They say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. In Kazumi Yamashita's Land, that takes on a very different meaning. At the end of the first omnibus, An and her twin Anne (this second spelling begins to be used in this volume, and since it makes it easier to differentiate between the two, I'll use it going forward) discovered that beyond their Heian-era society, there exists what looks like a modern city. This omnibus reveals that that is, in fact, what lies beyond: a regular city with some futuristic technology…that is somehow in charge of the place the twins were born, an area they call The Land.

Although we don't get any straight answers about the city (thought of as The Beyond by people in The Land), we do get some tantalizing hints about what may be going on – and have happened in the past. Kazune, who appears to be about fifteen, is clearly much older than that. Flashbacks show him and his brother, Amane (possibly his twin brother, which would add another set of twins to the tale), living in what looks like our time as little boys. The two of them are in an elevator when an unknown disaster strikes, and then time skips ahead to the story's present day. Kazune looks like a teen, but Amane is now a decrepit old man who views the outside world through Kazune's special video-equipped contact lens. Amane and Kazune seem to have created The Land, and at first, my thought was that they did so to supplement the declining birthrate in urban areas. But if they control The Land and authored its culture and rules, that means that they also came up with the idea of sacrificing children, which would seem to run counter to the birthrate issue. But then, we know that An and Anne's father spared children, and this volume reveals something about the sacrifices' guardian that suggests that this, too, is part of the plan. It may be nothing more than Amane and Kazune creating a world to play with, something that Kazune seems to be growing weary of, or at least to believe is wrong as time goes on.

That latter would make a lot of sense given some of what we learn about the ways The Land and The Beyond interact. You may remember in volume one that An's friend Heita's father reached his chimei: he attained the age of fifty and was taken to The Beyond. For most of the people in the village, that means that he died and left in a spiritual sense, but the truth about chimei isn't that nice. Instead, it seems to be a way for The Beyond to gain workers for menial jobs that no one wants to do, which runs contrary to ideas that the elderly are owed reverence and care, while also turning the notion of abandoning the no longer useful elderly in a remote place. The people from The Land believe themselves to be in a better place once they reach The Beyond, which makes it look awfully like they're being raised like livestock, naïve and taken advantage of.

Kazune's rebellion against Amane, or the entire Land situation, is a deceptively small one. While he seems to have Amane's blessing to bring Anne to The Beyond, he doesn't appear to when he teaches An to read and write. The fact that there are at least two sets of twins in this series, both separated by The Land's mandate that if twins are born, one must be sacrificed, would seem to indicate that Amane wants to see what happens when two outwardly identical people are separated and raised in different circumstances.

An and Anne, despite this, still seem to share a basic curiosity. Anne is more brash about it and much more reckless, but she and An both are always looking for a way to get around rules, to learn what they're not supposed to know, and to find a way out. For Anne, that becomes more literal when she moves to The Beyond, but An has to be a bit more clever about it. Stuck in The Land with her mentally ill aunt Mari and her overprotective friend Heita, An gathers knowledge like fruit and preserves it. While I'd hesitate to call her the smarter sister, her circumstances mean that she has to be cautious, and that means more problem-solving. Anne, even in The Beyond, is able to get by with her physicality and quick wits. An has a much stricter framework she has to work within, requiring more creativity.

As you might guess, Yamashita's worldbuilding is spectacular. It's an important piece of the story to the point where the setting is nearly a character in its own right, and one that makes for a very unreliable narrator. Everyone views it a little differently, and through combining all of these viewpoints, readers come to their own conclusions. Any or none of them could be the truth, and by giving us snippets of reality with each storyline, Yamashita forces us to really think about what's real and who determines that. Is The Land a false existence? It's real to Heita, who's working on making a life there. Is The Beyond a better place? Maybe for Anne, but Kazune may beg to differ.

Yen Press' jumbo omnibus is, quite frankly, a bit overwhelming. While it's good to get so much story at once, it also can be a lot, and it almost makes sense to read this one volume's worth at a time so that you can think about what you've read. Still, the book isn't too heavy (though if you have arthritis or other hand/wrist issues, it will be difficult to hold), and the covers don't show smudges. The spine is flexible enough for easy reading without cutting any of the art, which is important because Yamashita's artwork is beautiful.

Land is neither fantasy nor science fiction, nor is it historical fiction. It's close to all of those, but it settles for none. What it is is an excellent read, a combination of classic shoujo and modern seinen sensibilities. It's simply one of the most interesting series being translated into English, and you don't want to miss it.