Not great, but better than usual.
Creative Staff
Story: Shinichi Kimura
Art: Sacchi
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say:
The fearsome foursome is together once more and having a blast at Aikawa house, now the Eu has returned to the fold after yet another run-in with the King of Night! But their casual, everyday lives are abruptly interrupted when Haruna runs into trouble at the school festival!
Content:
After a surprisingly decent reunion between Eu and the rest of the cast, the usual stupidity resumes as our heroes prepare for the school festival. After a number of gags, Haruna drags Ayumu out to hunt a Megalo, only to reveal in the process that she has regained her powers, apparently through the use of a tool she created to absorb magical energy from the surrounding area.
Later on, Ayumu stays late to prepare for the festival, and ends up investigating upon hearing of a ghost haunting the school. The “ghost,” a young girl in a white dress who seems to love alcohol and dried squid, of course ends up appearing before Ayumu, but it doesn’t take long for her to flee and leave him with nothing but a 10% off coupon. Upon returning home, Ayumu discovers that Haruna’s tool has in fact backfired, causing her to absorb Eu’s immense magic. In effect, this pretty much means Eu and Haruna “switch places,” with Eu being able to talk while Haruna is forced to stay silent and wear Eu’s armor.
The school festival starts up, and Ayumu runs into the “ghost,” whose name is apparently Chris, before getting unintentionally left with her booze just in time for a strange middle-aged man who coughs up blood for random reasons to appear and give him a ring that he’ll “need later.” Sera’s superior Saras appears, Tomonori’s weapon powers are unleashed only to be “sealed” by Ayumu’s ring, and Eu gets a chance to sing for her friends. Just when it looks like it’s time for things to return to the status quo, Chris appears with Haruna’s magic absorbing tool and steals the ring from Tomonori, seemingly grabbing an immense amount of magical energy in the process. As Ayumu stands shocked, Haruna explains that Chris is actually Dai-sensei’s teacher, the strongest of the magikewl girls.
In Summary:
While the content of this book still isn’t great, it’s surprisingly a bit of a step up from what the series has been dishing out thus far. This is probably largely due to Eu actually getting a bit of a character arc here, with the volume choosing to flesh out her personality for once instead of just focusing on fanservice, which is nice to see. The additional characters added to the cast here also don’t seem completely terrible, with their gags pretty much avoiding boob jokes, which makes for a decent change of pace. The book even ends on a decent twist, though seeing how the King of the Night stuff turned out, I’m not getting too excited just yet. Though it’s still not a fantastic read, it’s a step up from what’s come before, and it gives me at least a little hope that the series may yet be able to escape from the level of complete garbage.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Package Rating: A-
Text/Translation Rating: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released by: Yen Press
Release Date: July 23, 2013
MSRP: $11.99
1 thought on “Is This a Zombie? Vol. #05 Manga Review”