Racing, timing, healing, growing.
Creative Staff:
Story: Reki Kawahara
Art: Hima
What They Say:
Seiji Nomi’s scheming from his position atop the school social hierarchy has ceased. Sky Raker has returned to the Accelerated World, and upon joining Nega Nebulus, she and Kuroyukihime have become a force to be reckoned with. But one day, Haruyuki hears the news that the social camera network has been expanded to include the Hermes’ Cord space elevator, and he realizes what the next stage of the game will be: space. Upon arriving, he is aided by a mysterious operator in taking on the biggest mission in the history of Brain Burst! Plus, Kuroyukihime and Haruyuki have a chance to experience their first overnight event–except they have gatecrashers!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Things are going back to as normal as Haruyuki can say that they ever will be. He has his powers of flight back as Silver Crow. He’s training up Chiyuri and he’s finally having a group of friends to depend on. But, there seems to be something peculiar with the social cameras. Upon inspection, he noticed that the social cameras link to Hermes’ Cord, a space elevator, is now active. With an active camera connection comes an active, comes a new area for the Accelerated World and Brain Burst. Meanwhile, coming back into the Nega Nebula fold, Sky Raker adjusts to the dealings of the group, but one scar remains with her, the loss of her legs. Can Haru help to resolve the loss of Sky Rakers legs as well as the mystery surrounding Hermes’ Cord? Reki Kawahara does deal with these issues by creating two focuses of the book. The first focus is on Haru’s development as a person.
Kawahara displays Haru’s growth as a person in this volume of Accel World. Self-reflecting on the recent changes in his life, he realizes that he has reliable friends who he cares about. It contrasts towards him being alone but he questions if he deserves these companions and more importantly if what he has achieved truly is real. Interestingly, Kawahara creates a physical metaphor for his insecurities which incorporates aspects of previous volumes into this current one. Haru, of course, has to confront them but not without the help of his friends, which also drives home the point being made: Haru has friends he can rely on and he is not alone. This type of metaphor will come with the most important dynamic between Kuroyukihime and Fuko Kurasaki.
The more present dynamic in Accel World Volume 5 comes from Kuroyukihime and Fuko Kurasaki. Once friends, this volume works to amend the past sins of the characters. Fuko’s avatar, Sky Raker, can only use a wheelchair to move around as she destroyed them during her fight with Kuroyukihime. A suggestion comes to heal her back with Lime Bell’s ability. Initially, it does not work, but the reason seems interesting: what’s holding back the healing is not physical, but mental. Fuko still has negative feelings towards the fallout between her and Kuroyukihime and that is holding back her ability to gain back her legs. To truly heal, Fuko has to work through her feelings of doubt, anger, and sadness over her apparent loss of Kuroyukihime’s friendship. Meanwhile, Kuroyukihime must do the same. Feeling responsible for the pushback, she works to find her errors in handling Fuko and let her know that she takes responsibility for the collapse as well. While the metaphor for the friendship is laid thick, it’s good to know that Kawahara is willing to integrate a more in-depth look into the series. Moreover, it shows that Kawahara commits to improving his writing and development of writing by experimenting with some of these techniques if a bit on the nose.
Speaking on his writing, Kawahara seems to go the extra mile to make this volume entertaining. We do get the usual hijinks of Haru dealing with girls who want to get extra close with him. Chiyuri with her wanting to workout gets mistaken for something a bit more, or Kuroyukihime having a bit of a sleepover, these events normally happen within Accel World. It’s towards the end where the twist kicks in. The build up feels justified and the payoff even more so, with a thrilling conclusion that will keep you page turning. It’s this type of writing which attracts people to his work and makes reading Accel world interesting for those vested in the series. It’s too bad that this volume’s overall plot is above standard.
This volume follows the same standard format of find a new world, fight, level up, Haru saves the day. Except this time, there’s a special event where the characters go racing. This special event triggers the above reflection for Haru as well as culminates the resolution of Fuko and Kuroyukihime. The only issue is that it’s above standard for a plot point as there could be multiple ways of getting to said conclusions without having to force a big event to resolve them.
Hima’s art once again is well done. Soft tones with visually pleasing characters, the overall art is nice to look at their designated pages. It does help to know that again, we see a bit of fanservice artwork in Accel World albeit slightly toned down from previous volumes. With that said, one artwork I appreciate is Professor Kuroyukihime explaining the height of Hermes’ Cord. The artwork helps put into context how high the new area in the Accelerated World is, and how much of a task it could be to connect to it.
In Summary:
Volume 5 of Accel World proves a lot. Friendships are healable. Progress can be made, risks can be rewarded. All of these statements sum up this volume with a “friendship conquers all” attitude that somehow works. It is nice to know that Fuko and Kuroyukihime can make up, Haru can rest assured that his friends truly like them, and everyone can hold their own. Mix in with great action and you have a volume that clearly sees the direction it’s going and wants to commit to it. Let’s see what the next volume has in store.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: November 17th, 2015
MSRP: $13.00
