Activate plan Delta!
Creative Staff
Story: Yu Sasuga
Art: Ken-ichi Tachibana
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
A new mission to Mars, Annex 1, is under way. Their mission: crucial research into the A.E. Virus currently plaguing mankind. The mutant Terraformars, giant humanoid cockroaches, may hold the key to a cure. Unfortunately for the crew of the Annex 1, the Terraformars have somehow gotten on board the ship and have only one goal—total extermination! Led by Akari Hizamaru, the crew will need to rely on their superhuman powers to survive… if those powers don’t kill them first!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Thanks to the invading Terraformars destroying the drugs, the crew is left in quite a pinch. In face of yet another tragedy, Shokichi orders the ship to turn around. However, U-Nasa has other plans and tells him to switch to plan Delta, meant for an inability to escape. As he retorts that they’ve blatantly been betrayed, though, a portion of the ship explodes and forces his hand. Thanks to the massive power of the officers, the remaining crew is able to make it to the escape pods and scatter into teams, avoiding complete annihilation in the process.
Though most of the team is able to land more or less peacefully, one finds themselves shockingly captured in a net by a swarm of Terraformars.
Meanwhile, the Russian team proves to be working on their own mission as they land at a pyramid. They’re actually only assaulted by a single Terraformar, and thus try to take it alive. Much to their surprise, though, it displays a sudden burst of speed and rips their gunner’s head right off. Meanwhile, Shokichi’s team encounters an attacker of their own, but rather than try to conserve supplies the captain orders everyone to inject just to be safe. Amazingly, Sheila actually does manage to capture it with the net. However, it fires a burst of superheated gas through the girl’s chest, both killing her and proving that the Terraformars managed to steal the technology of the last mission, making a hopeless situation even worse!
Will our heroes be able to fend off these powerful foes? And just what is the Mosaic Organ Operation that now powers their changes?
In Summary
With this volume, we finally hit a bit of stability for the series. There aren’t really any huge shocks this time around, though there are certainly still surprises. As a result, it’s not quite as gripping as what came before it, unfortunately. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a lot to love here. In particular, there are some great fights that make a number of the characters look just plain cool. There’s also at least one really good tearjerker moment here that’s sure to catch readers off guard and tug at their heartstrings. It’s a shame that the madcap insanity of the first two volumes isn’t present to the same degree here, but even so, it’s certainly a good sign that the series can maintain this level of quality even without the shocks and surprises.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: November 18th, 2014
MSRP: $12.99
