A cool new type of match, and… one very unfortunate plot point
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Naoe
Translation: Leighann Harvey
What They Say
When Hotaru’s mother arrives at Tsukishiro Complex and demands Hotaru be taken off Toy?Gun Gun, even its most steadfast members are shaken to their cores. Despite the fact that the team might not survive Hotaru’s loss, much less the TGC, Kane Tachibana wants to take her daughter back to America with her at once! Up against this mama bear who has no patience for weakness, will Matsuoka and his unique approach hit the mark?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Okay, so we start off this time by wrapping things up with Hotaru’s mom. The big thing here is a bit of a flashback to our heroine’s past, revealing the origins of her more brutal side. And I’ve got to say… this is the biggest plot point in the book that I’m kind of unsure what to think of. Like, it’s pretty clear from reading that it was something that was a kind of slapstick element at the very start of the series, retrofitted into something more serious as things developed. And the flashback here functions as what it sets out to do, making the whole thing feel kind of messed up. But something about it still feels… kind of incomplete. I guess maybe it’s the way that it’s been shoved out of the way for most of the series to show Hotaru’s compassion that probably throws it off the worst. Because I mean, in the end, you get her being super caring and nice, but then it’s like a switch that arbitrarily flips to say “oh, but see, REALLY she’s got a dangerous side!” that doesn’t feel like it was weaved in smoothly to her character. It’s not the end of the world, but I also don’t think it’s been an especially well-handled plot point, at least thus far. Oh, and anyway, the guys all stick up for Hotaru and get her mom to agree that she can stay on the team.
Now, while I said I had some problems with the last plot point, the next topic is actually the true black mark on the series. You see, we finally actually start to dig more into Haruki’s past with this volume, which goes down with him telling the group he’s going to try to go see his dad to try to patch up their relationship. Everybody goes ahead and congratulates him for making this step, being all supportive. And you know, if things were all vague and just left at “things are rough between us,” that would be one thing. But no, Haruki actually explains things, saying that his dad was not only verbally abusive, but straight up hit him! And that… that is not okay to just have the heroes write off so lightly and be like “good job, man!” This is only made worse when Haruka quite clearly freaks out upon hearing that from Hotaru, and rather than being like “oh crap, we’ve got to drop this and follow up on things,” our heroes just head on off into their first match of the TGC. And I mean, I get it, they don’t know the extent of how bad things are, with Haruki literally being locked up. But if that was the author’s aim as it seems to be, he really, really should have given the characters less information. Because as is, it comes off as them turning a blind eye to some stuff they REALLY never should be, and that’s pretty messed up.
As for the actual fight, it’s a pretty solid one, setting it up as a “king match.” The rule change definitely does make for an interesting twist. But will our heroes’ ingenuity be enough to come out on top?!
In Summary
The series has been on a bit of roll as of late, but sadly this volume is the one to kind of break that. Rather than being boring or anything, though, the issue is more so in plot points that don’t feel like they were properly thought through. The more forgivable one is the one surrounding Hotaru, which feels a little awkward and like it doesn’t mesh great into her overall character, but it still functions more or less as it’s intended to. The bigger issue, though, is Haruki’s plot. It ultimately feels like the author not fully considering what was being said, but as a result of the way things play out, the characters just come out of it looking really, really bad. It’s a shame because it wouldn’t take much tweaking to make it work as I’d assume was intended, but as is it’s just… frankly straight up awful, and makes for a pretty nasty little thing to read play out. The actual battle for the volume, mind you, is pretty good. It really is a shame that these awkward portions drag the book down so much, as it was so close to being yet another great entry in the series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: June 12th, 2018
MSRP: $12.99