So much playing out in the open!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata
Translation/Adaptation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
At a baseball stadium to witness Metropoliman’s demonstration, Mirai and Saki find themselves in big trouble. The god candidate dressed as an action hero has revealed himself to be absolutely ruthless as he kills a rival candidate and captures two others as his hostages. Is Mirai and Saki’s only choice to sit back and watch the horror unfold…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I really struggled with the previous installment of Platinum End for a couple of reasons. First was that it just worked too big of a play with what Metropoliman was doing and it became the usual kind of weird and disinteresting shounen material about trying to whittle away at rivals with convoluted plans within plans. The other problem was the one that I’ve been feeling since the start in that the lengthy chapters really makes the whole thing drag a good deal the further into each one that you get. I like what I’m reading but it’s a dense thing with a lot going on and a single sitting just isn’t appealing. But it’s also the kind of serialization that doesn’t allow for breaks in it because it just keeps barreling on and on (and on and on).
Thankfully, this chapter manages to at least turn the story part around a bit and it becomes more engaging as it progresses. Metropoliman certainly makes it clear throughout his time in this chapter that he’s not the good guy that people thought he was and that he’s looking out for the bigger goal, namely to become god. That isn’t registering with non-candidates so they’re missing part of the picture, but seeing the way he takes command of things in the stadium to try and draw out more candidates – that don’t fall for it since the angels work to ensure they don’t – it turns pretty deadly. There’s a cruelty here that easily puts him in villain mode even if the audience isn’t quite sure what they watched. I like the confused aspect of it since a lot thought they were just getting some entertainment or the potential of an actual hero. There’s a lot of conflicting messages for your average citizen here but mostly for the candidates it was an instructive moment on how important a plan is when dealing with anything here.
The back third of this chapter serves as an epilogue and expansion for Mirai that certainly works well. The angels know that Metropoliman – who won’t show up in that form again – is a real danger that has to be dealt with. They also know that Mirai won’t kill him and other solutions may not be enough, so they have to tread carefully to prepare him for what must be done. Mirai and Saki are definitely in a bad place after all they witnessed and that feeling of helplessness comes across well with this. The backstory with Mirai and his family isn’t bad as it works the solid core message about letting go of hate, make it clear what Mirai’s path will be in the end unless they utterly break him as a character, but it’s also something that just threw off the dynamic of the chapter. Again, if this was a normal weekly length chapter it would be self contained and feel “right,” but as part of this sixty-plus page chapter it just feels tacked on.
In Summary
While Platinum End doesn’t have me back on board as strongly as it did in the first couple of chapters, it’s eased me back in after the last chapter that really made me cringe a lot and wonder about how long I might invest in the series. There’s a lot of material to take in here and a lot of carryover from events before, which results in those like Mirai and Saki to not be quite front and center as they should be in guiding the story. The strength in the artwork continues to be a really big plus here and there’s some good story material at work that has me curious to see what twists and turns are ahead, but I’m still feeling wary about it overall. Cautiously optimistic at best, but even that feels like I’m pushing it a bit. The next chapter will definitely do a lot to convince me about the path of the book and how long I’ll stick with it.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via ComiXology
Release Date: April 4th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
