Martial arts and monsters galore!
Creative Staff
Story: ONE
Art: Yusuke Murata
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
The human monster and hero hunter Garo cranks up the intensity of his destruction. As the damage increases, throwing the hero world into turmoil, Saitama decides it’s the perfect time to develop an interest in martial arts and sneaks into a combat tournament. Meanwhile, the Class-S hero Metal Bat takes an assignment guarding a Hero Association executive and his son, and it isn’t long before trouble appears!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the volume opens up, the topic on everyone’s minds is Garo. This starts with a quick little gag of Garo beating down some braggart weaklings, but then we join Saitama as he visits Mumen Rider in the hospital, where our hero gets to hear about the humanoid monster’s strength. In addition to of course further building up Garo, this is used primarily to lead into Saitama getting interested in the potential of martial arts, ending in him getting a ticket to a tournament from Charanko. This whole section is a tad slow as it sets things up, but it at least fits in a few gags amongst the exposition.
Following up on all this, we get a back to back blow of rather nice chapters for heating things up. This starts with a real, proper fight between Garo and some high ranking heroes, which provides plenty of flash and a good bit for the villain. The kicker, though, is that this high point of showing Garo as a powerhouse is capped off with Saitama unknowingly knocking him out, with neither realizing what precisely occurred. It’s a real nice little gag that plays perfectly off of the more serious tone of the manga lately, and it’s done perfectly.
Finally, in the back part of the volume, we get the mediocre start of the fighting tournament arc. It’s not exactly bad and admittedly has hardly started, but it definitely feels kind of weak compared to what the series has done up till now. Fortunately, we get a great piece playing alongside it as we focus in on the hero Metal Bat, who’s great to watch. As for bonus chapters, we get a look at Tornado ending up with a slow day, Saitama taking part in a fashion contest, and our heroes clashing with the Blizzard Bunch. All these are solid enough, but I’d say only the fashion one manages to really stand out.
In Summary
Just like with the last entry, we’re treated to another volume here that doesn’t quite live up to the legacy of the series so far. A good bit of time is spent setting up an arc that doesn’t look especially exciting, and it’s hard to say that there are any huge moments here in terms of flash or even gags. With that said, though, it’s only a poor entry for the standards of the series, but it certainly isn’t one in general. There’s still a really great moment centered around Garo in the center of the volume, and we also have some fantastic scenes brought about by the focus on Metal Bat later on. And one of the bonus chapters really does pull itself together well and makes for a great read. I’d even say that the duller moments are worth a chuckle or two, so it’s still definitely worth checking out. Still, I certainly hope that the series turns things around soon, as this volume clearly doesn’t live up to the potential it’s shown many times in the past.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 3rd, 2017
MSRP: $9.99
