The End and the Beginning
Creative Staff
Story: Reki Kawahara
Art: Hima
Translation: Jocelyne Allen
What they say
PREPARE FOR A FULL DIVE!
After a grueling battle, Haruyuki managed to defeat the Legend-class Enemy Archangel Metatron, meaning it’s only a matter of time before the ISS kits that have been polluting the Accelerated World are destroyed as wel. Everything is finally working out for once… until the Red King, Scarlet Rain, is kidnapped by two members of the Acceleration Research Society—Black Vise and Argon Array!
Now, to keep his promise to protect Niko, Haruyuki must hunt down Black Vise using the special boon he received from Metatron. Meanwhile, Kuroyukihime closes in on the real-world Tokyo Midtown Tower with Fuko, Utai, and Akira in the hopes that they can disconnect Niko from the portal there, but rescuing her isn’t as simple as it seems…!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Volume 15 of Accel World might be the biggest doozy of the entire series. I’m not exactly sure how to go about reviewing this, but let me do my best.
Volume 15 is, essentially, nothing but one fight scene after another with only a few pauses in between. The volume starts immediately after Scarlet Rain is captured and taken by Black Vise. Haruyuki follows him through some kind of portal made by Black Vise’s ability to walk through shadows, where the two confront each other, and then Haruyuki is attacked by an Enemy that, while not as strong as Metatron, is still more than he can handle on his own. Fortunately, Metatron has somehow become an enhanced armament—a pair of wings that remain affixed to his back, and she helps him out.
The story moves at an almost recklessly fast pace. It switches back and forth between two separate but coinciding stories. The first is obviously Haruyuki’s journey as he tries to rescue Scarlet Rain, but the second is about Kuroyukihime, Utai, Fuko, and Akira as they end up in a confrontation with the ISS kit’s main body.
I honestly found myself more interested in what was happening to Kuroyukihime than Haruyuki. While I think a part of this is because of how melodramatic and naive Haruyuki tends to act, another reason is because of what happens during the sequence of events when Kuroyukihime confronts the ISS kit main body. She runs into a blast from her past, Red Rider, who she and the other three wind up in battle with. The scenes in which Kuroyukihime must fight against Red Rider, a Burst Linker who should have disappeared from the Accelerated World, brings a lot of new information and surprising reveals.
The first and most interesting reveal is that someone set Kuroyukihime up. Back before Haruyuki was a Burst Linker, Kuroyukihime had killed Red Rider during a peaceful meeting between the Kings of Pure Color. This was what would set the stage for Haruyuki to enter the picture. In the previous volume, we learned that the reason Kuroyukihime killed Red Rider is because of an enhanced armament he made that could put the entire Accelerated World in jeopardy. Of course, this turned out to be a trick her older sister and fellow King of Pure Color played on her. Now we learn that the reason Kuroyukihime was tricked into killing Red Rider was because someone wanted his ability to create enhanced armaments so they could make the ISS kits.
While Kuroyukihime, Fuko, Akira, and Utai battle against Red Rider and the ISS kit, Haruyuki, who has been joined by Pard, Takumu, and Chiyuri, finally catches up to Black Vise. I do feel like this battle was kind of bogged down. There’s a lot of description, so the pace feels slow despite everything happening within seconds of each other. Not only that, but there’s also a lot of internal monologing from Haruyuki, which slows the pace even more. Despite that, I would consider this an exciting volume.
In Summary
While the writing does feel bogged down by overly descriptive internal monologues, I do think this was an excellent volume, with plenty of action, surprising plot twists, and interesting plots to go around. I’m really interested in seeing whether or not Kuroyukihime, Utai, Fuko, and Akira can destroy the ISS kit main body. Also, while she is unconscious most of the episode, Scarlet Rain does wake up at the very end and has her “WTF is going on?!” moment. Hopefully, this arc will be concluded in the next volume.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: September 18, 2018
MSRP: $14.00
