A slow crawl towards the finale.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Shiro Amano
Translation: Althea and Athena Nibley
What They Say
Left alone to ponder the purpose of her existence and desperate for answers, Xion journeys alone to find out who – or what – she really is. But little do she, Roxas, and Axel know that her quest will lead to the close of one tale and the continuation of another…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As our volume starts up, we get the conclusion of the Peter Pan arc. Hook takes off with his treasure, leaving our heroes to face the powerful Heartless! However, Hook ends up feeling listless seeing Pan fail, and at Axel’s prodding he throws the gold into the ocean. Along with some cover fire, this actually allows the villain to save the day for once, rather than ruining it. Upon getting back though, Axel and Roxas find a depressed Xion, who ends up venturing off to Castle Oblivion alone in order to discover who she is.
Saix of course ends up figuring this out and sends Axel after her. Axel does his best to talk her out of it, but before he can Riku steps in to stand in his way. In the aftermath, Axel returns to the castle alone and tells a lie to his best friend. After a goofy aside with Roxas and Demyx heading to the Olympus Coliseum, it is announced to the Organization that Xion is gone. Much to our hero’s dismay, search for the missing girl is also prohibited by Xemnas himself.
Seeing that his friend is depressed, Axel offers to take him to search for Xion on his day off, even though he knows what’s going on. When they actually do run into her, only for a number of other Organization members to show up, just what will become of this reunion between the three friends?
In Summary
This volume feels like it drags just a bit in the setup for the endgame. In addition to the end of the Hook arc, we also have a small goofy bit with Demyx, but other than that everything is focused on the main plot. And unfortunately, that main plot doesn’t seem to advance all that much in exchange. Though big changes are occurring for Xion, we don’t really get to see much of the in action. Meanwhile Roxas is mostly just left worried, moping, and just a tad desperate, while Axel is continuing to keep his secrets. Hopefully the setup will pay off big time in the finale, but for now it feels like this particular volume had a bit more pages than it needed to deal with its plot points, leaving it just a little flat.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 28th, 2014
MSRP: $11.99
