One big bundle of action!
Creative Staff
Story: ONE
Art: Yusuke Murata
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
Surrounded by heroes, Garo finds himself in a tight spot. But despite the great numbers, he defeats the heroes one by one with his unmatched strength before Genos comes rushing in! Meanwhile, Saitama is reaching the height of irritation in his own battle…with King?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
So, with this volume, we honestly just get one massive fight. It does have some different parts to it, but the action stretches from the start of the book to the very end, and will even carry on into next time on top of that. Garo’s the focal point the whole time, but at the very least who he’s fighting does shift. But to start with, it’s him versus a group of eight sub-S-class heroes. And honestly… it’s pretty darn well done. It’s not quite as flashy as a lot of the ridiculous stuff Saitama does, for example, but by setting the exhausted hero hunter up against such a large group, we get what’s quite possibly the most well done legitimate fight in the series. It’s a good bit removed from the central gag of the series and isn’t particularly funny in the least, but it’s a legitimately solid fight in general that’s just real fun to watch.
Unfortunately for our self-proclaimed monster, though, as soon as he wins that fight, Genos shows up. This is where things start to get crazy in the way more commonly seen in the series, with plenty of flash. I personally find it a bit less impressive than what’s shown through the teamwork in the last fight, but it’s still enjoyable. And more importantly, you can seriously feel Garo getting desperate and backed into the corner hard. Even when some reinforcements from the monster association pop up, they’re little help at all and are immediately swatted aside! All that makes you really start to feel bad for the poor hero hunter when of all people, Bang and his brother show up to make the fight even more weighted against him.
Can Garo possibly win out against these ridiculous odds? Or is he doomed to share the fate of the monsters he so admired?
In Summary
This volume is a rather interesting one, as it really is just one giant bundle of action with a fight stretching throughout its entire length. Thanks to that, on the one hand the jokes virtually evaporate entirely here, giving this volume a very different feeling compared to where the series started. However, I would say that the action is quite well done, with the first half, in particular, having some of the best combat ever shown in the series, even if it isn’t the flashiest. On top of that, it’s certainly an enjoyable showing for Garo, with it being pretty easy to feel for him over the course of the book. At the end of the day, what you get is a bit of a weird book, as here it feels like the series has almost entirely shifted into what it was parodying at the start. That still leaves us with some fantastically drawn action, but admittedly there’s not a lot of depth behind what’s presented here. So ultimately, your enjoyment of the book is going to come down to whether you’ve been primarily interested in the comedy of the series, or in its stunning art.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: May 7th, 2019
MSRP: $9.99
