Enter the Jaegers!
Creative Staff
Story: Takahiro
Art: Tetsuya Tashiro
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
General Esdeath assembles a special police squad called the Jaegers and sets her sights on the annihilation of Night Raid in the name of the emperor. Meanwhile, Tatsumi, desperate to overcome the loss of another ally, decides to participate in a grand fighting tournament engineered by Esdeath herself…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the group left down in the dumps thanks to losing an ally, our main crew actually ends up even more understaffed as boss heads to the revolutionary army’s hq to deliver Teigus and hopefully gain some new members. It’s then that we change gears and actually look at Esdeath’s new troops. And surprisingly, they’re quite the interesting group. Though the Three Beasts got a lot more build up, this group is far more intriguing, being built up as characters before being thrust into battle. In fact, we’re actually introduced to them via the eyes of a happy go lucky fellow named Wave, who’s sort of similar to Tatsumi and has a bit of a main character feel about him. The rest of the group is made up of Seryu, Akame’s sister Kurome, the fabulous Dr. Sylish, the mysterious man known as Run, and lastly the rather fantastic character known as Bols, who strikes an intimidating figure despite being quite bashful. Esdeath appears on the scene put them to the test, and they’re finally given the name Jaegers to help set them apart.
After a small look at her past that sets up how messed up Esdeath is, we find out that she’s hosting a combat tournament, which Tatsumi decides to participate in. Tatsumi of course easily wins, but he gets more than he bargained for when Esdeath decides to take him back to the palace as a lover rather than giving him the prize money. This makes for another great chance for the Jaegers to set themselves apart, as they get a chance to both show off their physical skills and flesh out their personalities a little as well. And of course, it’s also interesting to watch Tatsumi squirm at the rather extreme and over the top situation he finds himself in.
This is followed by a bit of goofiness as Esdeath and Tatsumi both try to seduce one another, with Tatsumi rather optimistically hoping to recruit the enemy general! Finally, as the volume wraps down Wave proves quite the enemy as Tatsumi’s forced to confront him to escape, and Dr. Stylish manages to trace our hero to HQ for a nice cliffhanger.
In Summary
This is a bit of an odd entry in the series, as even though it’s not the most action filled, it’s still a particularly strong volume. Instead of big insane fights, we get a real focus on the new group of enemies, the Jaegers. And it’s seriously appreciated, as it already makes them the most interesting and developed set of enemies to pop up yet. They’re a quirky group matching the main cast, and it’s nice that a good number of them actually feel rather fun and silly rather than pure evil. And of course, that isn’t to say there isn’t some nice action, as they also get some great chances to show that they’re every bit as intriguing on the field of battle as off of it. Add a little bit of goofiness and a nice emotional scene or two, and you get a really fantastic book. Hopefully the series will be able to run well with what’s set up here, as it absolutely feels like it’s starting to come together in a great way.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: B+
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B+
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 27th, 2015
MSRP: $12.99
