Kuro getting her ass handed to her in a battle may become an ongoing theme in this series.
Creative Staff
Story: Dall-Young Lim
Art: Sung-Woo Park
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
Upon discovering that his new enemies are actually allies, Keita receives the guidance (and the goods) necessary to take on the evil behind the false alter-egos running rampant all over the world. But first he must revisit the painful memory of his mother’s death when this new battle takes him and Kuro to his mother’s hometown of Okinawa. Will the strength gained from his newfound friends be enough to help him through this grueling journey?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Keita’s life only gets more complicated when another Mototsumitama and his Contractee show up in town. Steiner and his Contractee, Excel, are two seriously powerful opponents. More of the reasons behind the Doppleganger story come forward when Steiner and Excel try to kill Akane right in front of Keita and Kuro. After a short battle in which Kuro gets her ass handed to her, Excel sits down with Keita to explain why they are in Japan killing people. Excel and Steiner belong to one of the European High Mototsumitama families charged with killing ‘Alter Ego’s’ after they encounter their true self. If Alter Egos are allowed to survive, they will disrupt the ‘Coexistence Equilibrium’ and tragedy will befall those around them.
The way Steiner and Excel determine whether a person is an Alter Ego or the Original is by detecting the amount of Tera, or life force, the person gives off. Because of this, they are really confused by Akane. She should be the Alter Ego but she is giving off entirely too much Tera. Combine that with the fact that another Mototsumitama is trying to kidnap Akane and the fact that they are probably the one Steiner and Excel are searching for, and you have a strange alliance formed. In a good storytelling decision, Steiner and Excel appear to be more concerned with solving the mystery of why there are so many Dopplegangers in Japan than wantonly killing any single Alter Ego. This creates a multitude of possibilities for Keita to learn more about his powers from Excel and much more about his position in the Doppleganger incidents of Japan.
In Summary
Black God is an amazing series. The art is great, storytelling flows smoothly (aside from all the new terms), and thus far the character development in every volume is nothing short of wonderful. Like the last volume, volume three has a great side story at the end. Akane comes to Keita’s messy apartment, and like a good ‘older sister’ she cleans up everything. When she reaches Keita’s bedroom she begins to rummage through his things until she finds an old game system. She bought it for Keita when they were still young and it makes her really proud that she helped Keita become a game designer. I wish more authors would use this style of storytelling to build up a character’s background. It doesn’t interfere with the story’s overall flow and it makes it much easier to understand the reasons characters do what they do.
Highly recommended.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: June 2008
MSRP: $10.99
