More of the Koudelka backstory has been revealed, and through a rather unlikely source: manga. Famous manga publisher Kadokawa Comics recently released the first volume of the Koudelka manga by Yuji Iwahara. It would appear that the manga takes place prior to the game, and reveals more about Koudelka's past. We've summarised the story for you as best we could, and, as usual, it is full of spoilers.

   The manga begins with a barely-clothed Koudelka flinging herself out the window of The Newton House for the Emotionally Troubled in a grandious escape attempt. With the guards unable to stop her, she climbs the fence and is off. The head of the House, named Hans, is rather upset at this little incident, and kills the worker who let her escape. This also sets up Koudelka as the one being wanted for the murder, as no one else saw Hans' little tantrum.

   From there, we cut to Koudelka escaping through the woods, trailed by the House's hounds. Right as they are upon her, she removes her necklace and charms them with it in hypnotist-like manner. The dogs return to their keepers nice and placid. Koudelka continues running.

   The scene switches to a young boy paying his respects at his mother's grave. After he is done, he gets in his horse-drawn cart and begins heading back to town. At this point, Koudelka has reached the cliffs above him, and stumbling on some rocks, tumbles off of the edge and right into the boy's cart. The slightly surprised boy notices that she is hurt, and takes her back to his house.

   The boy, who is named Yoshua (what kind of English name is that?) tends to Koudelka's wounds, which are mainly a multitude of thin cuts on her legs and arms, and, while she is resting, heads into the nearby town. Hans is there, and after talking with a dark man in a carriage, offers 20 Pounds for information leading to Koudelka's whereabouts. Yoshua runs back to his house to warn Koudelka, and finds her clutching a picture of Yoshua's family. After a brief (and somewhat awkward, considering Koudelka has yet to put any real clothes on, and is totally naked, save for the bandages) talk in which it's revealed that Koudelka remind's Yoshua of his mother, Mary, the two begin planning their escape (which begins with Koudelka finally getting dressed).

   Over the next few chapters of the manga, Koudelka and Yoshua continue avoiding Hans and his minions, and eventually make their way to London. Once there, Yoshua visits some old friends, who include a pregnant woman named Pacy. While Koudelka and Yoshua are staying at her house, Pacy is kidnapped. Koudelka then dons detective clothes and begins scouring London for her.

   Koudelka's search leads her to a graveyard, where she encounters a trio of naga-like ghosts, as well as a dark, trenchcoated figure. Over the last few pages, many different events occur, including the introduction of one ghostly Mary Vermont, Yoshua's mother. In normal manga style, the final page is quite a cliffhanger...

   While these events clearly are not part of the game, they do set up quite a bit of backstory, but open up many other questions as well (like why Koudelka was at a house for the emotionally troubled...). On the other hand, it may be that Iwahara was allowed total free reign with the story, and that what occurs in the manga is totally unrelated to the characters that actually appear in the game (Koudelka herself is the only character that has appeared in pre-release shots of the game, as well as the manga). More should likely be revealed come December 16, when the 4-disc game is released in Japan.