Yan Vol 2 Review

 

Yan Vol 2 Review

Writer & Artist: Chang Sheng

Translator: Vanessa Liu

Letterer: Tom Williams

Editor: Louis Yamani

Designer: David Colderley

Publisher: Titan Manga

Price: $24.99

Release Date: September 9, 2025

 

Yan Tieh Hua performed Peking Opera with her family. But when they died, the government labeled her a murderer. Despite the objections of the young Police Detective Lei Ming Zhi, government agents imprisoned the teenager in a privately-run military research facility. Yet thirty years later, and ten years after the unexplained explosion that leveled the facility, retired Senior Detective Lei Ming Zhi meets Yan Tieh Hua again. And she looks like she did when he arrested her after her family's massacre. How did the teenager escape the ravages of time and the destruction that killed all the military researchers? And why did a teen who beat the AI at Go seek her out? Let's leap into Yan Vol 2 and see!

 

Story

Brain surgery changed how Miku Higa perceives the world. Instead of navigating life like everyone else, she views the world in five-minute blocks. While she sees what will happen to herself and others in the immediate future, six visions haunt her. They prompted her to intercept Yan Tieh Hua when she stormed the Councillor's office. Another foretells a coming apocalypse. But despite glimpsing the future, the teenager cannot change it.

 

In Yan Vol 2, Miku Higa seeks help from others. Her abilities help them survive as they battle overwhelming forces. But after spending time with Yan Tieh Hua, one particular prophecy worries her. And despite her inability to prevent it from occurring, she's determined to break that pattern of failure.

 

As Lei Ming Zhi aids Yan Tieh Hua and Miku Higa, he feels like he’s on a rollercoaster. He’s desperate to get off. Like Miku Higa, he’s traumatized by his inability to prevent tragedies from occurring or turn bad situations around. But whether retired or rehired by the police, the Senior Detective keeps putting the clues together. Deducing the twisted mystery behind Yan Tieh Hua’s rebirth as a teenager starts to make sense when he digs into another mysterious event in the past. Plus, trying to solve the mystery helps keep his cravings for alcohol at bay.

 

While Chang Sheng propels Yan Tieh Hua, Miku Higa, and Lei Ming Zhi on their intertwined searches for the truth, another character makes an unexpected return. He first appeared when the Police Detective visited the ruins of the research facility. After asking what year it was, the masked traveler disappeared. While searching for someone he lost, the traveler reveals a shared past with Yan Tieh Hua and a unique ability to aid them in Yan Vol 2.

 

Art

As a giant robot tears through Taipei’s Xinyi District, Yan Tieh Hua leaps into action. Compared with the soldiers carrying rifles, shields, and wearing masks and helmets, the resurrected teenager looks sleek and athletic in her combat suit. A shell broach holds a scrap of cloth bearing blossoms that recall her final outdoor Peking Opera performance with her mother. Yet instead of singing and dancing, she charges toward the giant robot, withstanding attacks as the concrete breaks and crumbles around her.

 

When the robot hurls Yan Tieh Hua into a nearby high-rise, Miku Higa and Detective Lei Ming Zhi crouch in the rubble. The girl wearing a monkey mask and the man who evokes a haggard John Wick watch a laser beam incinerate that level of the tower. Then Yan Tieh Hua reappears. She leaps hundreds of feet from the devastated tower to land atop the immense weapon of destruction.

 

Chang Sheng’s detailed penciling imbues cityscapes, building interiors, vehicles, and characters with realism. While the action rarely lessens, the characters battle their fears, their pain, each other, and their enemies in Yan Vol 2. A ticking clock spices up the action as Miku Higa races to find an object from her visions, while an otherworldly traveler summons portals to traverse shortcuts through the fighting. And while a woman with short blonde hair awakens from a recurring dream to behold a black monolith covered with a myriad of eyes, an origami frog hosting an ancestor's spirit awaits Yan Tieh Hua's return.

 

Physical Copy and Lettering

The glossy cover's French flap (or gatefold cover) evokes the dust jacket of a hardcover. The 7" x 10" size of the prestige edition enlarges the font to a generous size. Direction lines never obscure the high-speed action and fraught battles. Characters speak into dialogue balloons that grow spiky amid the intense emotions and fighting. Narrative boxes relate off-camera dialogue. Translated sound effects amplify gunfire, laser beams, explosions, and a brutal fight that could return Yan Tieh Hua to her grave. Thanks to Titan Manga for providing a physical review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

When a girl loses her parents in mysterious circumstances, she clings to a belief in what she remembers, even when everyone else claims it must be a trauma-induced illusion. As the woman gears her future toward proving that she was right, she gradually discards her Humanity, laying the groundwork for one of Miku Higa's visions in Yan Vol 2.

 

Rating 10/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Yan Vol 2.

 

For what happened last time, see my review of Yan Vol 1.