QQ Sweeper ends with satisfaction and promise for new beginnings.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Kyousuke Motomi
English Adaptation: Ysabet Reinhardt MacFarlane
Translation: JN Productions
Touch-Up Art & Lettering: Eric Erbes
Design: Izumi Evers
Editor: Amy Yu
What They Say:
One day, Kyutaro Horikita, the tall, dark and handsome cleaning expert of Kurokado High, comes across a sleeping maiden named Fumi Nishioka at school… Unfortunately, their meeting is anything but a fairy-tale encounter! It turns out Kyutaro is a “Sweeper” who cleans away negative energy from people’s hearts—and Fumi is about to become his apprentice!
Fumi still has no memory of her past, but she begins to feel a sense of calm working and living with Kyutaro and his family of Sweepers. But when a Bug Handler goes after her, how will she overcome his dark manipulation?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This is the final volume of QQ Sweeper, which is a bit of a misleading way to say it. In the back matter, it’s revealed that the series continues under a different name, Queen’s Quality, and I’m excited to continue this story!!
But this manga ends in a very good place for it, thematically. It’s revealed there’s a Bug Handler who can, as the title suggests, manipulate bugs to manipulate people how he or she wishes. There’s also such a thing as a Queen that can heal or infect on a much grander scale than anything Sweepers normally imagine. Fumi, of course, is possibly a Queen, which brings both the cursed title and her uncanny ability to heal from way back in volume one.
Nothing gets “resolved” in the traditional manner, but it does reach a thematic conclusion as well as ending the arc proper. Fumi’s arc’s climax is at the beginning of the volume, promising she will continue training as a Sweeper. The rest of the book’s drive, which is the demonstration of her resolve, is with the Bug Handler Ataru Shikata and how he directly conflicts with Fumi.
He represents a dark to Fumi’s light, but he also represents what Fumi could become if taken over by the bugs (I’m trying very hard not to say DARK SIDE, but oops oh well) and their infecting influence. It’s even more frightening to consider that Fumi even overpowered Ataru with her latent Queen powers, which could spell just how powerful the Queen truly is.
Her side though is that of cleaning. She’s been training for this, and has started to enjoy it. She’s obviously leaning toward the Sweepers, but she’s only gotten there by being so strong on her own while being called a cursed child for so long. Her abilities demonstrate, though, that she is more than an average Sweeper, even at her level of skill. She cleans house of her friend Kaori’s mind even with it deeply entrenched into the bugs’ grasp. She has hope.
In Summary:
QQ Sweeper, as I said last time, is much more than what it appears to be from both the cover and even all the back matters. It’s very cute and holds something much deeper than could even be contained within three volumes. But these three volumes set the stage for what could be something even greater. I’ll admit I was lukewarm even well into the first volume, but it’s surprised me more than I can say.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: June 7th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
