When the Cows Come!
Creative Staff
Story: OKAYADO
Art: OKAYADO
Translation: Ryan Peterson
What they say
High school game addict and reluctant ninja Touga Eita has broken his magical gauntlet while driving the Gigas away from the harpy settlement. To fix it, Eita, Aero, and Jawea must seek out the mysterious smith of the Labyrinth. Filled with nasty traps, ancient treasures, and a curious race of minotaurs, Eita is in for the dungeon crawl of a lifetime.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Volume 2 of 12 Beast starts off some time after volume 1. Eita, Aero, and Jae-san are traveling to Labyrinth Town, home of the minotaurs. The three of them are flying across the vast space of the Re-Verse—the world that Aero and Jae-san are from. Of course, Eita isn’t a harpy like Aeri and Jae-san, so he can’t fly and has Aero carry him instead. He also appears to be afraid of heights and so looks up instead of down. This doesn’t sit well with Aero, probably because he can see her panties.
Aero ends up dropping Eita when she panics thanks to the free peep show she was giving him. Fortunately for Eita, they’re already at the minotaur settlement. Even more fortunately, someone is there to break his fall—with her breasts. Asterio is an easy going minotaur who doesn’t seem to mind when Eita falls face first into her bosoms. She’s also got the largest pair of breasts in the series so far.
As Eita, Aero, and Jae-san are given the grand tour of Labyrinth Town, we quickly learn that Asterio isn’t alone in how chill she is. It seems most minotaurs are like that. In fact, when Eita asks two female minotaurs where he can find the Blacksmith of the Labyrinth, the pair quickly go off topic by talking about accessories for their horns. While it takes some time—no thanks to Asterio, who was so slow she got left behind—the three do eventually reach the blacksmith’s workshop—too bad the blacksmith isn’t in. They learn from a passing male minotaur that the blacksmith only works with a specific type of metal found in the labyrinth.
Here’s where things get interesting. Volume 2 of 12 Beast is very much reminiscent of the type of dungeon crawling that’s so prevalent in MMOs and fantasy RPGs. Eita and the gang travel deep into the labyrinth’s bowels. They’re almost taken down by a simple trap that Aero activates because, well, she’s something of an airhead. Luckily, the group is saved by Asterio, who arrives in the nick of time. With her in tow, our heroes wander further into the labyrinth, until they eventually reach the treasure. Not surprisingly, the treasure is guarded by a talking statue, and, as is the case with most talking statues, this one doesn’t like them for trying to steal it’s master’s treasure: A golden chalice of some sort. The statue activates a trap that nearly does the group in, but some quick thinking on Eita’s part allows them to escape relatively unscathed.
Afterward, they travel back to the blacksmith’s shop, though the blacksmith still hasn’t arrived—or so Eita thinks. The truth is, Asterio is the blacksmith. We learn from her that she only likes to work with Masquerade Steel, a rare steel that has special properties. The chalice they acquired is made of Masquerade Steel. Asterio than tells Eita that the reason she needed the steel was to finish his gauntlet. Apparently, Eita’s brother had come by some time ago and requested that Asterio make a gauntlet for him. Sadly, while in the process of making the gauntlet, Labyrinth town is attacked by the Gigas.
While Eita and Asterio finish making the gauntlet, Jae-san and Aero are sent off to help defend Labyrinth Town. Following Eita’s instructions, they lead the Gigas into a trap. Sadly, one of the Gigas survives, and it happens to be the strongest one there. Aero is attacked and almost bites the dust, but Eita arrives just in time to save the day, having completed his gauntlet. While the battle is tough, Eita pulls off a win by fusing his gauntlet with Aero’s magic… which involves groping her boobs. Hey! What did you expect from a harem manga?
In Summary
The overall story was highly entertaining, though I do have a few bones to pick. My first problem was with the packaging. The quality of this volume’s cover was quite poor. While I was reading it, the plastic lamination on the front and back of the cover seemed to be peeling. I also think the dialogue in this volume was worse than the previous one. My issue comes from the numerous puns that litter the story. While I like to think of myself as a punny person, I believe they should be used sparingly. They should also fit the character. Puns with Asterio worked because they match her personality, but whenever Eita, Jae-san, or Aero spoke in puns, I was thrown off. That said, outside of the issues with the cover and the bad use of puns, I found this manga to be an enjoyable read.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: C-
Text/Translation Grade: C
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: July 7, 2015
MSRP: $12.99
