Creative Staff
Story: Yusuke Kishi
Art: Toru Oikawa
Production: Grace Lu, Anthony Quintessenza
What They Say
There’s a fox in the henhouse known as Kamisu 66-Acreage – a Fiend! Saki and her friends are now in a position where they cannot defend against their mass destruction. Those given their genetic composition and programming – even gods themselves – run, but cannot hide.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though they’re treated to a horrifying view as they escape, Saki and Satoru are able to break away from the Fiend. Along the way to inform the others, they meet up with Sho and Haruka, a boy-girl pair from the Holistic Class who seem to be harboring a secret. When the group makes it back they find a hellish massacre in place of their town. Upon hearing the news, an already fatally injured Tomiko passes on Kamisu 66-Acreage to Saki before going to confront the monster herself. Using the hint of how the last Fiend was killed, she gets herself in the right state of mind and readies her assault, but she ultimately falls to the Fiend’s hand regardless.
Shisei is the next to confront the Fiend, and though he has a much greater mastery of his powers as well as the aid of the Cats and the crowd, the code in his DNA ultimately proves too great of an obstacle to overcome. As Saki and company escape, our heroine looks back, only to discover that the Fiend is shockingly Maria and Mamoru’s child, born outside the supervision of the village. On their way to safety, the group meets up with Kiromaru and Inui. Kiromaru offers Saki a package from her mother, and through it we learn of a means to counter a Fiend, an ancient weapon called the Psycho Buster.
Hoping to gain control of this weapon our group departs for Tokyo. Will they be able to thwart Squealer’s plans for world domination, or is the rat simply too crafty? And even if they can, will Saki be able to craft a world she can be proud of?
In Summary
Things start to balance out a bit with this volume, at least more so than the hectic last volume. The big reveal here isn’t anything too shocking, though it works well enough. And though there’s definitely some surprising imagery, it doesn’t feel quite as blunt and abrupt as it was last time. The plot by the end of the book also seems to have unfortunately shifted, now more of a generic “save the world” plot than the complex moral drama that the series has ensconced itself in up to this point. That certainly isn’t to say this book is a poor read, it just isn’t quite as good as what came before it. Even so there’s still plenty of horror and nice character moments contained within. Hopefully the series can recapture some of that magic as it approaches its ending, but for now this remains a solid though somewhat unexceptional entry.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Vertical
Release Date: July 29th, 2014
MSRP: $10.95
