Charming Editions of Nanchan, Coins of Destiny, and More!

What a great book mail week for me!  I received my copy of the hardcover of vol. 4 of Heaven Official’s Blessing published by Seven Seas, To Rule in a Turbulent World vol. 1 published by Via Lactea, and Nanchan vol. 1, Coins of Destiny vol. 1, and Global Examination vol. 1 all published by Rosmei.

I decided to take this opportunity to review the quality of the physical volumes, and what the relative strengths are of the different publishers.  I started the week with the Heaven Official’s Blessing vol. 4 deep dive, and I’m moving on to Rosmei today. Keep an eye out for the last (but very much not least!)To Rule in a Turbulent World physical book review later in the week!

Now on to the review. I’ve long heard that Rosmei publishes beautiful volumes, and that is absolutely true.  Let’s take it volume by volume.

Nanchan

Here’s the gorgeous hardcover Nanchan:

This dustcover is gorgeous, full of gold foil highlights with the suggestion of notes and text beneath.  It is a single jacket without a second apron on top, though it implies that in pictures.  I like the incorporation of the English translation on the back of the Buddhist-inspired text.

It makes an interesting contrast to the book itself, which is much more focused on the characters, with a very modern art style.  This interior cover is equally beautiful, and feels like a hidden surprise under the very different dustcover.  The interaction between the characters feels very intense, and encouraged me to immediately dive into the story.

My volume also came with a few extras: a postcard showing the full cover illustration, a chibi cutout (it looks like a sticker but is not) and a bookmark that evokes more the elegant classical art of the dust jacket.  All of them are nice extras, though the print quality on them isn’t especially high.

Inside the book, the illustration style of the dust jacket continues in the title page, table of contents, and the chapter markers.  The individual page quality is decent, with a little bit of shadowing from the print on the reverse side, but not so much that it looks too distracting.

Even though they’re paperbacks, both Coins of Destiny and Global Examination follow similar patterns.  Here are the images from Coins of Destiny.

Global Examination

Here are the images from Global Examination:

Coins of Destiny

And here are the images from Coins of Destiny:

Between all three volumes, I appreciated the contrast between more modern art styles and more stylistic or classical styles.  They all feel very evocative of interesting stories, and it’s going to be a challenge to wait for all the volumes to read them.

If you want to order copies for yourself of these or other Rosmei titles, check out my guide for how to order around the world or check out the list of all of Rosmei’s licensed titles.