Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring

Please note this is a combined review of both Dance of Spring and Dance of Summer. TL;DR. An urban fantasy that is set in an alternate version of Japan called Yamato, where the cycle of day and night, the cycle of seasons are operated by two archers and four agents, who are human beings, instead of the gods who created the cycles as they found the job too monotonous. This series is a beautiful essay on love. Not just romantic love but everything, parental and family love, friendship, animals, and most importantly, the beauty of nature. Needless to say, the writing is very poetic too. It's simplyaesthetic and exquisite like classical literature and a joy to read, but it doesn't feel too passé or cringey. Okay, it does get a little mushy in Dance of Spring but I guess overall it's a nice mix of action, drama, and tearjerkers. As mentioned above, there are four agents of the seasons and two archers of dawn and dusk. With their personal guardians, making this an ensemble cast of twelve protagonists. These agents and archers are chosen by the respective gods and perform all the changing of day and night and seasons on behalf of them. The four agents also possess unique superpowers: Agent of Spring can manipulate plants, Summer can manipulate animals and insects, Autumn controls life and death, while Winter can freeze everything and create anything out of ice (Elsa? LOL). These people might sound like some cool superheroes who are protecting and governing the smooth running of Yamato. But no, they are living perhaps the saddest lives a human being can ever imagine. Once you are chosen as an agent or archer, there is no turning back and you are basically "doomed" to live a hermit-ish life till your last breath. No more family, friends, school, bunkasai, karaoke... Not to mention, as realistic as it can be, farmers would definitely hate Winter, ski resort owners would hate Summer, yakuza would hate Dawn, etc. This created a lot of tensions, resulting in cults and secret organisations constantly trying to eliminate the agents and eradicate a certain season in Yamato. And they did! Dance of Spring retells an event where the Agent of Spring was kidnapped and held for ten years. So yes, during those ten years Yamato didn't have the season spring and it was snowing till June every year. Needless to say it created a lot of unrest and protests, and sadly the agents and their guardians became the ones to blame. As you read further into the story, you will realise this world isn't as beautiful as it was initially introduced to you. All the characters are very adorable but they are also flawed as hell. Their roles might sound like some kind of superheroes but they are also human beings who have their urges and desires. So, this is a story of how these unfortunate people trying to survive and live a meaningful and fruitful life, while their freedom and freewill are basically taken away. It's also a story of how they seek love, no matter if it's family love, friendship, or romantic love. Dance of Summer focuses a lot on the romance of several characters and it will be an emotional, moving, but also wholesome ride. The writing is top-notch. I especially enjoyed how the author did world building and character building. Every tiny piece of information is revealed to the readers slowly together with the progress of the story, without much info dump. As a result, it's very easy to understand and get yourself immersed in the story despite the world setting and lore are quite complicated and expansive. There are also moments when you might feel like reading poetry, and the prose could get really beautiful. However, because of this kind of aesthetic and poetic writing, the pacing is generally on the slow-burn side. Having said that, it's still a page turner to me. The story is told from an ensemble cast of twelve protagonists / POVs as mentioned above. To be honest I love this storytelling style a lot, especially in mystery stories where I could see from the detective's, the victim's, the witnesses', or even the perpetrator's POV. I understand some people dislike this and prefer a single protagonist and POV. So, this is a heads-up for you. The writing is actually very good and smooth so it doesn't feel awkward jumping from POV to POV. It still feels like a single journey with strong cohesion between different perspectives. Overall, it's an extremely well written series that I highly recommend, especially if you enjoy urban fantasy and romance, and of course, good prose.