Living in America!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
What They Say
The number of incidents involving the shadowy cabal known as the Star of Darkness is on the rise. In New York City, the organization floods the streets with a dangerous drug that changes people into violent superhuman criminals! But one victim, a Japanese photographer named Kotaro Higashi, decides to fight back—a choice that may just lead him to join forces with…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This time around, the focus is almost entirely on Kotaro, who finds himself miraculously alive after the events of last time. Almost as soon as he recovers from that shock, though, he stumbles upon a purse-snatching and thwarts the culprit… by making an outright superhuman jump and scaring the guy off. With this, he immediately decides he wants to be a superhero, and starts by testing out his abilities with the help of his friend, Dave. He’s just fun to watch as he gets all excited about this, which is further cemented when he reveals his costume, which is just so perfectly lame that it wraps back around to being cool. Like, it’s cheesy as heck and totally different than the cool mechanical suits the series has been rocking… and that just fits him PERFECTLY.
We do actually get a bit of an aside with Shinjiro, despite him definitely not being the main star this time around. Pretty much, he gets a text from Rena and gets himself all worked up to the extreme in a rather amusing manner. But despite his thinking it was something romantic, she was actually telling him that her show was canceled thanks to the events of last time. Perhaps more interestingly for the overall plot, though, she’s following things up by leaving for America, as a learning experience. So it seems like things are really ramping up in that regard with a number of characters heading there, rather than Kotaro and his plot being purely an aside.
Anyway, things heat up for Kotaro next, as his little superhero thing seems to be going smoothly… until he attracts the attention of the ones spreading the superpower-inducing drugs. He’s thrown into a real pinch as his powers are overheated and they have Dave hostage. When things take a dark turn, just how will his rage burst forth, and what will end up happening to him in the aftermath?
In Summary
While this volume takes things in a rather different direction, I’d say it fortunately does so to great results. The big trick here is the focus is so thoroughly on the new character of Kotaro that Shinjiro is essentially limited to a bit role. It’s so far removed that in a lot of ways, it’s almost like tackling the start of a new series within the framework that’s been established. And fortunately, this fresh story is a gripping one, in a large part due to the character of Kotaro. He’s just a lot of fun, and like… if Shinjiro’s story has been about updating the old Ultraman to be flashy and cool, Kotaro is sort of about accepting the cheesiness of the series and really rolling with it. And that’s pretty damn neat its own way, and a whole lot of fun to see.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: October 17th, 2017
MSRP: $12.99
