Brutality begets brutality when Rune stoops to her attackers tactics to survive.
Creative Staff
Created by: Tow Ubukata
Manga by: Yoshitoki Oima
Translation/Adaptation: Andria Cheng
What They Say
After Rune Balot was nearly murdered, an enigmatic casino manager gave her a new purpose in life-vengeance! Rebuilt as a cyborg with the ability to control electronics, she starts a crusade to cleanse her haunted past. But when the relentless Boiled wanders into her life, ruining and shredding all she cherishes, Rune’s mental state and very well-being are threatened.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Thus far, Rune and OEufcoque have been able to escape Boiled after sort of holding their own in a couple short fights, but I think she’s in over her head now that the assassins have infiltrated Rune’s home. Not only is Rune woefully outnumbered, but the assassins working for Boiled are nasty freaks that live to kill. Rune’s only chance is to divide and conquer, luckily these assassins are overconfident and separate to find her.
Rune’s ability to manipulate electronics comes in handy after she hacks the assassin’s communications system. She’s able to imitate the assassin guiding the others from a tech center, essentially feeding the others information like the floor plans of the building and where each member is located at any given time. With this advantage, she tricks the assassins into dangerous situations, even pitting them against each other. This aspect of the volume shows that Rune isn’t some dummy relying solely on OEufcoque to get her out of jams. Rune dismantles her enemies better than I would have expected. Actually, she kills them in a surprisingly calm manner. Not only calm, but brutal.
This volume has been nothing but gratuitous violence and brutality to this point, but Ubukata takes a surprising turn to inject some humanity into the characters. An assassin’s flashback reveals how they were before they became horrible misfits and ruthless killers. They were soldiers exposed to “super soldier” drugs and a horrible battle that left them all maimed. The fear they experienced twisted their humanity
Rune’s callous attitude throughout her battles with the assassins quickly begins to bother OEufcoque. He didn’t have a problem with the first fight or two as he convinced himself Rune was killing in self-defense, but that changes and he begs her to stop. Rune ignores his pleas and forces OEufcoque to take the shape of whatever weapon she wants, despite his pleas for her to quit and the obvious fact that it is injuring OEufcoque. OEufcoque is unable to deny her, even when Boiled arrives on the scene and puts Rune on her heels. Boiled doesn’t waste time pointing out that OEufcoque left him for the same thing Rune is doing; forcing OEufcoque to kill.
Can OEufcoque overcome Rune and defeat Boiled at the same time?
In Summary
In a brutal manga series that displays the grotesque treatment men force on one another, this third volume takes it up a notch. The assassins hunting Rune are sick and physically twisted individuals that kill their victims through various fetishes. There is no excuse for their brutality, but it is revealed that their particular fetish results from abuses they survived before they left the military. Abuses that made the assassins feel weak are the same abuses they inflict on their victims. It is really pretty sick when you think about it.
What makes this a good volume is the slow transformation Rune undergoes that mirrors the assassins brutality. Her new found strength and abilities make her stronger than the people that want to harm her, well kill her actually. Considering the abuses she endured before she was burned, it is easy to see how she could begin to enjoy hurting others. This is something that happens in everyday life; people that are abused often grow up to be abusers. While this may leave the reader with a bad taste in their mouth, it makes Rune into a believable anti-hero instead of another played out champion of good. I for one look forward to finding out if Rune can come back from the dark path she has started down.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: December 6th, 2011
MSRP: $10.99