Synopsis
10 years ago the agent of spring was kidnapped. The world went on living without the warm renewal of the season. Now, spring has returned, but she has changed.
Content Warnings: kidnapping, trauma | Spoilers: Volume One
The Story
In Agents of the Four Seasons, powerful deities granted magic to humans so that they might be the stewards of the changing seasons. These humans are called agents. Each of them has a guardian who protects them from groups of people who want to do them harm and get rid of seasonality completely. Why do these “extremists” dislike seasons? Currently unknown.
For 10 long years, spring was missing, kidnapped under mysterious circumstances. Autumn, Winter, and Summer continued on with their duties, and humans nearly forgot about spring entirely. Just as mysteriously as she disappeared, spring has returned, but due to her captivity, she has suffered some obvious trauma. She speaks with long pauses after every word, and others observe that she seems to be stuck in a child-like mindset.
Generally, this is the bulk of what readers learn in volume one, though the narrative hints at a lot more worldbuilding and deeper lore. It’s a fun and interesting concept to have the seasons be represented by humans. Although the first chapter is a bit difficult to get through as it is constantly reminding the reader of its premise on nearly every other page. And let’s be honest, it’s not a complicated premise to understand.
The real bread and butter of this first volume is the mystery of it.
The wanting to learn more about the lore and why things operate the way they do. It’s interesting to see people’s reactions to spring’s return. As a reader I definitely would like to figure out why she went missing for so long.
Also the relationship between spring and her guardian is endearing, a very black cat meets golden retriever type energy. Although it’s made a little strange when later in the volume another character mentions that the agent of spring has the mind of a child due to her trauma?? That was really not the impression I was getting, but for now, I’m currently choosing to believe that their relationship is platonic as the characters’ agency seems a little fuzzy at this point.
The Art
Agents of the Four Seasons‘ character art is solid throughout this first volume. There are a few splash pages that are particularly lovely, and while reading I found myself taking time to appreciate the art on each page. The beautiful bursts of elemental magic and the well designed characters are definitely the standouts.
The only pitfall is the speech bubbles. As mentioned, spring went through a traumatic event and now speaks in long pauses. This speech pattern is depicted as a single word per speech bubble. And while I can appreciate wanting to represent a character with a speech impediment, it is at times difficult to read. I found myself reading the bubbles out of order, and unfortunately it took me out of the story. In spite of that, it’s a good concept. I just wonder if there could have been a better way to represent her speech pattern.
Overall I think this is a somewhat rough start to a potentially good story. There’s enough interesting worldbuilding and mystery to keep me interested for at least one more volume despite some of the issues.
Side Note: After reading I watched the first two episodes of the Agents of the Four Seasons. And I never say this but…the anime seems a lot better so far. It has much better pacing and really ups the drama.
The Details:
Agents of the Four Seasons began as a light novel series written by Kana Akatsuki. You may also recognize her writing from the acclaimed Violet Evergarden. The manga adaptation is illustrated by Nappa Komatsuka, and the series began serialization in the shoujo magazine, LaLa in 2022.The English release is brought to readers by Yen Press. And an ongoing anime adaptation started airing in March 2026.
Pros
- Fun Worldbuilding
- Great Character Art
Cons
- Slow Start
- Clunky to Read
