Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tomohiro Hasegawa
Translation: Paul Starr
What They Say
Third-grader Shota Aikawa’s pet beetle evolves from a larva to a pupa to a superhot human! The wacky adventures of the Aikawa family and the fabulous beetle who would be king now begins! You’re gonna LARVA this new comedy manga!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Hoshiking tournament continues on and things are getting more intense as we enter the back half of the competition. As I’ve said, I’m generally not a fan of tournament material but they’re moving through this quickly and with some silly elements as well. Tomohiro Hasegawa has continued to work this storyline well as each new player ups the ante just right and we end up getting some weird elements thrown into the mix just to shake things up. Moriking’s still being held in reserve because of what’s going to be coming down the road so that lets everyone else step up nicely, which works well.
This match is being done with the third member of the opposition, the Palawan Stag Beetle, and it’s an arm-wrestling match. Or at least it was before it got changed as they’re now meeting in a steel cage match to the death. That certainly shakes up the competition here as Palawan is definitely strong and powerful as our resident child bug collector will tell us in detail. What’s welcome is that Meo steps up to fight against him here since she hasn’t been able to do much since this competition seriously got underway. Setting her up for the fight works well as she’s got some solid skills and the tournament has worked the angle of people revealing some new things about themselves that lets them really shine.
Sadly, Meo ends up not being able to stand up to him and is taken down easily and close to being killed quickly, if not for the surprising return of Oka from the previous fight where he was defeated. The nearly naked bug has now discovered the truth of what it means to fight after his defeat and practically bows before Moriking over it. He’s seemingly switched sides at this point and is now swinging his action toward the Palawan, making for quick work of the enemy as he spent the time between matches traveling the world and building up his skillset even more. It’s comical to be sure but it’s another instance of Moriking’s way being the one to lead others to the promised place, which further cements why he’ll be the hoshiking or whatever is after that as well.
In Summary:
Moriking continues to be a good bit of fun overall with what it does and I like that it lets other characters step up here during this tournament, just as with the last, so that it’s not all on Moriking’s shoulders. That may reduce what Moriking can do himself but they’ve built up a good and fun group to work with. The fight here lets Meo do her best but I was glad that she was only so capable before being put down from the match because this is utterly out of her league. Hasegawa has things move along nicely here though I’m still wondering just how long the whole thing can last overall before we hit the end of the run.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: December 6th, 2020
