So, we’ve crossed the serial killer pedophile clown line, apparently.
Creative Staff
Story: Takahiro
Art: Tetsuya Tashiro
Translation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
Having survived a fierce battle, Mine finds herself with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Meanwhile, Wild Hunt, Syura’s Secret Police, is pushed to its limit, while Wave and the other Jaegers take action. The fight against evil shakes the Capital!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a quick look at the state of the nation, we get right into the meat of things, as it turns out Shula has returned. And not only that, he’s also brought back an elite team of fighters that he gathered in his travels! We get a fairly quick introduction to this group as they slaughter a crowd of desperate prisoners who’d been forced into gladiatorial combat, which is about what you’d expect, as they show off both their skills and character quirks.
Changing gears a bit, we jump back to our heroes, who’ve been left licking their wounds as they return home slowly, trying to avoid any trouble. The big news, though, is that Mine actually takes this opportunity to full on confess to Tatsumi, shoot down his expected misunderstanding, and end up in a full on relationship with him! Of course since she’s not the “main” girl and the series has people dying left and right, the cynic in me is assuming this has marked her clearly for a tragic death of some sort in the not too distant future. But at least for now, it’s pretty cool to see the series stop teasing stuff and actually get right into it, and give a “side character” like her an actual chance to shine. If nothing else, hopefully she’ll at least get some time to enjoy this relationship before the inevitable tragedy strikes!
Anyway, the real bulk of things this time goes to Shula’s group taking up the name of Wild Hunt and acting as “secret police,” which… pretty much amounts to being extra sick bastards, even for this series. It’s all just merciless murder and rape, and I mean… they have a freaking pedophile serial killer clown in their group! So yeah, definitely not holding any punches in making a thoroughly hate-worthy group to be taken down. In fact, the remnants of Jaegers actually even end up clashing with them directly, as they’re just too blatantly crooked to possibly ignore.
When things ultimately come to a head with a full on clash between the group, just who will make it out of the fray alive? (Oh, and we also learn once more that Kurome is really pretty damn messed up herself, ending on an especially nasty little scene to close out the volume.)
In Summary
So, to cut to the chase, this volume spends a LOT of its run-time going extra overboard on the whole twisted, messed up aspect that has been a part of its DNA since the very start. This is largely done to make the new group just that much more worthy of your hate, but it’s also certainly more than a little over the top and definitely could turn off some people, even if they’ve been able to handle the series up until this point. With all that said, though, there is definitely more here on display than just torture and gore and rape. Most importantly, the remaining members of the Jaegers get a lot more attention this time around, and even a chance to not necessarily be on the side of evil, which is nice to see and does a lot for their characters. But the real shocker this time, though, is on the matter of personal relationships, which actually amazingly take a step forward instead of just teasing and waffling forever! It still remains to be seen where that will go in the future, but at least for now, it makes for a real nice moment that certainly helps to prop up the book. Ultimately the action is a bit on the low side for the series, dragging things down a bit, but I’d say the rest is more than enough to hold things together and make for a nice read, as long as you have the stomach for the nastier bits on display.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Package Rating: B+
Text/Translation Rating: B+
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: April 18th, 2017
MSRP: $12.99
