Dive into a web of action and battle!
Creative Staff
Story: Yu Sasuga
Art: Ken-ichi Tachibana
Translation: John Werry
What They Say
In order to protect their crewmates, Akari and Michelle use their abilities and head into battle against the Terraformars, who have adapted unique and terrifying new forms! The enemy’s astounding strength forces them into an unexpectedly desperate fight.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the other teams scattered around Mars become clear. The battle between humans and the demons they created reaches a new intensity.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Faced with modified Terraformars, our heroes find themselves in quite a pinch. Michelle is dragged into the water by one, while another manages to get to the controls of the transport and starts to drive it! It looks like the beast will leave Akari in the dust and escape with the rest of the crew, but thanks to his Bagworm Moth threads he’s able to grab on. Meanwhile, Michelle finds that her opponent has the abilities of a diving beetle, allowing it to safely try to drown her. However, before it can do so, she puts a serious hurt on the monster in the window before she passes out. Even so, it seems the best that she can hope for is to take her opponent down with her, as she soon loses consciousness. Fortunately, though, Akari proves a far more experienced fighter than his opponent, and even manages to use his threads to both rescue Michelle and fling his enemy in the process.
With their skills our heroes are able to easily wrap up the rest of the fight, capturing a pair of unusual Terraformars in doing so. Meanwhile, the Russians face down their vicious opponents. As Asimov explains that the Terraformars underwent artificial evolution, they step in to attack him. However, thanks to his crabby powers he proves quite the formidable fighter. Along with Ivan’s hallucinogenic powers, they’re able to wrap up the fight and make a capture of their own.
Finally, Adolf and his crew face down a swarm of Terraformars. Though his electrical abilities prove quite formidable, are they enough to handle such a mass of powerful foes? Or will he fall to the same fate as the China crew?
In Summary
Though the last volume did start to stabilize the series a bit, this is the first volume to be devoid of pretty much anything shocking or surprising. For the most part, the focus here is showing off everyone’s abilities and giving the readers some exciting battles. There are also some hints of backstory for parts of the cast as well, but even that is minimal. Fortunately, the fights and powers are sufficiently flashy and interesting, which definitely prevents this volume from being a drag. Since a series built solely on twists and turns wouldn’t really be sustainable, it’s good to see that this book is able to hold up as well as it does without them. Even so, hopefully the series can grab back a bit of its punch with the next volume, as its absence is definitely felt here.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 20th, 2015
MSRP: $12.99
