A sadly disappointing backstory
Creative Staff
Story: Tsugumi Ohba
Art: Takeshi Obata
Translation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
Mirai and the merciless Metropoliman face off for the first time. In order to achieve his goals, Mirai will have to kill his rival. But does he have it in him? Meanwhile, Saki battles her own demons…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After the events of last time, our heroes find themselves face to face (well, mask to mask) with Metropoliman. Things look primed for intense combat, but… instead, Mirai ends up first debating him. And to be honest, I actually kind of like it. Feels like a bit of a human touch, with them actually engaging one another rather than solely talking past each other. That said, though, it does indeed come to blows. Though fitting to the series, it’s more a battle of bluffs than a physical contest of strength.
Eventually, Mukaido folds, not willing to risk innocent lives and also considering his own life essentially expendable. Mirai, though, isn’t willing to accept that and goes berserk. This results in him literally parrying Metropoliman’s arrows with his own. This is a surprisingly “battle shonen” thing to see considering the nature of the series thus far, but it’s actually played pretty cool, as you really can feel how it’s a move made out of pure desperation. Anyway, it’s fortunately enough to not only get our heroes out safely, but also to land a blow on Metropoliman! Sadly, it’s not enough to keep him from escaping, though.
The real core of the rest of the volume is fleshing out Saki’s character. And quite frankly, I honestly find this to be the most poorly handled part of the series thus far. It’s disappointing enough that she’s apparently entirely defined by her relation to Mirai in terms of her past, motivations, actions, and even the decision to try to take her own life. However, those basic plot points they could have still functioned well enough, even if they would’ve still disappointed me as they keep the character from really standing on her own two feet and being interesting in her own right. But they just had to go and undercut it to such a degree that it just ruins things. Rather than really feeling how she let herself get dragged into the flow and help make Mirai’s life miserable, it almost looks like she just kind of got goaded into being vaguely involved, which makes everything feel like a gross overreaction and steals its punch.
In Summary
This volume has a nice first half and a really disappointing back half. As for the good, we get a nice bit of the series bread and butter, mixing a battle of wits and bluffing with some really strong emotion. Sadly, though, the back half comes along and just kind of makes a mess of Saki’s character. Not only does the book take a dicey direction with her in general, it’s also executed poorly, essentially getting cold feet and undercutting the whole thing by holding back way too much. It’s a real shame because she definitely needed some focus, but the character comes away noticeably worse than her more underdeveloped past self as a result of this volume. I wouldn’t say it absolutely ruins the book, but it definitely drags down what would otherwise be another really well put together entry in the series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 5th, 2017
MSRP: $9.99
