Cradle of Stars
Creative Staff
Story: Reki Kawahara
Art: Hima
Translation: Jocelyne Allen
What they say
PREPARE FOR A FULL DIVE!
After their battle with the Acceleration Research Society, Kuroyukihime and the other members of Nega Nebulus have finally resolved to face the White Legion, Oscillatory Universe! To have a fighting chance against White Cosmos, Nega Nebulus knows that forming an alliance with the Green Legion is paramount. So after scheduling peace talks with the Green Legions Master, Green Grande, Haruyuki travels to their home base, located in the Shibuya Ward. But when he arrives, he discovers that the one awaiting him is none other than… Kuroyukihime in a swimsuit?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Despite the premise of Accel World Volume 17: Cradle of Stars, Kuroyukihime in a swimsuit plays a very small part—and she’s not the only one who ends up in a bathing suit. All members of Nega Nebulus do eventually. However, this doesn’t happen until close to the end of this volume, which is the shortest of all the volumes currently published for this series.
The beginning of this volume starts off with Haruyuki attending a meeting alongside Kuroyukihime and the other Kings of Pure Color as they discuss Nega Nebulus’ actions in the previous arc. If you’ll recall, the previous arc involved Haruyuki and his friends traveling into the Unlimited Neutral Field, fighting against the Legend class Enemy Suzaku, fighting against Magenta Scissors and her group, fighting the Archangel Metatron, fighting against the ISS Kit’s main body, fighting against Wolfram Cerberus, and fighting against the Chrome Disaster Mark II, which was Wolfram Cerberus after he had been corrupted with the ISS Kit’s negative energy and stole Scarlet Rain’s Enhanced Armaments. Basically, the entire arc was just a series of ridiculously long fights that dragged on far too much.
During the meeting between the Seven Kings of Pure Color, Haruyuki summons the Archangel Metatron to join him in observing the proceedings. She was only introduced within the last two or so volumes, so we do not know much about her, but I really enjoy Metatron’s attitude. She’s very arrogant and proud. She reminds me of an imperious queen, someone who believes everyone else is beneath her. Considering she’s a Legend class Enemy and one of the most powerful characters in the series, I don’t blame her. While the previous volumes gave her a clear enough personality, this one really helps establish her character and her role for the upcoming series.
I think this volume is so short (166 pages in paperback) because not a whole lot happens. After the meeting in which the Seven Kings of Pure Color agree to actively work toward eliminating the Acceleration Research Society from the Accelerated World, Haruyuki introduces Metatron to Kuroyukihime and Fuko, then comes home to discover Scarlet Rain, aka Niko, waiting for him. Kuroyukihime somehow senses her there and joins them. The three spend the night together studying after a discussion involving a trip to visit Haruyuki’s grandparents in Yamagata because they were eating cherries (his grandparents own a cherry farm, I guess). They also discuss the Acceleration Research Society, and Niko mentions that she might be attending their junior high in the future since she’s graduating from elementary school this year.
After that, the series features what seems like filler content such as the members of Petit Paquet joining Nega Nebulus, and the core members of Nega Nebulus traveling to a pool where the aforementioned Kuroyukihime in a swimsuit takes place. The meeting between them and the Green Legion happens immediately after, but the volume ends on a cliffhanger before the real meeting can even begin. Perhaps in an effort to make this volume seem bigger, there are several “extra chapters” that don’t really have anything to do with the main story. They take place months before this, back when Kuroyukihime was in the hospital after being hit by a car in volume 1. It involves Haruyuki trying to decide what level-up bonus he should get after reaching level 2. It overall doesn’t seem very important to the story and was likely added because this volume only had 166 pages compared to the normal 240-ish pages.
In Summary
Reki Kawahara remains an incredibly detailed writer who describes a lot of the goingons of Haruyuki and his group, but not a whole lot really happens in this volume. While this does make the volume a bit boring, especially compared to the previous 5 or 6 volumes worth of combat, one thing I did enjoy about it was how the relationship between Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime seems to be actually going somewhere. It’s still stupidly slow, to the point where I’m wondering if anything will happen before volume 20. However, it still looks as though their “flirting” has become an officially established thing. Outside of that, the only thing to really note is the addition of Petit Paquet (a Legion that Haryuki met in volume 12) joining Nega Nebulus, and the surprise arrival of a Burst Linker who appears to be Graphite Edge at the very end.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: March 19, 2019
MSRP: $13.99
