The madness is growing stronger… can anyone stop it?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Atsushi Ohkubo
Translation/Adaptation: Jack Wiedrick
What They Say
Kid has been freed from Noah’s greedy clutches, but The Book of Eibon remains at large. Noah was a troublesome foe, but the vast knowledge contained within the book could itself be dangerous-and information is not all that lies in its pages… Meanwhile, Crona has resurfaced in Moscow, his madness and Medusa’s maternal pressure having all but consumed the friend Maka once knew. The question is how many will be devoured by Crona’s madness before he can be stopped?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Medusa might be the on the cover of this volume, but it’s all about the product she brought into this world, Crona.
Crona has been carefully kept in the shadows, and we’ve only been catching glimpses of him once Medusa took him back from the Academy. In this volume it’s time for the new and improved Crona to come back out and make a debut. And what a debut it is.
The first test of Crona’s new evil powers is to take on the DWMA’s Eastern European branch. With the sheer force that Crona now possesses he makes quick work of the meister’s waiting for him. Rather than just kill them, they become ominous floating black balls of pure madness. From there Crona moves on to do the same thing to an entire town in the Ukraine, enclosing the whole area in a ruthless dome of hardened black blood.
Soul, Maka, Kim, Jacqueline, and Stein arrive at the Eastern base to address the situation there. Soul’s wound from Crona’s previous attack infected him with a black blood madness ages ago that reacts to the orbs in a dangerous way. The result is an internal battle and an external one. Stein, who can’t get very close to the strong madness, takies up arms against Soul to protect himself and the others while Soul tackles his inner demons. I love the fact that Kim and the others decide to temper Stein’s own madness by hugging him while they dodge around the room. In the end, while they are able to get Soul back to his old self, they have to lock down the facility.
If you thought Tezca Tlipoca’s demise was weak, then the author must have agreed with you because the meister we know very little about had faked his own death. He returns here to have a proper battle against Justin. It’s a long, drawn out fight with a lot of attempted reconciliation on Tezca’s part with the traitor of DWMA. However, there is no saving Justin from his worship of the kishin. I still don’t find Tezca very interesting, and even though the fight was appropriately flashy it is by far the least interesting part of this volume.
The end of this volume is where the truly interesting developments are. Crona returns to his mother who showers her child with praise. Crona, conditioned from the start to accept and expect only abuse from his mother, snaps. The end result is a horrific glimpse into Crona’s upbringing and a bloody revelation that even what looks like a victory was just the final outcome of Medusa’s evil plan. Never before have stick figures been so terrifying.
The usual extras are included after the story, with the author’s comic being a bit shorter do to a four page preview.
In Summary
It’s time. We finally see what a fully weaponized Crona can be, and boy it’s not a pretty sight. With the literally insane level of power that he has, I wonder if there’s any way for Maka and Soul to stop him. Crona will have to be stopped, but I doubt it will be a battle of force which takes him down. We’re definitely approaching the end game now, and the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.
Content Grade: B +
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B +
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: May 27th, 2014
MSRP: $13.00