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It’s interesting how we’re seeing a number of otherworldly love stories lately with leads that aren’t quite human. The Summer Hikaru Diedfeatures a young man named Yoshiki who loved his friend and classmate Hikaru, and is now falling in love with the entity inhabiting his corpse and going by “Hikaru.” Mad Miniscape sees a young woman in some sort of relationship with a hostile being that might be the angry spirit of the teenager Minoru that she grew up with. A Howl of the Heart is a similar sort of manga, in that we see a soldier named Tenyo reunited with his dead love Uru, except now he’s no longer human and goes by Kakezuki. The result is something that feels a little more like a possible love triangle where one might need to come to terms with the grief of one person to move on to a relationship with someone new.
Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for volume 1 of the A Howl of the Heart manga below.
Tenyo and Uru were both Crimson South soldiers who found and loved each other, though the never made it official. When a spear pierced Uru years ago, his partner couldn’t save him. Now he acts as a lone warrior in the Crimson Wolves taking on missions to unite Luxian. As the story begins two years after Uru’s death, we see him on a mission in the Azure North taking a fortress and preparing to defeat its leader. Except the General Kakezuki looks identical to Uru. This leaves him startled and captured.
As part of the hostage process, Tenyo is sent into a battle. It turns out to be one against Kakezuki, who behaves and fights just like Uru. During it, we see Tenyo’s spear go through him, revealing the same hole and wound that Uru died of. It’s then that we learn the Azure North made him into an Immortal Vessel to fight for their means, and he’s risen through the ranks to become a respected warrior and leader. Again captured, Tenyo is put in front of a person behind the process named Toka who explains the situation and encourages him to get close to Kakezuki.
This is where I feel like we almost are dealing with something of a love triangle. Tenyo loved Uru more than anything. He’s clearly grief-stricken and still living for his fallen partner’s sake. So much so that seeing Kakezuki causes him to falter and be captured in a fight and willingly agree to basically accept being an Azure North captive. But as part of the Immortal Vessel process, Uru lost all memories and sense of who he is. So Kakezuki is, for all purposes, an entirely new person. There are commonalities, since he’s relying on the training and muscle memory of the previous owner of the body who passed away, but as we go through the first volume it feels like we’re seeing someone entirely new. There’s also the same sort of alien-elements as The Summer Hikaru Died, as Kakezuki is no longer human and doesn’t possess the same emotions. (Combined with also not eating or sleeping.)
It means that some of the chapters get to feel a bit interesting. We see some of this is Tenyo desperately hoping to stay close to Kakezuki because he was once Uru. He’s hoping maybe his presence could bring some of his loved one back. Maybe he can remind him or jog is memory. But at the same time, I sometimes wonder and see signs of perhaps Tenyo falling for the being that Kakezuki himself is. Because while there are commonalities, this Immortal Vessel is different and human in his own ways.
At the same time, we’re also seeing Kakezuki start to fall for Tenyo. This isn’t because his memories of his life as Uru are coming back. Or at least, it doesn’t seem to be. Rather, it’s because of who Tenyo is as a person. As a result, he’s starting to become something that almost seems a bit closer to human. It almost seems like he’s becoming more curious and growing as an individual. With, given what we start to learn at the end of the manga from an encounter with Tenyo and Toka, seems to be something the latter hoped for due to some other plan and reason. It’s fascinating to watch.
It makes things interesting, as it means A Howl of the Heart is a different sort of take on a romantic manga that depicts a relationship between a human and entity who isn’t quite human, but once was. In The Summer Hikaru Died, there’s a real sense of finality and Yoshiki and “Hikaru” moving forward. With A Howl of the Heart, it sort of feels like a love triangle due to the fact that Tenyo still seems so in love with Uru. It’s like he’s still hoping to bring his dead lover’s memories back. Meanwhile, the Immortal Vessel Kakezuki seems like an interesting and growing individual in his own right, and someone who could become beloved for who he is and not who his vessel once was.
Volume 1 of A Howl of the Heart is available now, and Square Enix will release volume 2 of the manga is expected to launch on July 21, 2026.
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