Punching back
Creative Staff
Story: ONE
Art: Yusuke Murata
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
The Monster Association has kidnapped Tareo, the boy who admires Garo, and now Garo finds himself plunging headfirst and alone into the heart of the Monster Association’s hideout. Meanwhile, the Hero Association pushes forward with its operation to rescue Waganma, while Genos and the others are living it up enjoying hot pot at Saitama’s place!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the volume opens, we get a bit more setup with the Hero Association, discussing who exactly is going to be brought along for the big mission. And that’s all well and good, but the real fun is when we return to the hot pot at Saitama’s apartment. Though it’s a brief scene, it’s pretty darn amusing and makes for easily the best gag we’ve had in some time. It really is a little thing, but it’s a nice little tool for getting starting the book off on the right foot.
And from there, the focus turns entirely on Garo as he makes his way down into the Monster Association’s hideout. To be blunt, it’s honestly just one huge string of action straight through to the end of the volume… but fortunately, it’s really well done. The flow is just great and it’s fun to watch, never feeling like a drag at all like how recent books in the series have often been. It’s just an exciting ride from start to finish, likely helped by the fact that Garo isn’t quite as ridiculously overpowered as Saitama allowing for a bit more variety to his fights.
Finally, we wrap up with a kinda meh brief bonus chapter about Saitama comparing some real monsters to ones from a manga. It’s not terrible, but it’s a bit bland and generic, not really feeling like it’s doing anything fresh.
In Summary
With this volume, the Monster Association stuff finally really gets ramped up after all the build-up, and honestly… it feels like a return to form. We mostly get a ton of action, but the flow just feels so much better than what we’ve gotten recently, making it a joy to read. Heck, even the few gags we get feel like a step up and are actually funny again! It may be too soon to say the series is back on track again just yet, and it’s still mostly just flash rather than amazing substance at this point, but it really is nice to really enjoy reading one of these volumes again.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: March 3rd, 2020
MSRP: $9.99
