always trying to figure out how things worked. So, at a young age, he would take things apart all the time and would have this communication with things that are mechanical or electrical.

But Kei becomes concerned when his calls to his younger brother Michitaka and his aunt and uncle are not being answered.

We eventually learn that Michitaka may be a serial killer, which his older brother Kei refuses to believe.

In the last volume, on the Michitaka side, we can start to see more of the dark side of the youngest brother. Anger issues but also a special ability and how he uses it.

We now get to volume 4, as Miyama continues to search for his younger brother Michitaka, but to do that, Miyama Kei tries to find some clues to those who knew Michitaka and he must find Freyja who may have some clues.

Meanwhile, a detective continues to search for Michitaka, also doing an investigation to learn more about him.

The artwork by Irie is fantastic and I love how she is able to draw her characters. For volume four, the manga series now starts to become interesting by showing us three perspectives, Kei, Michitaka and also the investigator.

And for the most part, I really like where the story is going. But there was problem, for such a fascinating manga series, mangaka Irie Aki only releases one volume a year.

Meanwhile, I due to have to warn people, because this was a controversial manga volume in Japan. Many were disappointed by the sexual harassment featured. So, to give context, both the main character Miyama Kei and the female character, Lilja, have this unusual chemistry. You can tell their is interest in each other but both are oblivious to it and with each volume, there is some sort of sexual thing that happens. In this issue, Kei starts to take notice of Lilja’s butt when they go out jogging. So, there is a chapter in which he wants to know what happens if he grabs her butt and sure enough, Lilja is not a person to be messed with and she leaves a handprint on the side of his face.

But this chapter has upset a lot of people and that’s understandable. So, with the criticism of this, it will be interesting how Irie handles it for volume 5.

Overall, Irie Aki’s “Go With the Clouds North by Northwest” is an entertaining manga series and I’m really enjoying the overall storyline, but with one volume released a year, it’ll take a long while until readers receive any closure. But for those who are OK with that, then definitely give the manga series a try!

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