Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hiro Mashima
Translation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
In the Monster Soul world, a war was waged between humans and monsters, with the monsters falling on the losing end of a treaty. The peace between the monsters and humans is tenuous and monsters are frequently persecuted by humans. As a result, monsters tend to stay away from humans and keep a low profile. One group of monsters, known as the Black Airs, lives boldy with a purpose: to have fun and take care of each other. They get in to all kinds of trouble with reckless abandon, but as long as they stick together, they’ll be all right… probably.
Technical:
The front cover is a rather fantastic image of Aki over panels of the other three main characters, with all of them striking dynamic poses. The back cover is similarly great, this time bringing the characters together for a group pose underneath the synopsis. Sketches, a “monster encyclopedia”, bonus art and comics, and a few translation notes are included, making for some decently meaty extras. Paper quality feels solid, honorifics are used, text reads smoothly, and sound effects are left in their original form and translated.
The art style used here should be nothing unfamiliar for previous readers of Hiro Mashima’s work. For the uninitiated, that mostly means a moderate amount of detail combined with frequent, exaggerated expressions. Backgrounds also appear often and look fairly nice. Add in some quirky and distinctive character designs and some well conveyed action, and you get a book with a solid style, though nothing particularly mind-blowing.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As our story opens in a world populated by both humans and monsters known as Elvenland, we find the cute little mascot character Joba captured by the human poachers known as the Vulcan Brothers. However, before he can become too upset our hero Aki, a humanoid monster, appears on the scene. However, he appears completely ineffectual, forcing his friends to step in. The sand controlling golem girl Tooran, the monstrous Frankenstein monster James, and the feminine Mummy appear to show off their skills and make quick work of their opponents. Upon looking up who trumped them, the brothers find that our heroes are the Black Airs, the strongest commando unit from the old Human-Monster wars. Rather than simply give up, they become greedy and start scheming to capture their monstrous foes. After some goofiness, Tooran ends up getting captured by a rather pathetic trap, enraging our heroes. When Aki shows up the Vulcan Brothers think they’ve caught a lucky break, but it’s then that they (and the readers) find out that he’s actually a direwolf, a frightening beast that is an “S-class” monster with a soul form. He of course wraps up the fight quickly, bringing the introductory chapter to a happy close.
In the second chapter, our heroes are led by an old lady fairy named Kiyo to a gathering, where a ghost named Bacon is rallying the monsters to revolt against the humans. They of course end up enraging the group, and get captured when Kiyo catches them off guard and knocks them out. Fortunately, a young beautiful fairy, Kiyo’s daughter Jenny, comes to rescue them. She explains that Bacon has been manipulating the monsters of the forest and plans to attack a town today, forcing our heroes into action. With their combined powers, the Black Airs are able to easily win out and bring things to a happy close.
Finally, a powerful two headed monster named Garuelf with a connection to Mummy and Aki’s past appears in the area looking for trouble. Will he still cause them problems in the present, or will their powers allow them to overcome him?
In Summary
This volume makes for a solid opening to the series, giving a good feel for the characters and providing some nice fights. There’s some variety here and there with where the problem lies, though ultimately each of the chapters follow a fairly similar pattern. In terms of actual character development, the best chapter is probably the last, which does a good job of helping Mummy stand out. However, the meat of the volume is the fight sequences, all of which are decently vibrant and enjoyable, though the enemies don’t quite feel as intimidating as they should. Hopefully the next volume will bring some more challenging opponents, but for now this remains an enjoyable if unexceptional read which fans of Hiro Mashima’s other works should definitely consider giving a chance.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: May 13th, 2014
MSRP: $10.99
