Creative Staff
Story: Shinichi Kimura
Art: Sacchi
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
A very zombie Christmas is right around the corner! But what’s this? Haruna, Eu, and even Sera seem to be getting jealous over me… or is it just my dead-sharp imagination? And let me tell you, I’ve been eagerly anticipating my chance to settle the score with that Chris! Say, who in the world is this tiny little girl? Huh? She’s interested in me?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After Ayumu manages to get Dai-sensei drunk on carbonated beverages so that she’ll calm down, we see that Haruna has made friends with Anderson’s owl of all things. Things heat up, however, when Chris appears with a magical bomb. Our heroes attempt to fight her, and actually manage to put up a bit of resistance when it turns out the owl is a megalo with the power to slow things down. Of course Chris just smacks him down, but when Haruna is explaining their friendship Chris is distracted long enough for Tomonori to swoop in and deal with the bomb. Dai-sensei then explains that Chris’s weakness is getting her side tickled, and Haruna says goodbye to her new friend.
Next up comes a perfectly bland but fortunately not too terrible chapter in which Ayumu tries to give everyone a good Christmas. Surprisingly, though, it transitions into something a little more serious when Ayumu gets a chance to confront Chris, courtesy of Nene. Thanks to a little additional present, he’s able to cancel out magic, giving him a double-edged weapon with which to fight his enemy. A halfway decent fight results, and then Ayumu gives Chris a pep-talk as she’s forced to return to her former life.
As the volume wraps up, the tiny Queen of Villiers appears and messes with Ayumu.
In Summary
Though this volume may not be quite as bad as the series has been in the past, it still isn’t exactly a good read. The whole first part of the volume is completely forgettable, with the rest of the half-baked party plot, as well as an incredibly bland Christmas story. There is also at least a decent battle with Chris finally, though it doesn’t exactly last long. As the volume remains full of pointless, overly sexualized, downright weird moments and lackluster plot points, this glimmer of something worthwhile hardly counterbalances out to a solid book. Still, it at least managed to keep my attention for a few pages, which is more than I can say for most of the series.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Package Rating: A-
Text/Translation Rating: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released by: Yen Press
Release Date: February 18th, 2014
MSRP: $12.99
