More action, more slicing, and more new faces to remember in this most dangerous game of keep-away.
Creative Staff
Story: Hiroshi Takashige
Art: DOUBLE-S
Translation/Adaptation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
In the tunnels of the Kakuhoukai’s secret base, Mamoru chooses to challenge Wiseman to a duel on the criminal mastermind’s own turf! Mamoru realizes that his enemy has the advantage of numbers and weaponry and will stage a coordinated attack that Mamoru has no hope of surviving-alone, that is. Haruka’s guidance will be critical to her protector’s survival. Gathering her courage, Haruka rallies the resources she has on hand and leaps into the fray!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This double volume of Until Death Do Us Part is evenly split between two different storylines which see a bunch of new characters join the fray and a handful of returning characters jump back into the action.
Starting off is the conclusion to the showdown in the underground base with Wiseman and the yakuza guy. It’s the manga equivalent of watching someone play a third person shooter as Mamoru, closely followed by Haruka and the turncoat yakuza goon Senji, work their way through narrow passages. This is Wiseman using Mamoru as a lab rat, which I’m sure was not part of the deal he made with the yakuza. You definitely get the idea that Wiseman cares far more about challenge than the outcome, and I’m not surprised that Mamoru strikes up his own deal at the end of it.
As for the battle itself, things get downright silly in those tunnels. There is a tank involved, sound canceling equipment, and all sorts of other tricks and gimmicks. Igawa shows back up again, now taking a backseat because his role as shocked sidekick as been turned over to Senji.
Speaking of Senji, he’s probably the most interesting guy in this entire volume. He constantly looks like he’s scared and in way over his head, and I still can’t figure out why he decided to pledge his loyalty to Haruka beyond the fact he’s either an idiot or a genus at reading the situation. Mamoru even hands over his specialized blade to the yakuza swordsman at one point. I wanted to keep reading just to see if he was all talk or completely useless, and the truth is probably somewhere in-between.
During all of this action we discover what Haruka did with her time in the mountains with Mamoru’s old sensei. Some basic self defense and hand-to-hand combat goes a long way with her precognition abilities into keeping her safer and molding her into a mastermind. (Mamoru’s training with her was utterly stupid though.) The boss of the network has his eye on Haruka as a potential asset to their own cause, not just a girl who needs protecting.
The second half of this volume has the network calling in everyone around to stop a trio of sadistic killers who hold bank robberies just to slaughter innocents. Coming up on the scene of their most recent gruesome holdup the team jumps into action to stop them. This marks the return of Juliette and Dai, and since Dai is back you can bet there was ridiculous bike-fu. Seriously, this is just beyond silly at this point. All we need now is for someone to break out the laser beams and start flying around, because all suspension of disbelief has been broken at this point.
Early on in this volume a couple of new characters work their way into the story, one of whom started to push my limits of ‘oh come on.’ The sudden appearance of a character with his own nickname, reputation, and over powered ability of his own with no prior build up set off my bullshit alarm. It turns out this jarring addition to the cast is the result of an elaborate crossover. Most crossovers in manga are kept to extra chapters or brief cameos, and for good reason. Suddenly we’re dealing with a character from a series unknown in English, who is yet another badass in a cast of inhuman badasses.
He’s not the only crossover character either, another shows up by volume’s end. I can only imagine that the editor’s of the magazine in which these series ran decides to shoehorn more popular characters into this lagging series, or that the author was friends with the author of the works these two characters are from. Instead we’re left with “hey, you awesome guys are awesome and now you’re involved deeply with the ongoing series!” This is an unearned plot device, and another problem for a series that is already fat with undeveloped characters with very little personality.
Once again I find myself more enamored with the extra comics included about the artist’s life with his assistants. Make no mistake, Double-S is a talented artist and a pretty funny guy. I would read a manga based just on him torturing his assistants. Although after learning what comic he had a hand in before Until Death… I’m not sure the series proper would be that much stronger if he was writing it himself.
In Summary
I really don’t know what to think of Until Death Do Us Part anymore. It’s gone long past the point where I felt like it was a dog chasing it’s own tail. There’s very little going on here beyond piles and piles of action, and the most interesting character of the bunch is a wayward yakuza whose a Haruka fanboy. Now with it bringing in characters from other sister publications I’m left feeling left out and slightly annoyed. People who are really enjoying it must like the over-the-top action movie antics that it looses itself in and not care that the plot is moving at glacial speed. If you can look beyond the shallow nature of the shadow play that is the plot motivation, there’s still solid and detailed art to enjoy. I’m just glad Senji pushed his way into the action, because he’s actually interesting to watch.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: May 27th, 2014
MSRP: $18.99
