A shockingly competent finale to the arc.
Creative Staff
Story: Yuu Miyazaki
Illustrations: okiura
Translation: Melissa Tanaka
What They Say
Not everyone in the Phoenix fights fair…
At long last, Ayato and Julis have reached the final matches of the Phoenix…but Flora Klemm has been kidnapped! Not only that, but Ayato can’t use his greatest weapon-or her captors will do their worst. If he and Julis want to rescue their friend and win the tournament, they’ll need their wits, allies, and more than a little good luck!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
We kick off this time where last volume abruptly cut things off, with Saya and Kirin facing off in battle against their mechanical foes. Fortunately, it’s at least not as jarring here as it was there, though, as it moves into things decently enough and then keeps on rolling. Anyway, the combat itself isn’t bad as far as this series goes, at least proving to not be stupidly written outside of the now expected lack of significant teamwork in these team battles. Oh, and it ends with the most underwhelming robot combining moment I think I’ve ever seen. Like… just throwing some parts at the other guy is not how that’s supposed to work, and it just comes off as more lame than exciting.
Anyway, the core plot for most of this volume is actually Flora’s kidnapping. I will say this is pretty predictable, to such a degree that you can probably guess the exact flow of the plot as soon as it gets rolling at all, but whatever. It’s at least executed well enough, focusing on the task at hand rather than getting bogged down in fanservice, to such a degree that we even get a female character introduction that isn’t swimming in that stuff! Plus the little bits of world development actually fit here, and it even ends on a decent enough fight, so not bad all around.
The real kicker, though: the final fight for the tournament actually legitimately works well. Like, even without the qualifier of “for this series.” It’s written out well to keep you invested from start to finish, doesn’t do anything stupid, and… actually has teamwork! And heck, even the teasing in the epilogue actually feels related properly to the plot for once!
In Summary
This volume… is shockingly actually well done. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s an amazing, top of the line book, but it follows through and gives a solid finale to the arc. In a lot of ways this is done just by getting out of its own way and avoiding the usual poorly done fanservice and shoddily done worldbuilding that has tripped up past volumes so bad. In the place of such things, we simply get a serviceably done main arc that does a nice enough job from start to finish, despite being a bit too predictable. What really clenches it, though, is the final fight. It’s legitimately solidly written, feeling like the big crazy climax you’d want from this tournament, even mixing in some real teamwork! So apparently the author CAN do fight scenes right, but had just been stockpiling any such writing skills for this fight. Or at least, that’s almost what it feels like. So yes, regardless, this volume is the one that FINALLY drags the series back up out of the gutter. I still wouldn’t say it makes up for the junk that came before enough to recommend the series as a whole just yet, but if this level of quality can actually be maintained, maybe it will indeed get there someday.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: N/A
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: December 19th, 2017
MSRP: $14.00
