Creative Staff
Story/Art: Yun Kouga
Translation: Ray Yoshimoto
Adaptation: Lillian Diaz-Przybyl
What They Say
Through a video game, Ritsuka tracks down Septimal Moon, the organization responsible for his brother’s death. Meanwhile, Soubi fights against two units that both call themselves “Zero” and who claim to feel no pain.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Ritsuka is still trying his best to play a game that he doesn’t understand the rules of. Even more frustrating, Soubi doesn’t bother to teach him the rules either. With every new pair of fighters arriving on the scene, Soubi attempts to fend off their attacks by himself. Each battle leaves him battered with an angry Ritsuka demanding answers… and getting nowhere.
We deal with two different pairs in this double volume, both of which have been engineered in some way to feel no pain. The first are a set of kids who are completely nuts. The sort of kids that don’t know right from wrong, and would happily pull the wings off butterflies. They try their best to do just that to Soubi. I can’t figure out why Soubi let’s the two little lunatics into his home after he trounces them, and I’m not sure the brats understand it either. They remain fairly unsympathetic even after they decide to help Ritsuka out.
The other pair of zeros are far more interesting. The two girl zeros that show up later to take on Soubi are older and wiser than the brats, but still very much kids. One even wears false cat ears to mask the fact that the ‘good little student’ is in a relationship at her age. That relationship is, of course, with her zero partner. Their affection for each other is both their strength and their downfall. The confusing trick they use to take out Soubi has the unintended consequence of ending their run as zeros. When it came time for a rematch, Ritsuka realizes that they can feel pain once again, and sends both of them into retirement.
Soubi’s intentions with Ritsuka are a bit more clear now. He wants a new partner badly, and is under orders from Ritsuka’s dead brother to protect the amnesiac sixth grader but to tell him nothing. That single minded desire to be partnered with Ritsuka is Soubi’s driving force. He’s so indoctrinated in the weird world of fighters and sacrifices that he can’t break away and can’t properly explain his motivations to anyone, let along Ritsuka. We get to see some of Soubi’s training as a youngster, when he still had his ears, at the hands of a rather cruel master. No doubt about it, Soubi’s more than a bit broken.
It’s apparent during all of the confrontations in this volume that trust is a huge part of being an effective unit. With Soubi and Ritsuka battling trust issues, they’re left defenseless while Soubi tries to protect Ritsuka from his bloody world. Ritsuka follows up on that MMO lead, but that subplot is quickly dropped and forgotten with barely a resolution. By the end of the volume, and after watching Soubi get torn up for his sake, Ritsuka steps up to try to take a more active role in the strange word battles.
We also get to see a few of the people who are masterminding this game from behind the scenes. Not that any of these glimpses do much to explain motive or the rules of this universe, but at least we now know what some of the Septimal Moon organization looks like.
There’s plenty of extras in this very thick double edition. The author goes a bit overboard at the chance to draw Soubi as a teenager, and created a bunch of silly alternate universe gag comics about it. There’s also a very interesting question and answer session with Soubi and Ritsuka, where some of the responses from Soubi are at odds with how he acts. There are many other extras as well, including the author and editor conversations and a few other silly gag strips.
In Summary
A volume of bloody battles and emotional scar tissue, Loveless continues to make me feel like a voyeur in a strange private club. There aren’t many answers to be found, and Ritsuka’s frustrations soon become the readers. Still, the art is beautiful and the action is well constructed, which is great as this is a volume with many battles to be fought. The teaser for the next double-volume threatens to bring even more mysteries in to the mix. It will be interesting to see if Ritsuka gets any closer to the truth or if he’s still going to be left in the dark.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: A –
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 8th, 2013
MSRP: $14.99
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