LAON Vol. #06 Manga Review

Posted by Kate O’Neil
July 27, 2011 at 07:46 AM

An insane war of cosmic forces brings this crazy and unique series to a close.

Creative Staff
Story: Hyun You
Art: YoungBin Kim
Translation/Adaptation: Woo-Sok Park

What They Say
By kidnapping young girls, Woong and the hwan have created fake “tails” for Laon, whose ten-tailed form will allow the creatures of chaos to wreak havoc on Queen Mago’s orderly world. But will Laon be able to handle the shock of absorbing so many tails at once? Or will the arrival of the tenth tail be too much for both her and Tae-Ha to handle?! The fate of the world lies in this fickle fox’s claws! Find out what awaits in the final volume of Laon!

Content (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Up until this volume, there were still many unanswered questions in LAON. So many that I was afraid that the ending wasn’t going to answer even a fraction of them. Luckily, we do get answers to all of them, along with a huge amount of action and even an epilog to close it all out! The bad part is that it all happens so quickly that if you blink you’ll miss it.

This volume picks up with Tae-Ha and Laon plunging headfirst into the unknown. Landing in a strange pocket dimension, Laon and Tae-Ha are quickly split up, each facing off against their own challenges. It was clear going into this last volume that Laon wasn’t going to be collecting the rest of her tails herself. There simple wasn’t enough time, and the hwan forced the great deity known as Mago to hedge her bet with Laon and send Mago’s servant Hang-Ah into action. Hang-Ah was the one who hid all of Laon’s tails, and she retrieves the rest quickly, hoping to stave off disaster.

The action proceeds quickly, with Laon becoming entrapped by the hwan who wish to use her for their own means. Of course, Laon doesn’t exactly want to go along with their final plan, though she’s happy to take the fake tails that they made for her. There are a few attempts by the hwan and Hang-Ah to explain everything to the mortals, and the readers. The confusion is a natural fit in a story about gods and demons, order and chaos, but the exposition dump is messy, as is the final battle. There’s a lot of back and forth, with Laon going through multiple transformations in quick succession. One of those includes a giant monster form which breaks back through to the human world in front on a crowd of confused onlookers.

Meanwhile, Tae-Ha regains the memories that had been locked away, and it’s a case of be careful what you wish for. His worst fears are realized but it helps him come to a split-second decision during the chaotic battle which has ramifications larger than he could have predicted.

I expected to get lost in the shuffle with the action was jumping around from location to location. Thankfully, while the story is fast and frenetic, the art holds the action together and remains easy to follow. Even with the fast pace of events the ending manages to hold together and provide a satisfying conclusion to this strange tale. There’s no final author’s note for the series, but there are a few extra sketches after the story ends. The first printing of this volume contains a color title page.

In Summary:
It’s a mad rush to swiftly tie up all loose ends, but LAON gets the job done by the end of this last volume. It would have been nice to have had a few more volumes to flesh out the side characters, and for more wild antics. There are many series out there focusing on demons and their powers, but there’s nothing out there quite like this series. LAON manages to pack in tons of insanity and the grotesque in a short amount of time, splashed with some off color humor to lighten things up. The art is energetic and detailed, not shying away from nudity and bloody violence. This is a series that took me by surprise as I found myself drawn into Laon and Tae-Ha’s quest, and the chaos that followed them wherever they went. I’d recommend it to those who aren’t squeamish looking for a shorter series full of action and some mystery with hefty doses of weird.

Content Grade: A -
Art Grade: A -
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: B +

Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Released Date:July 19th, 2011
MSRP: $11.99