The truth of the Ruins, Spell Crests, and everything else finally comes out in this volume!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Shinjiro
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
What They Say
It all comes down to this! Seigi, master of the “keyless Spell Crest”, heads deeper into the ruins site at the South Pole in search of Princess Aryabhata. But before he can take on the ultimate evil in their final battle, he has to save his friends from this hellhole first! Harsha is laying waste to whomever she finds, friend and foe alike. How will Seigi defeat someone who’s nigh unstoppable…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Harsha is the sickest and twisted of all the sisters. It is incredibly unlucky for Seigi’s allies that she has the ability to control the ruins. Somehow, Harsha can shape the ruins to force people into her proximity where she can take them down, one by one. Or even three by three for that matter. Thus it becomes a complete slaughter for a large number of auxiliary characters leading the charge on the Princess and these Ruins in the South Pole.
To make matters worse for Seigi’s allies, he was pushed into a dark corner of the Ruins by Harsha. He has some opponents to take down, but his time is precious and he is unlikely to make it to Harsha in time to save his comrades. Luckily for everyone, there is one man that is just plain batshit crazy and able to at least stall Harsha. That man is the muscle-for-brains soldier Tamaki, who thinks he’s a “hero”. To be fair, the dork does manage to give Harsha a pause, maybe even saving the lives of some of the other soldiers fighting the Princess and her minions.
While Seigi’s friends are fighting for their lives, and mostly losing, he is reflecting on his newfound knowledge of the Spell Crests. The whole breakdown is pretty crazy. Dimensions, beings, souls, master plans to escape extinction, it is all wild. But with all that craziness, Seigi still has to defeat the Princess if he hopes to save all of humanity. But what if he does win? Will he be a magnanimous kid or will he choose to force the world to bend to his will?
In Summary:
The revelations of what the Spell Crests are have been a long time coming in this series. But finally, in this volume, the second to last volume, readers finally get the full breakdown. What the Spell Crests are and how they made it into the human world is a bit of a mind blown moment. Interesting to say the least, but I don’t know if it really needed to wait until the very end to come out. Then again, others may argue it should have stayed a secret until the very last volume. Either way, it brings some closure to the story as far as the “why” people do what they do. Now, the real key will be the next and final volume of Taboo Tattoo. Will Seigi win this war with the Princess? Even if he does and he saves the world, he will then have the power to reshape it to his whims. Will the power corrupt him just as it has the Princess?
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 30, 2018
MSRP: $13.00
