Plenty of thrills are packed into this latest volume!
Creative Staff
Story: Shiden Kanzaki
Illustrations: Saki Ukai
Translation: Nita Lieu
What They Say
Rentaro is still a fugitive, running from the law for a murder he didn’t commit. Negotiating the advancing police perimeter with Hotaru, he devotes all of his waking hours to tracking down the shadowy foe who sprung this trap upon him. He is relentlessly pursued by Police Superintendent Hitsuma, even as Inspector Tadashima begins to have misgivings about his boss’s behavior. Hitsuma’s impending marriage to Kisara, meanwhile, advances closer and closer, as Hotaru finds herself starting to have feelings for Rentaro. A seemingly boundless web of emotions intertwines with itself–but what does it spell for Rentaro’s future?
You won’t want to miss a single word of this thrilling, non-stop adventure, one with enough drama to keep your spine tingling from start to finish.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
So to start us off, we get a little bit of a nasty look at the taxi cab driver who helped Rentaro and Hotaru being tortured for information, which acts as a nice little reminder that the villains aren’t exactly good people. Anyway, following up their only lead, our heroes try to track down the Gastrea with the star, but it turns out their foes were one step ahead and had already collected it! However, thanks to some quick thinking, they realize that the collectors had just left, so they trick them into coming back with a fake report of a second similar specimen. This works swimmingly, and they end up trailing the van that comes to pick it up… only to find out that vehicle is equipped with a freaking machine gun! As a result, this turns into a high velocity action scene as our heroes are forced to literally leap from car to car on a highway, and it’s just an absolutely awesome set piece that’s really well handled. In the aftermath of this deadly combat, our heroes manage to steal a sample of the Gastrea, and then slip off into hiding once more.
The next issue becomes analyzing that sample, and for that they aim for Miori and her company to help. After a brief infiltration of her home, they easily get her on their side, and then head for the proper site of the corporation and the machines they need. Naturally, though, things don’t go smoothly at all, so they soon find themselves facing off against the second assassin, Swordtail. The book does a good job of showing off just how nasty his invisibility ability can be, and the fight is handled well throughout. There’s one clear exception, though, and that’s the setting.
You see, Rentaro lures the killer into the VR room, with Miori manning the controls. That’s a setup that makes you go “okay, cool, they’re going to do something cool/clever with this, and it’ll have a big effect on the battle.” But then… they just shift into a virtual warehouse, and the whole fight takes place there. Ultimately it doesn’t actually ruin the fight, but it just seems so bizarre and such a waste to do all that setup when you could just, you know, put a real storeroom or something in the building and cut down on a lot of useless complexity.
From there on out, things only keep on heating up, with Rentaro facing old friends, and of course eventually the deadliest of the assassins, Yuga. Will he be able to take on this massive conspiracy? And just what is their plot, anyway?
In Summary
While last time around, there were a great number of missteps weighing down an otherwise good setup, that all fortunately moves out of the way to allow the strengths here to flourish. And mostly, this means an action packed rollercoaster of high intensity scenes from beginning to end. With a variety of foes, settings, and setups, this stays plenty fresh, and it’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat as things progress. And heck, by moving out of the way and being frankly more focused, even junk like the romance subplot feels a good bit more acceptable here, even having a nice moment between Kisara and Rentaro (though admittedly there are some real clunky and overblown lines in there, and it’s certainly not the strongest scene the book has to offer). But mostly, it’s all about the thrills, and that’s thankfully absolutely nailed, making for a truly exciting ride that’s not to be missed.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: N/A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: April 18th, 2017
MSRP: $14.00
