Super-powered cheating run amuck!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Akira Itou
Translation: Satsuki and Shizuki Yamashita
What They Say
In the latest showdown between Psy Qualia users, Ren appears to have the upper hand against newcomer Aichi. With both actively peering into the game and forecasting the flow of their decks, the battle seems settled long before either one has even come close to taking all their damage. Nevertheless, as with all contests it is will that ultimately decides the outcome, no matter how weak it may appear.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The intense fight between Aichi and Ren continues, as the opponents lay down card after card. However, with his ability to see the fight’s “closure image,” Ren is convinced that he’s won the battle already. Sure enough, things seem to go exactly as he predicted, but Aichi manages to push things a little further and take the win. Fortunately, this seems to also quell the darkness in the fellow Psy Qualia user’s heart, allowing for a happy ending.
With a brand new day dawning, Aichi finds his little sister Emi tagging along to the card shop. This ends up leading into a friendly yet fierce final battle between our hero and Kai. Aichi tries not to cheat at first, but Kai urges him to fight at his “best” and use Psy Qualia, so he does just that. The intense battle continues to roll on, with bits of Kai’s past popping up in the process. Just when Kai finally realizes his own “weakness” in the face of Aichi’s Psy Qualia (which is again, essentially just plain old cheating in a fancy form), Kai suddenly seems to awaken to Psy Qualia as well. Just how will this battle between friends come to a close?
The extra chapter included gives us a look at Kai’s past with Blaster Blade.
In Summary
With this volume, we’re once more treated to two relatively mediocre fights that make up the core of the book. Though they’re both certainly “important”, there are no real quirks or tricks to keep things interesting. We do get some bits of Kai’s past at least, but they certainly aren’t really deep either. And of course the issue of Psy Qualia remains. More and more it’s clear that it really is functionally equivalent to just looking at cards you’re not supposed to, making it blatant cheating with a fancy label. And yet, especially with this volume, it’s shown as something that can pretty much only be bested by using it yourself, which is a shame as they had the perfect chance to push for the valor of playing without it. It really is unfortunate to see a series that started off so refreshingly free of such nonsense to be now fully absorbed by it, and as a result all that’s left here is a messy, bland book.
Content Grade: C-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 10+
Released By: Vertical
Release Date: February 17th, 2015
MSRP: $10.95
