You may be wondering why I saw a movie with a bland trailer for a franchise that I had no attachment to. The reason is that I am a big fan of Hideaki Anno, the film’s writer and producer. Hideaki Anno is the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show that sparked a renewed interest in anime for me. With Evangelion, Anno crafted a beautifully told story that explored the tolls of depression and isolation on individuals in a highly unusual manner. I became a lifelong fan of Anno after I finished the show and I will watch any production that he is attached to.

Going into the movie, I was concerned that Shin Ultraman would be incomprehensible for any viewer who wasn’t familiar with the series. My fear was that the film would skip Ultraman’s origins because it was written primarily for a Japanese audience that is already familiar with the character’s story, similar to the way that The Batman and Spider-Man: Homecoming assumed audiences knew Batman and Spider-Man’s origin. Thankfully, Shin Ultraman was written for all audiences, and no knowledge of the series was needed to enjoy the movie.(But it is packed to the brim with what I’m certain are references to prior entries in the franchise)

Shin Ultraman tells the story of an alien(Ultraman) who assumes the identity of a Shinji Kaminaga, a man that he accidentally killed when landing on Earth. Shinji was a member of SSSP, an organization dedicated to destroying Kaiju that have suddenly appeared throughout Japan. Ultraman assumes Shinji’s role in the SSSP and uses his alien powers to fight the Kaiju. The sudden appearance of Ultraman, an unknown life form capable of growing several stories in height, causes ramifications for the world that the SSSP must address.

Similar to the 2021 film The Many Saints of Newark, Shin Ultraman is a movie that has the vibe and atmosphere of a television show. Rather than having a single objective or antagonist that needs to be defeated, Ultraman confronts a series of villains who have come to Earth for various nefarious purposes. The story frequently shifts in the two hour runtime, as Ultraman fights several Kaiju, two separate alien invaders, and his own species. It is a very hectic, break-neck pacing that people who enjoy carefully curated storytelling may not enjoy. Hell, it’s a type of storytelling that I don’t normally enjoy, and this style was a large reason that I disliked The Many Saints of Newark so much. But it worked exceptionally well for Shin Ultraman because it is a movie that is meant to be fun for audiences, and it provided Ultraman plenty of opportunities to showcase his awesome power.

What held the various disparate threads together was Ultraman’s dedication to achieving his own personal goal. Ultraman isn’t a mere do-gooder who came to Earth to devote himself to protecting the people from extraterrestrial threats, like The Autobots in Transformers. Ultraman is an alien whose entire ideology and existence is called into question by encountering humans. He feels that he has a debt that he owes humanity and he wont’ stop until he has paid it in full. His personal journey was very well crafted and gave the audience a reason to root for the character, especially those without any attachment to Ultraman, such as myself.

My only compliant about the movie is that the members of SSSP are forgettable. Shinji’s teammates are stereotypical, one dimensional characters. There is the awkward nerd, the stern boss, and the beautiful newcomer who is obsessed with the job. They serve their purposes in the story, but I never cared for any of them. Ironically, the character came off more alien than Ultraman did. They lacked any of the humanity and charm that made Ultraman a loveable character, and none of them were given character arcs. The members of the SSSP experience numerous challenges that would easily break most people, but they don’t grow from their challenges. They are no different by the end of the movie than they were at the start.

Ultimately, Shin Ultraman is an excellent film that works for new fans and returning fans of Ultraman. It is packed to the brim with action but doesn’t lose sight of the character that is propelling the story. There are some flaws in the movie, but they are easy to overlook. I loved this movie, and it made me more excited for Anno’s next reboot, Shin Kamen Rider.

My introduction to the world of Alice in Borderland was not with the manga that started it all, but with the live action Netflix series. After watching Squid Game, I was itching for more series in the battle royale genre. Although I can’t remember how I found Alice in Borderland, I gave it a chance hoping to scratch my itch for more life or death competitions. It started out okay, though it got worse every episode. My biggest problem with the series was the length of each episode. The games and characters weren’t interesting enough to justify long episodes. I ended up giving up the show about halfway through the first season.

While I didn’t enjoy the Netflix adaptation, I read the first volume of the manga back in October of last year because I thought that the premise of the series was cool. I was quickly captivated by the characters of Alice in Borderland, and thought that the author created a clever twist on the battle royale genre by having the people transported to the world voluntarily enter competitions to win more time(If they run out of time, they’re stuck by a giant laser beam that will hit them no matter where they are). Unfortunately, I had no clue that the series was not fully translated when I started, and I decided to until the translation was complete before starting the next volume.

As anybody who read my review of Legend of the Galactic Heroes knows(which isn’t a lot of people. Subscribe!), I subscribed to Hidive to watch the LOTGH anime. Continuing my bad luck, Hidive pulled the series from their website. As I was searching for something to watch to get the most out of my subscription before it ends, I noticed that they had the Alice in Borderland OVA. I decided to watch it because I was curious to see how it stacked up to the manga and live action.

The first episode had me worried. It skips most of the setup to get to the action as fast as possible. My issue with this is that we never got to learn who the characters are and what binds them together. We see what are essentially three strangers to the audience. They are quickly thrown in a dangerous scenario that they might not escape from, but we have no reason to care. To us, they are no different from a background character. It doesn’t help that the first challenge isn’t very visually exciting. Most of the drama in the manga came from the three friends utilizing their individual skills to successfully solve problems in the challenge. The OVA follows the same beats, but it leaves out the details that made it enjoyable. By the end of the first episode, I was concerned the adaptation wasn’t going to be any good.

However, the second episode completely changed my mind about The Alice in Borderland OVA. Critically, the second episode makes us care about the characters. Their individual personalities begin to shine and we learn how much they care about each other. Not only do the characters improve, but the action is phenomenal - maybe even better than the manga. Two of the friends enter into a game where they are forced to find a specific room in an apartment complex, while they are hunted by a machine gun totting individual. The episode utilized the medium to highlight the gruesome nature of people being hunted by a killer in a confined area. It is terrifying to see the killer mercilessly gun down numerous defenseless people. The second episode wonderfully redeemed the series, and I was excited for the third.

The final episode is exciting and thrilling conclusion because it has such a splendid twist that was excellently foreshadowed in the previous episode. Whereas the previous challenge was very physical and focused on brutality, this challenge is very psychological and mentally daunting. It is the sort of psychological torture that affects the audience by making them wonder how they would react in they were placed in the same situation. It is an emotional rollercoaster and the perfect sendoff to the ova.

By the time the credits were rolling on the final episode, I was completely enthralled with the Alice in Borderland OVA. I was devastated that there were only three episodes. Whoever created this OVA deserve to make a full adaptation. The series ends on an outstanding cliffhanger and sets up several mysteries that aren’t resolved(at least in this form). I’m sure there is an audience out there who loved the series as much as I did.

Although I enjoyed the Alice In Borderland OVA, I believe that it is best enjoyed by people who are already familiar with the series. The creative team manages to succeed without including most of the backstory and interactions between challenges, but the story isn’t as impactful without them. To me, It’s like listening to the Beatles without Ringo and George’s contributions. Sure, it would still be great, but not as great as it should be. Fans should start with the comics and comeback once they have a grasp on the universe of Alice in Borderland.

I’ll come out at say it from the start. Glass Onion is a pretty good movie. It’s not a phenomenal movie like Parasite or Promising Young Women, but it is a worthwhile mystery. It is clear that Johnson is a fan of the mystery genre and has a mastery on the structure of the genre. Anything that a fan of the genre could desire is in Glass Onion. Nobody is going to mistake him for Agatha Christie(mostly because he is clearly lifting from her works), though there are still plenty of red herrings, twists, and suspense to keep viewers engaged throughout.

A large reason that the movie works so well is its ensemble cast. Johnson managed to cast some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, and Dave Bautista to play a group of friends assembling for an annual party. All of them bring their A game to the table and deliver some of their best performances. Craig in particular impressed me. He truly loves his character and fully embodies him. Monáe is also outstanding, and it isn’t until the second half of the film that you can even begin to appreciate how well she is handling her performance.

There are basically two types of murder mysteries. There are murder mysteries where the murder happens at the start, and mysteries where the murder occurs around the halfway mark. Glass onion is the later, and the first half is devoted to witnessing old “friends” assembling for an annual get-together. They have gathered to solve a pretend murder mystery on a private island owned by their billionaire friend Miles Bron(Edward Norton). Like all good mysteries, everybody is given a reason to commit the murder that is set to occur, but during the setup we get to witness tons of hilarious awkward interactions between people who can’t stand each other on a ridiculously extravagant island. These are not likeable people and we have no reason to be concerned about any of them. We’re here just to figure out who committed the murder and gawk at their brazen selfishness.

As enjoyable as the murder mystery was, it was definitely bloated. Like The Return of The King eighteen years ago, Glass Onion has several moments that could have been the conclusion, only for some character to bring up another revelation that drug the movie out another five minutes. By the time the credits finally roll, I was completely overwhelmed by the final act of the movie. Johnson had a message that he wanted to deliver with the movie, and he wasn’t willing to let the audience go until it was hammered into their consciousness forever.

Still, there is plenty to enjoy in Glass Onion. Even somebody like me, who thought they’d never enjoy another Rian Johnson movie after the Last Jedi, liked the movie. Glass Onion is simply a really fun movie that is buoyed by it’s superb cast.

Despite having an animated adaptation that is considered to be one of the best anime shows of all time, Legend of the Galactic Heroes(LOTGH) is a series that remains shrouded in mystery to most in the west. That can largely be attributed to the that there was no official release of the series until the 2010s. The only way to watch the show prior to the official release was through bootlegs obtained through conventions and pirating sites. But even now, when Legends has received an translation(though not a dub) it remains difficult to find. An obscure anime streaming site, Hidive, was the only website where fans could legally watch the legendary series in America. Unfortunately, they apparently lost the licensing rights to LOTGH at the end of 2022, leaving fan and curious viewers without anywhere to view it.

I had begun watching LOTGH at the start of 2022 and was making my way through the series, choosing to consume the series at a leisurely pace, in order to fully take in everything it had to offer(a mistake in hindsight because I cannot finish LOGTH now). Everything about LOTGH blew me away. The animation was beautiful, the characters were engrossing, and the series had a detailed universe that felt vividly alive. As a person who generally prefers novels and mangas over television and movies, I sought the original Legend of The Galactic Heroes light novels that inspired the beloved anime.

Although I thought that I would enjoy the novel more than the anime, I was mistaken. Don’t get me wrong. The novel is phenomenal and is responsible for creating the beautiful universe of Legend of The Galactic Heroes. But the anime is a faithful adaptation that takes everything that is great about the original light novels and expands upon the plot and characters for the better.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than with the characters than with Reinhard and his childhood best friend Siegfried Kircheisis. The two of them are motivated to become a powerful members of the military so that they can free Reinhard’s sister from her position as concubine to the emperor. Reinhard’s backstory is relegated to a handful of pages in the debut novel. But in the anime, several episodes are spent showing the viewers how idyllic and wonderful their childhood was until Reinhard’s sister was sold into slavery. It’s easier to relate to Reinhard’s struggle to overthrow the empire from inside when we understand how much he was hurt by the empire.

Not only are the character handled better, but so is the story. In the middle of the novel, one of the two protagonists are tasked with taking down an important base of operations. The military installation is basically the Death Star from Star Wars(it even looks exactly like it in the anime). Attacking such an important and powerful military target should have been a difficult task that had a great chance of failure. In the anime, it is. Several episodes are spent on just the preparations, and the planner encounter several unexpected difficulty during the execution of the plan. But in the book everything goes incredibly smoothly and it takes a single chapter to execute a plan that completely upends the established world order. It was ridiculous to see such an impossible task accomplished with such ease.

The anime also does a better job of highlighting the similarities and differences between Yang Wen-Li and Reinhard. In the light novel, Wen-Li is clearly the protagonist of the series. Most of the events of the book are seen from his perspective, and it is obvious that he is the more righteous of the two leads, and therefore the person we are supposed to be rooting for. But the anime divides the time between Reinhard and Wen-Li almost equally, and gives us reasons to root for both of them. Wen-Li is a good man who is forced into a leadership position due to events beyond his control, while Reinhard is a man who thoroughly wants to rid of the government of corrupt actors who exploit their citizens. Getting to understand that both military leaders are trying to make the world a better place but are forced to deal with incompetent bureaucrats drove home the pointlessness of the war.

But there are some things that the debut Legends of The Galactic Heroes novel did do better than the anime. One was providing readers with an immediate understanding of the world. Whereas the anime begins with a battle between Wen-Li and Reinhard, only gradually revealing details of the world as the series progresses, the novel opens with a detailed account of the history of the world. Readers get the history of the Empire, the founding of the Free Planets Alliance, and how the war has slowly eroding the foundations of both countries. My first time watching the anime I was very confused about the differences between the nations and what they were fighting about. I preferred getting the account upfront in the book, but some people may enjoy the trickle of details that the anime provides.

Legend of The Galactic Heroes: Dawn also has a faster pacing than the anime. This is not better, per se, though it is something that I enjoyed. This may seem a bit contradictory after I praised the more expansive nature of the anime, but there are times when the anime slows down the pacing way too much by expanding necessary tidbits, such as Kircheisis putting down an uprising within the Empire. There are going to be people who enjoy faster paced series, and they should pick up the novels rather than the anime if that is what they like.

Ultimately, Legend of The Galactic Heroes: Dawn is excellent for longtime fans and those curious about the series. It is great light novel that stands on it’s on merits, while also allowing established fans of the anime to understand the adaptation better. I enjoyed Dawn and would recommend it to any Sci-Fi fan.

Fire Force Volume 4 begins with Shinra continuing his investigation of Company 1. After obtaining a firm lead on who may be the person responsible for turning normal citizens into Infernals, Shinra sets out to confirm his discovery with the help of Arthur and unexpected companion from Company 1. His investigation into the Infernals takes an unforeseen turn for the worse that threatens to upend the entire nation and requires the intervention of all Fire Force Companies.

Kusakabe. Shinra Kusakabe

Shinra’s investigation of Company 1 requires him to take a more subtle approach than he is accustomed to. His usual method is to tackle any problem head on without any subtility. But sticking to his normal routine would ruin the investigation. Shinra would be forced to abandon the mission if the guilty party began to suspect that they were being trailed.

I couldn’t help but think about James Bond as I was reading(hence the headline). Shinra was able to easily adapt to his new. He quickly ingratiated himself into Company 1, all while never drawing any unwanted attention. While responding to an Infernal emergency, Shinra successfully locates the person responsible for creating Infernals. His investigation could not have gone better, with Shinra uncovering secrets of importance beyond his imagination.

Initially, I thought that the mission went a little too smooth for Shinra. Switching from a team player to an independent investigator should have been a more difficult challenge. But then I had an epiphany: Shinra has never been a team player. Shinra has always been an independent actor. He joined Company 8 because that was the sole route available to investigate the fire that killed his family and protect other people from the fires. Acting on his own was not a change for Shinra; it was his natural state - and that explains the ease of his mission.

Truthfully, he should not be a own a team, because he never acts with his team. Why he continues to work with them, now that he has several leads about the truth of what happened to his, is the actually mystery of the series. At this point, Shinra should just be an independent agent similar to James Bond, working on the behalf of Fire Force Company 8. It also brings me to my biggest complaint about Fire Force.

Company 8, What Are They Good For?

I’ve had a reoccurring complaint about Fire Force: the members of Company 8 rarely have anything to do. Shinra is ostensibly part of a team, but more often than not he is off on his own, acting without any assistance from Company 8. Obviously, the protagonist is expected to be the star and get the majority of the screen time. That doesn’t mean that the supporting cast shouldn’t get any screen time, or be relegated to the occasional cameo that only serves to remind you of their existence.

The inability to utilize the members of Company 8 was egregious this volume. Arthur was sent to Company 1 with Shinra. Ostensibly, he was supposed to be an asset that would assist Shinra with the investigation, but we knew that he would be a comic foil, threatening to upend their mission with his unyielding sense of justice or plain stupidity. He is initially utilized very well. Arthur almost ruins Shinra’s sleuthing with his inability to be discreet, though also being of immense value by gaining entry to a locked room. But at the most critical part of the Company 1 investigation he simply goes missing. I mean that literally. He went missing, and the company was forced to file a missing persons report, which was resolved when he just showed back up at Company 8. No explanation was ever given for where he was or what he was doing in a time of great crisis.

With the members of Company 8 having very little to do, it begs the question of why *two more* members were added to the team. How can Ohkubo justify expanding the team when he struggles to utilize the members that he introduced at the start of Fire Force? I would be okay with the team getting bigger once the original members had found their purpose in the series. One Piece may be my favorite manga of all time, and Luffy’s crew has grown since the start, but only after firmly cementing each new addition. I can only hope that there is a plan for the original members that has yet to come to fruition.

Terrifying Infernals

Fire is scary. People who catch on fire and attack everybody in sight should be scary. Unfortunately, Fire Force has utterly failed in portraying the terrifying nature of fires and Infernals. Finally, the terrifying power of fire has been captured.

A big problem that Fire Force had with depicting the terrifying nature of fire is that we only ever saw Infernals and fire fights from the perspective of people who regularly fought these threats. But this time around we get to see how regular people perceive the threat of fire and Infernals. They are completely helpless, capable only of standing by and watching as people they love die. Attempting to intervene will result in nothing but more death and destruction, because man cannot naturally fight the power of fire. They are no different than a bug that is about to be squashed by a boot. At last my wish to see fire be depicted as the terrifying threat it truly is was fulfilled.

Fighting For His Life

Shinra is unusually powerful, even for those who can wield fire. Up to this point, he has never faced a challenger who posed a threat to him. Some people may argue that Joker was a threat, but the two of them never truly went toe to toe. Shinra easily overpowered Princess Hibana and has defeated every Infernal that crossed his path.

For the first time in Fire Force, Shinra is forced to fight an opponent who is stronger and more experienced than him. The man responsible for creating Infernals in Company 1(who I won’t reveal, go read the manga!) is not only stronger than Shinra, but he also has no compunction about hurting innocent civilians, forcing Shinra to protect the helpless bystanders at the same time he is being overpowered.

I was mesmerized by the fight between Shinra and the person from Company 1. It was great to see Shinra fearlessly facing down an adversary who could defeat him. His repeated proclamations of being a hero would be meaningless if he cowered before anybody stronger than himself. He jumped into the ring to protect helpless people and proved that he was every inch the hero he claims to be.

Shinra fearlessly fighting a stronger opponent would have been enough to make me rave about this volume, but author Atsushi Ohkubo elevated the character by making him use his brains to obtain an advantage in the most important battle of his life. Shinra may be lacking the muscles of his opponent, but he does have a unique advantage that he uses to gain the upper hand. Battles of wits are always more enjoyable than battles of brawn, and Ohkubo takes it to the max.

Raising The Stakes

Fire Force Volume 4 greatly raises the stakes of the series. What initially appeared to simply be corrupt government agents acting on their prerogative turned out to be a much greater threat. The member of Company 1 who was creating Infernals was not acting alone. There is a powerful, external force that has slowly crept into the fabric of society. Their members appear to be normal people, but they are secretly acting to further the goals of the secret organization they are working for. Shinra struggled mightily against a single opponent. Now he has to go up against a ruthless organization known as the white hoods(an unfortunate translation in America) that is intent on protecting their secrets at any cost and led by a figure known only as the Evangelist.

The appearance of the white hoods was a surprise. Shinra had just won his greatest fight to date and was exhausted, incapable of fighting any further because he was “overheating”. At this exact moment, when everything seemed to be settling down, the secret organization attacked. They killed their former comrade by sniping him from a safe position several buildings away, and also pinning down Shinra and his comrades. At the same time, they unleashed a new variant of Infernals that demanded the attention of all available Fire Soldiers, making it impossible for backup to assist the trapped members of Company 1 and Company 8. Dealing with the Infernals kept the Fire companies busy. Now they’ll have to deal with a powerful organization that has infiltrated their government agencies and commands people on a religious mission.

I didn’t think that the stakes could go any higher after Shinra’s fight, but Ohkubo found a way to raise the stakes of not only the fight, but the entire world of Fire Force.

The Religion of Fire Force

It was apparent that religion played a big part in the world of Fire Force from the inception of the series. Every Fire Force company has a nun embedded in their units and all Infernals receive prayers before being extinguished. Even the companies buildings are designed in the shape of cathedrals. Fire fighting is as much a religious ritual as it is a public duty.

In spite of the numerous religious elements present throughout Fire Force, it oddly never occurred to me to question just what their religion is. I even neglected to mention the religious aspect when I spent numerous paragraphs praising the worldbuilding in the second volume of Fire Force.

The prayers of those wishing to know more about the religion of Fire Force were answered. Without spoiling anything for Fire Force fans, people of the faith believe that the world was created by a flame god. The followers of the Evangelist believe that they have an obligation to find a host for a great spark known as Adolla burst. Anybody incapable of hosting the spark wields great power, but those incapable of wielding it turn into Infernals. The followers of the Evangelist have been creating Infernals in their search for a host, with an eventual goal of turning the planet into a second sun and obtaining eternal salvation.

I’m going to need to be more curious about the religion aspects because their prominence is only going to grow. The motivation behind creating the Infernals is an entirely religious one. The members of the Evangelist cult are under the impression that their actions are for a greater good - the salvation of mankind. They are trying to create a person capable of turning the entire world in flames, and Shinra may be an essential component to their plans, based on the information divulged. Nothing short of total defeat is going to stop people who believe they are on a religious crusade, and it’s going to be up to Shinra to achieve that defeat.

Return of Joker

This volume concludes with the long awaited return of Joker! Although he only briefly appeared at the end of volume 1 and the beginning of volume 2, I thoroughly enjoyed his character and couldn’t wait to see him return. He had a mysterious aura that made it uncertain what his intentions were. I assumed that he would be a villain because the series needed one and he attacked the Rookie Fire Games. His brief cameo here, combined with the information he gave Shinra back in the second volume, has me questioning everything I assumed about Joker.

Joker commands attention in his brief appearance, consisting of no more than a handful of pages. He appears as mysteriously and unnoticed as he did during his debut. I love everything about the way that he just shows up to dump information on Shinra and leave, never once giving a hint of who he works for(if anybody) or what his true intentions are. Having a wild card that is powerful like the Joker keeps the reader on their feet. He reminds me of Q from Star Trek The Next Generation. You never know when he’s going to show up or what mischievous he’s going to cause.

Shinra’s Brother

I believe that the revelations about Shinra’s brother are going to be the highlight of Fire Force Volume 4 for most people. Shinra has been secretly carrying the burden of knowing that his brother is alive but having no clue how to locate him. For the first time since learning that his brother may still be alive, Shinra gathers several hints about what could have happened to him. This culminates in the revelation of what actually happened to Shinra’s brother, and it’s going to have some severe repercussion in the world of Fire Force.

Ohkubo handled the revelations about Shinra’s brother with the precision of a surgeon. Little clues are scattered throughout without being directly tied to Shinra’s brother. Breadcrumbs are left throughout the volume that will allow readers to follow the facts to their logical conclusion. Yes, Ohkubo eventually makes his intentions crystal clear to anybody not parsing the panels with a fine tooth comb, but I appreciated that those who wanted to solve a mystery on their own were given the information necessary to do so. A fun part of every series is trying to solve the mysteries on your own, and Ohkubo gave fans the tools to do so.

Shinra’s ultimate goal in the series is saving his brother. Once Shinra found out that his brother was still alive, that became his top priority. He is now heading down a path that will reunite him with his brother, but in a grand twist of fate, he may not like what he discovers. What Shinra thought would bring him ultimate happiness may actually bring him ultimate sadness. I’m not sure where this storyline is headed, but I can’t wait to find out what Ohkubo has planned for the brothers in future volumes of Fire Force.

Fire Force Volume 3 continues the raid on Princess Hibana’s Company 5 that began in the last volume. Although they are ostensibly their to rescue their crew member Iris, they are also there to obtain any research that company 5 has on infernals. Company 8 obtains information that leads them to believe that Company 1 may have a hand in the creation of Infernals, and Captain Obi devises a plan to discretely infiltrate their headquarters.

Attack On Company 5

The third volume of Fire Force begins by wrapping up the attack on Company 5 arc. Iris is still seemingly being held hostage by Princess Hibana and Shinra is fighting his way through her crew, desperate to save his teammate. The rest of Company 8 is fighting her minions and looking for her secret research lab, hoping to obtain any information that she may have on Infernals.

Company 8’s raid on Princess Hibana’s headquarters was enjoyable because every member had a purpose to serve and it advanced the larger mystery of what’s causing spontaneous combustion. A highlights of the raid on Company 5 was Arthur Boyle realizing that he was struggling in a fight because he was holding his sword in the wrong hand. It was such a dumb, goofy thing to do that I never even considered that it would be a possibility, and it get a legitimate chuckle out of me.

Shinra really got the chance to shine during the raid. His evolution from the first volume to the third has be phenomenal. I never would have thought that the terrible protagonist that we met in the debut volume of Fire Force could ever be redeemed. Series creator Atsushi Ohkubo found a way to do, and it was by making him a heroic figure unwilling to abandon his principals or morality.

Hibana and Iris

My favorite part of Fire Force Volume 3 was discovering the secret relationship that existed between Iris and Princess Hibana. We thought that Iris was heading into the lion’s den when she went to visit Hibana at the end of volume 2. It appeared to be a reckless and impulsive decision that Iris made, one that put her health and safety in great jeopardy. Unbeknownst to the reader, however, Iris’ decision to visit the apparently crooked Princess Hibana was not as crazy as it initially appeared to be.

The two of them have a shared past that I don’t want to spoil for my readers. You need to go read Fire Force volume 3 so you can experience their tragic flashbacks for yourself. I greatly appreciated the flashback because I love well rounded villains who have a reason for their behavior. Villains who behave poorly because it is in their nature never interested me. Princess Hibana is a villain whose reasoning I could understand. It was also great seeing how Iris came to be the kind and generous person that she - and Princess Hibana’s shocking role in her development.

New Allies

Company 8's raid on Company 5 yielded more than just information on the infernals. Shinra’s heroic actions reminded Princess Hibana of the person that she was and caused her to have a change of heart. Her change of heart results in her choosing to align her mission with Company 8’s mission of investigating all the branches of Fire Force for corruption. No longer will they have to investigate corruption with only their meager resources. They now have the assistance of Princess Hibana, a very powerful ally. She is eager to prove that she has changed for her dear old friend Iris.

While I enjoyed the idea of Princess Hibana wanting to redeem herself for going to the dark side, I thought that the way it was handled was poor. Princess Hibana’s redemption felt completely unearned. All it took to shake her out of her malaise was a heroic speech and single punch in the face from Shinra. Surely choosing to completely upend her entire life to pursue power was not a simple decision that was made lightly.

I would have preferred a more dragged out story that gave Iris a long-term goal: saving her friend Princess Hibana from herself. The best characters have purposes that motivate them, like Luffy wanting to be the King of Pirates or Naruto wanting to be Hokage. Even Shinra has a goal - finding out what happened to his family. Giving Iris a goal would have made her a deeper character. She would have had something to strive for. As it stands now, she went back to simply being the pure-hearted loving member of Company it. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se, but by redeeming Hibana so quickly Iris was robbed of an impetus to develop.

Slow Down The Pacing, Please

Princess Hibana’s redemption also ties into my biggest complaint about this volume: pacing. Fire Force Volume 3 as a whole suffered terribly from pacing. Individual stories were fine, but there was a ton of wasted potential that I wanted explored. The series is moving way too fast. Taking down Princess Hibana and Company 5 should have happened much slower. Shinra and Company 8 are racking up great victories too fast. It is depriving them of struggles, of moments to grow as characters. Characters grow when they have to overcome obstacles. They become stagnant when they simply bulldoze their way over opponents and get everything they want. I want to see the heroes struggle, to find clever ways to overcome obstacles, to EARN what they get.

It was established that Company 8 was the black sheep of the Fire Forces. They had few resources and were made up a motely crew that struggled to work together as a cohesive unit. It would have been more enjoyable to watch Company 8 to fail and only come gain a victory AFTER a series of struggles. The only way this happens is by slowing down the plot and letting the heroes have some smalls wins that allow them to grow.

Investigating Company 1

Company 8’s attack on company 5 was not subtle. It was an all-out direct assault on another fire company. It drew a lot of attention and would have been a major issue if Hibana had not had a change of heart. Captain Obi still has to carry out his mission to investigate the fire companies, and he learn from Hibana that Company 1 may be responsible for creating infernals. Company 1 is made up of the best fire users in society and their captain is more experienced and grizzled than Princess Hibana.

Infiltrating Company 1 will require going undercover, finding a way to sneak in that avoids the detection of Captain Leonard Burns. Breaking the mold keeps the series thrilling. We’ve seen Shinra win conflicts through brute force already. Can he achieve the same level of success when he’s forced into a new type of conflict that requires him to adapt his battle strategies?

Shinra is presented with two distractions that may derail his mission to investigate Company 1. The first is his desire to interrogate Captain Burns, and the second is his hostile relationship with Arthur. My favorite characters interactions are between Shinra and Arthur because the two are like day and night, like water and oil. They cannot get along and their interactions are humorous. Most of it stems from Arthur viewing Shinra as a helpless, or as a sidekick at best. Arthur’s arrogance may derail the mission with his own stupidity. It’s bad enough that Shinra has to deal with his desire to interrogate Captain Burns, but now he also has to worry about Arthur odd impulses to act irrationally.

A Brief Aside - Wasted Cast

Once again I’m questioning what purpose Maki and Takehisa, two of just six members of Company 8, serve in the world of Fir Force. They appear to have no real purpose in the series, other than occasionally briefly appearing in a panel or two to make a single comment or joke. The cast is not particularly big and it’s odd that author Atsushi Ohkubo can’t find something to do with them. I get that it’s early in the series and the main character needs plenty of page time to develop, but these two could easily be put in a more prominent supporting role. I hope to see the two of them get more to do in future volumes.

Final Thoughts

You would be forgiven if you thought that I disliked this volume of Fire Force. Somewhat paradoxically, I have numerous complaints because I enjoyed the material so much. It was great material that I felt could have been amazing material if tweaked just a little bit. There was so many opportunities to take the material, stretch it out slightly, and give us more enjoyable stories and character development. One of the downsides of the Japanese manga industry is that comics get cancelled quickly if they don’t get enough support from readers. Maybe he just couldn’t take the time to plot the stories out the way that they deserved to be. Nonetheless, Fire Force volume 3 was awesome and Shinra is getting better with every story arc.

Shuichi and Claire, along with Sanbe, continue the journey to the crashed spaceship that they started back in volume 6. Naoto(one of Shuichi’s old friends and an accomplice of Elena) also heads to the alien’s crashed spaceship to fight Kaito. Naoto is resoundly defeated by Kaito and his army of resurrected monsters. Shuichi makes it to Kaito after Naoto retreated to safety, meeting his old friend for the first time since losing his memories.

A Resounding Comeback

I hated Gleipnir Volume 6. It had a ton of problems that made reading it very confusing. The biggest problem was focusing on a flashback full of characters that we barely know and acting as if they were established characters that we knew a ton about. And the parts that were set in the present were boring and generic, bordering on filler material that contributed nothing to the series. The drastic decline in quality had me worried about the future of the series. Had Gleipnir author Sun Takeda lost the Midas touch?

Thankfully, the last volume was just a mere outlier. This volume proves that Sun Takeda is still a genius that has plenty of gas left in the tank. There was not a single wasted panel in this entire manga, and it was a page turner from start to finish. Everything that made the past volumes of Gleipnir enjoyable is back and turned up to eleven.

Leaning Into Horror Vibes

Gleipnir has flirted with horror vibes in the past. Some panels in past volumes looked like they could have been plucked out of a Junji Ito manga or a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film. It wasn’t the primary tone of the series, but it was essential to establishing the dread apparent in certain situations that Claire and Shuichi have found themselves in. Gleipnir Volume 7 takes this aesthetics that was scattered throughout the series and brings it to the forefront with the man who has collected 100 coins, Kaito.

Kaito has made random cameo appearances in the present for several volumes now, though we knew next to nothing about him. All we knew for certain is that he collected 100 coins and had some sort of grand plan that he was busy fulfilling. He reveals his plans and powers to his old friend Naoto. They are twisted, dark, and downright evil.

The plans are evil on their face, but the way that Takeda draws Kaito and the scenes throughout enhances the creepiness of the situation. Kaito is drawn in a very inhuman manner, appearing less like a person and more like a demon. His powers of resurrections requires using insects to reconstruct human flesh. Every scene of a person being brought back to life was disgusting and disturbing. Kaito’s appearance and powers turned Gleipnir into a borderline horror series.

A Dangerous Journey

Shuichi and Clare decide that they are going to the crashed spaceship and nothing is stopping them. As we already know, getting to the spaceship is no easy feat. Monsters have established bases in the surrendering areas and the most powerful monster, Kaito, has made the spaceship his base of operations. Claire and Shuichi also learn that he has immensely powerful guards placed throughout the mountains who have been commanded to kill trespassers. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we saw Kaito defeat Naoto without any effort, so we know that the two are walking into an unwinnable situation.

Takeda sets up a very tension filled situation by letting us know how overwhelming the odds against Shuichi and Claire are. Knowing that they have no shot to defeat their future opponents, combined with Kaito’s intentions to kill anybody who enters his domain, had me concerned that one of them may not make it out alive. I was genuinely concerned that we would have a major death in the series, and that made the reading thrilling in a way that the last volume wasn’t.

Naoto

Like Elena and Kaito, Naoto is one of Shuichi’s old friends from cram school. His first appearance in Gleipnir was way back in the third volume, appearing alongside Elena in the mountains. Despite having some limited appearances in the present, he is shrouded in as much mystery as Elena and Kaito. At last, we finally get to see what powers he has and it does not disappoint.

I don’t want to spoil the big reveal for any fans of Gleipnir, so I won’t describe his transformation in this volume or post any images of it. Seeing his transformation for the first time was a genuine shock. Suffice to say, it will make fans excited and creates tons of questions about what it means for Shuichi and his past.

One of my complaints about the last volume was the generic fighting. Naoto and Kaito have a fight, but it is far from generic. Naoto’s surprise transformation allowed him to last against Kaito longer than any other person. The fight has a lot of heart in it because these are two friends formerly close friends that don’t want to fight each other. But circumstances have pitted them against each other. Both believe that they are fighting for justice; both believe that letting the other person continue unfettered will have terrible consequences. They are forced to fight against their wills and it is heartbreaking to witness.

Concealing Information

At long last, Shuichi and Claire made it to the location where the alien’s spaceship crashed. They weren’t able to see the crashed alien vehicle, unfortunately, because of Kaito. Shuichi does not remember Kaito, but Kaito remembers him. Kaito is shocked that Shuichi does not remember anything about his past, and will only tell Shuichi want he wants to know if Shuichi can defeat him in combat.

A big problem with the last volume was the fact that Sun Takeda withheld far too much information from the readers. It was almost impossible to understand what was going on. I understand that Takeda’s intention was to shock readers when they discover what actually happened to Shuichi’s friend Aiko. The bungled handling did not leave me shocked; it left me frustrated.

This time around, however, Takeda withholds the perfect amount of information and it allows him to deliver multiple twists that I did not see coming, almost as if Takeda understood that he failed last time around. Like a quarterback who failed to win the big game, Takeda took the lessons he learned and came back stronger than ever. He managed to reveal enough information that we understood what was going on, while also withholding enough to create surprises for the reader.

Ending On A High Note

As I’ve mentioned multiple times in this review of Gleipnir, I hated the last volume(Could you tell?). When I got to the end it left a sour taste in my mouth. If I wasn’t interested in reviewing all of Gleipnir for my website, I probably would have stopped reading the series for a bit. This volume renewed my faith in the series and reminded me of why I quickly fell in love with it.

You can tell when a series is amazing because you want cannot wait to read what happens next. This volume ends on a resounding high note that made me want to immediately purchase volume 8. Takeda drops a massive revelation that threatens to upend the entire established order of Gleipnir, something that you could have picked up if you paid close enough attention, and leaves it hanging in the air. He could not have come up with a better note to close on and it will leave you begging for more.

Gleipnir Volume 6 begins with a flashback of Shuichi’s past. He is with his old friends, the ones that he cannot remember in the present, and they are getting together after not seeing each other for some period of time. They sad to discover that one of their friends is missing, and the man who collected 100 coins in the present sets out to discover what happened to her. Back in the present, Shuichi and Claire attempt to reach the spaceship again, but this time with the help of Sanbe.

The Worst Volume of Gleipnir

Let me start with the worst news. This was by far the worst volume of Gleipnir. Everything that I enjoyed about the series was missing. The interactions between Claire and Shuichi, the perfectly timed gradual revelation of mysteries, and the sense of impending doom for a small rural village. All of it was gone. What we got instead was a bizarre and confusing flashback that consumed the first half, and a mediocre fight back in the present that consumed the entirety of the second half.

A Most Confusing Flashback

The reason that Gleipnir Volume 6 left such a sour taste in my mouth was that it opened with an utterly confusing flashback that only got more convoluted as it went along.

In the last volume, we saw a photo of Shuichi with his friends that have been erased from his memory. All of the friends in the photo, with the exception of Aiko, have appeared in some form throughout Gleipnir. While they all have technically appeared, Elena and Shuichi are the only ones that we’ve gotten to spend any substantial amount of time with, and even most of Elena is still unknown. For all intents and purposes, these people are strangers to us. So why did the Gleipnir author Sun Takeda start the flashback(and the volume) by assuming that we knew the relationship between all of these people, the group dynamics, and their history?

After the sixth member of their group, Honoka, goes missing, Kaito sets out to discover what happened to her. He sets his sights on their friend Aiko because Naoto said that she was behaving oddly and Kaito noticed that she played with her hair when nervous, in the same way that Honoka did. Aiko follows a trail of clues that leads him to conclude that Honoka murdered Aiko and somehow took over her body.

This sounds interesting when clearly laid out. The problem is that I had to do extensive rereading and research to figure out what exactly happened. A major problem with the sequence of events is that we don’t know Aiko at all and we barely met Honoka in a previous flashback. Watching two characters that we barely - Kaito and Naoto - argue over two other characters that we barely know - Honoka and Aiko - was confusing. I wasn’t sure who was who. I constantly was flipping back and forth between page and rereading the prior chapters to follow who they were talking about and why. The first time I read the chapter I thought that Aiko was Clare, and I wasn’t sure who this Aiko person they were talking about was. It didn’t help that Aiko looks extremely similar to Clare, even wearing the same swimsuit that she does. Following the plot is damn near impossible when you can’t even keep the characters straight.

Compounding my confusion was the fact that the information needed to understand what was going on isn’t provided until later. Yes, mysteries require readers to remain unaware of certain events and characters in order to surprise them later. However, mysteries also require that readers have a fundamental understanding of who the players are. Throughout the flashback we do not have the understanding necessary and it makes the reading so frustrating that it loses all entertainment value. After spending close to a half hour going back through the series, trying to find the information I thought I must have missed, I was beyond flabbergasted to discover that it hadn’t been provided. It was as though the author forgot to write the crucial information, realized it too late to put it in the proper order, and just shoe-horned it in at the last minute.

One of the biggest mysteries throughout the series has been who Shuichi’s friends were and what happened to them. This should have been one of the most satisfying moments in Gleipnir. It wasn’t. It was nothing but sheer confusion for the entire read.

Sun Takeda needed to spend more time with the flashback. We should have gotten the foundation of these characters and their background before delving into the series of events that shattered their friendship and was the impetus for what is occurring in the present day.

Nothing But Fighting

I could have forgiven the confusing flashback if the parts set in the present were better. Unfortunately, Sun Takeda used what precious little space remained in the rest of the volume for a generic fight.

Prior to the start of the generic fighting, I had high hopes for the remaining chapters set in the present. Shuichi and Claire have not given up on their hopes of reaching the crashed spaceship. They have changed their strategy and brought along Sanbe with them, leaving behind Sayaka’s group. On their trek to the spaceship, they encounter two people who have been tasked with guarding the trail by Kaito. Hoping to avoid more bloodshed, Claire and Shinichi attempt to negotiate with the two sentries.

Like I said, I had high hopes for this section. Sanbe’s return piqued my interest and I was curious to see if Claire could come up with another clever solution to a stronger opponent that didn’t require fighting. A whole chapter is spent discussing the options the two groups have, and it reminded me very much the battle of wits scene from The Princess Bride. There was a lot of engaging back and forth dialogue and it appeared that they were going to resolve their dispute using their wits rather than the fists.

Sadly, in spite of the single chapter reprieve from the mundane drudgery of the rest of the volume that promised to deliver an interesting resolution, we got a generic fight sequence. There isn’t a whole lot to say about this fight. It’s several chapters of the characters going at, using their unique abilities and taunting each other throughout. Bored throughout, I was. My only consolation prize being the moment Sanbe wins his fight, because it was done in a genuinely clever manner. Otherwise, it was a boring conclusion to Gleipnir’s worst volume.

Final Thoughts

Gleipnir volume 6 was a complete misfire. There were a handful of moments that reminded me why the series works, which is the sole reason I’m continuing after this train wreck, but I’m disappointed that such a crucial point of the series was a total misfire. It wasn’t so bad that the series can’t recover from it, because the flashback does make sense; it’s just that the way that the author chose to present it to us for the first time doesn’t make sense. I had to reread the volume multiple times and hunt through the prior volumes for the context needed to understand what was going on. Is a casual fan going to spend so much time hunting for the context needed to understand a handful of chapters?

Shinichi is beginning to notice the impact that Migi’s presence is having on his life. His concern about losing his humanity causes him to continually engage in actions that he believes will prove he his human, including jumping in a fight when his classmate is being attacked. This concern about losing his humanity only intensifies after an attack from a parasite necessitates Migi fusing part of himself with Shinichi to save him. Meanwhile, his parents are in danger after encountering a parasite while on their seaside vacation.

Junji Ito Influence?

I want to start on a bit of a sidenote. I believe that art style of Parasyte was an influence on Junji Ito. This is a brief tangent that I intended to include in my review of the first volume, but it got lost somewhere in the writing and editing. But I felt compelled to include in in this review because I once again was thinking of Junji Ito as I read Parasyte. The way that they draw faces is eerily similar, especially the women. All of the female characters look like they could easily fit within any of Ito’s works, and even some of the men look like Ito characters. I couldn’t find anything stating that Parasyte creator Hitoshi Iwaaki was an influence on Ito, but I couldn’t help notice the similarities.

Better Plotting and Pacing

Although I greatly enjoyed reading the first volume of Parasyte and thought that the collection worked as a whole, the individual chapters were sometimes a little sloppy with the storytelling and moved at a break neck pace. Part of this can be contributed to the fact that there was a ton of information that needed to be divulged for the reader to understand the world that the author was building. Now that the foundation has been laid plenty of time can be taken to build the house. We had to get a basic understanding of what the parasites were and how they fit into society before we could get to the core of Shinichi and his story.

There is a greater focus and cohesion that binds the individual chapters in the second volume. The first volume didn’t have a specific focus. Shinichi was dealing with his new reality and it saw him go in several different directions. But this time around he has a specific mission and a specific concern. He wants to save his parents and he wants to prove to himself that he is still a human. The individual chapters build upon each other and contribute to a specific arc, rather than haphazardly jumping around.

Spoilers Below

Warning! The rest of the review contains spoilers for anybody who has not read volume 2 of parasyte. Please read the manga before reading my review if you do not want anything spoiled for you!

A New Threat

Shinichi and Migi have already have had to deal with two parasites that exist near their home. Now they have to deal with a new threat that is more intelligent than Mr. A and one that is in the same seaside town where his parents went on vacation. Shinichi encouraged his parents to go on vacation in a rural town because he thought that he was getting them out of harms way, but he was actually sending them straight into the lion’s den. At the seaside town, the parasite searching for a new host after his previous host died in a car accident. This parasite was able to claim a male host, but it is incapable of understanding the male anatomy and is being rejected by the new host. Fortunately for the parasite, Shinichi’s mom is nearby and makes the perfect host. This parasite wants to kill Shinichi’s dad and Shinichi won’t hurt somebody who looks like his mom, making the new parasite a perfect threat.

Journey To The Seaside

An exciting part of this volume was the fact that Shinichi and Migi left the ‘safety’ and comfort of their hometown. They headed to the seaside town where Shinichi’s parents were vacationing to protect his dad, Kazuyuki, after he was hospitalized from the attack that killed Shinichi’s mom. Not only is Shinichi heading to an unfamiliar location while knowing that the parasite wants to kill his dad, but Migi now requires four hours of uninterrupted sleep after sacrificing part of himself to save Shinichi. That means that Migi will not be able there to provide radar detection of the parasites or assist in any fighting that may take place.

Compounding the problems is the fact that the parasite has taken over Shinichi’s mother’s body. Shinichi was able to kill a stranger that he had no connection to, but the thought of harming his mother is a bridge too far. He knows what must be done, though he doesn’t know if he can do it. If he fails to kill the parasite occupying his mother’s body, the parasite will hunt down his father and kill him, because his father knows the truth.

Shinichi not being able to rely on Migi and forced to stand on his own two legs was thrilling. For the first time in Parasyte, Shinichi was in genuine danger. He was going up against a species apparently designed to kill humans for sport. They have the ability to change their appearances and it could easily sneak up on Shinichi and kill him before he even knew what was happening. It didn’t help that Shinichi was in a town full of strangers, so he couldn’t even tell when somebody was behaving in an unusual manner. Hitoshi Iwaaki created conditions that put Shinichi through his greatest trial and provided the reader with plenty of concern for the protagonist.

The New Shinichi

While dealing with external dangers, Shinichi is also dealing with internal dangers. Shinichi undergoes drastic changes throughout the second volume of Parasyte. A big critique that I had of the first volume was the idea that this person who we never met prior to having his body invaded by an alien species underwent some kind of drastic transformation that his family and friends noticed. We never knew who Shinichi was prior to Migi and he acted the same throughout the first volume of Parasyte. It was a noble attempt to convey that Migi changed Shinichi with poor execution.

Discontent with his failure to convey his idea, the author successfully conveyed Shinichi’s changes from Migi in the second volume. Shinichi changes from a non-violent, unaggressive recluse to a more outgoing, aggressive person. He begins to take on the burdens of others and uses violence to solve problems, such as when he intervenes in his classmates fight with a group of students from another school. Shinichi becomes more animalistic and begins to frighten strangers. He becomes territorial and possessive, threatening a man who attempted to inspect his backpack.

The most drastic changes come from his fusion with Migi, who uses part of his alien body to heal a fatal wound Shinichi received. He becomes capable of superhuman feats, such as matching a parasites speed and easily scaling a seawall. His superhumans powers come at a price: part of his humanity. Though his body his now capable of feats that no other human could dream of, he can no longer cry. Even the death of his mother, which bothers him down to his core, cannot cause him to produce any tears.

Shinichi was concerned about losing his humanity from Migi, and his physical changes make the concern impossible to ignore. It doesn’t help that the other parasite he met can cry so easily. Is he still human, and if he is how long will he remain so? It’s a problem that will plague him as long as he remains the way he is, and it will cause the reader to question just what is going on with the protagonist.

Migi’s Slow Evolution

Shinichi is not the only character to undergo an evolution. Migi also begins to change, albeit at a much slower and less noticeable pace than Shinichi. Migi was a self-centered narcissist without any concern for the well-being of other creatures. He viewed Shinichi’s concern about the lives of others as confusing and bizarre. Down to his core, Migi was concerned only about Migi.

This slowly begins to change when Shinichi receives a life threatening injury. Migi can briefly exist away from Shinichi. He had the option to abandon Shinichi and seek out a new host to occupy, an option that he was acutely aware of. Rather than leave his original host with a slim chance of survival for dead, Migi chooses to save him. That’s right. Migi chose to save Shinichi, and it required him to sacrifice thirty percent of his body to do so. Despite claiming that he cannot understand self-sacrifice, he voluntarily did so.

It could be argued that Migi’s decision was done solely because he thought that saving Shinichi was his best shot at surviving. But we also see him make a decision that actively endangers his life, and he does it for the well-being of another person. Migi is on the verge of needing to fall asleep, so he decides to rest in the shape of a sword, allowing Shinichi to fight the other parasite. If Migi wanted to ensure his survival, he could have fallen asleep as a normal arm, leaving Shinichi unable to fight the parasite and necessitating a retreat.

A big question that lingered throughout the first volume of Parasyte was nature vs nurture. Are people the way they are because of an innate traits or are they shaped by their environment? Migi’s unrelenting concern about his survival and the parasites brutal campaign of carnage suggested that nature determined how species behaved. But do Shinichi’s actions impact the way that Migi thinks and behaves? Migi’s change comes after he witnesses Shinichi continually intervene on the behalf of others at his own expense and after Shinichi has no concern for his own life when his mom’s life is in danger. There’s no clear answers, but questions like this that keep the reader struggling to get to the answer of nature vs nurture make the series more interesting.

Mamoru Uda

By far the best part of Parasyte Volume 2 is the addition of Mamoru Uda to the cast. Like Shinichi, he is a human who managed to prevent the parasite from entering his brain and must share his body with the invasive alien. His alien occupies his face, chin, and chest. When the parasite emerges, it occupies so much of Mamoru’s face that they must take turns speaking. It also presents obstacles for them when fighting because Mamoru’s lose of his mouth makes it very difficult for him to breath and see. This means that he cannot help in fights, unlike Shinichi.

Mamoru is a great character because him and his parasite(named Parasyte) contrast so greatly with Migi and Shinichi. Mamoru is happy that Parasyte infected him. Prior to meeting Parasyte, Mamoru was suicidal and hated himself. Now he has a friend and they enjoy everything together, especially watching movies and television. They are both content with their lives and seem happy. Mamoru is highly emotional and has no doubts about his humanity. Unlike Shinichi, Mamoru is confident about his relationship with his parasyte and is secure in the fact that he remains a human.

After spending so much time with Shinichi, who can be very dour and depressing, Mamoru’s jolly nature was a welcome respite and provided some much needed joy doing a bleak point in the story. He is an example of what Shinichi and Migi could be if they strive toward happiness rather than survival.

Kana Kimishima

Shinichi has plenty of problems at the seaside town, but he also has problems in his hometown due to a female that he met. Kana Kimishima is a student from another school. She met Shinichi when her classmates were fighting one of Shinichi’s classmates, and she instantly noticed that something was off with Shinichi, a person that she had never met. Kana is attracted to Shinichi because of his animalistic nature and she becomes a stalker, constantly showing up to his school and looking for him.

Her introduction was interesting because she presents the first human threat to Migi. While she could never possible physically hurt Shinichi or Migi, she is the sole person who could out their existence to the world. She is an outlier human. Kana is one of the few, if not only, people who can sense the existence of parasites in the same manner that the parasites themselves can. Shinichi cannot evade her because she can detect him whenever they are within 50 meters of each other. Kana is a threat that they cannot get rid of, because Shinichi would never kill a person and lose his humanity, and she is also not going anywhere because of her attraction to Shinichi. She is a threat that can upend their lives if she should ever figure out their true nature, but there is nothing they can do to protect themselves. Kana is the ultimate danger and her obsession is just getting started.

Final Thoughts

Parasyte Volume 2 is a drastic improvement over the first volume. The author was able to find various means to convey the ideas that he struggled with in the first volume. He also managed to improve the plotting and spacing of the series, while also giving us a deeper understanding of the two main characters. Not only that, but he up ended Shinichi’s life and gave him a new threat that he couldn’t just kill. I’m excited to see how Shinichi and Migi will continue to evolve and develop now that they’ve grown through the rigors of adversity.

Premise

Jack Russell(Aka the Werewolf By Night) arrives at Bloodstone Manor, the headquarters of a paranormal organization run by the now deceased Ulysses Bloodstone. The five monster hunters assembled have been selected to compete to become the new leader of Bloodstone’s organization.

Starting with Terrible Humor

le Humor At FirstThe start of Werewolf By Night had me concerned. This was supposed to be a Halloween special. Great care was taken to replicate the mood and aesthetics of the old Universal monster movies. This mysterious, creepy organization assembled five monster hunters to determine which of them would become its new leader. So why did the movie open with tons of Marvel’s usual awkward, cringe-inducing humor? Having another monster hunter come up to Jack Russell to make jokes about the makeup he was wearing wasn’t a great way to create tension or dread. For a horror special, there was way too focus on comedy in the first act of Werewolf By Night

Terrible Source Material

About two years ago I attempted to read the original 1970’s Werewolf By Night comics. Suffice to say, they were terrible. The stories were poorly paced, full of horrendous dialogue, and the character himself wasn’t memorable at all. Despite reading about five issues, which felt like it took days to read because of the insane amount of dialogue they used to stuff comics with, I could barely remember anything about the series. Marvel has previously taken terrible source material(Guardians of the Galaxy) and made them accessible and mainstream, but I wasn’t certain why they were adapting a comic that was essentially a poor man’s hulk, a hero who couldn’t control his other half.

Gael García Bernal

Gael Garcia Bernal is most famous for starring on the Amazon Prime Original Series Mozart In The Jungle. The show’s first season was enjoyable and Bernal was a big part of that. His performance as the eccentric new maestro of the New York Symphony brought a chaotic energy that contrasted greatly with the uptight nature of the best musicians in the world. It was a captivating performance that hooked audiences.

Unfortunately, it was also fairly one note. What worked well for a single season soon became tiresome. There was only so many ways to highlight the eccentric nature of the conductor before it became tiresome and borderline parody. It could be argued that the writers were to blame for this, but I think that Bernal should have toned down his performance. People are shaped by their environments and his character should have been affected by the professional atmosphere. An actor should have allowed this reality to shape their performance; Bernal never did.

Luckily, Gael Garcia Bernal shines throughout Werewolf By Night, almost singlehandedly keeping the special moving with his restrained but also zany performance. He is able to capture the absurdity of the situation without also losing the seriousness of the situation. It is a phenomenal performance and changed my mind about the character of Jack Russell.

Battle Royale

Most of Werewolf By Night is spent in a battle royale style competition. The five monster hunters who were summoned are told that they were gathered to compete to become the new leader of Bloodstone Manor and wielder of the powerful Bloodstone. The Bloodstone is currently attached to a large monster that was captured. In order to win the competition, the monster must be slew and the Bloodstone taken, and the five hunters may kill each other, if they choose so.

The battle royale part was enjoyable because we got to see what differentiated the various monster hunters. It overcame all of my outlined trepidations and hesitations. This was the point that Werewolf By Night clicked for me. Watching the five monster hunters go all out to obtain the Bloodstone was awesome, and the battles were intense. Each of them had their own skillset and they approached fighting with different methods. It was simple fun, the sort that is missing too often from Marvel’s Phase Four.

Jack’s Mission

The fighting would have been engaging enough for a Halloween special, but the material is elevated by Jack’s secret mission. Unlike the other contestants, Jack is not there to obtain the Bloodstone. Jack is there to rescue his friend, Ted, the ‘monster’ that has been infused with the Bloodstone. Jack’s purpose is to remove the Bloodstone from his friend, prevent the others from hurting him, and find an escape route for the two of them. It’s not as easy mission by any stretch of the imagination, but Russell isn’t going to let any harm come to his friend. Giving him a purpose other than competing for a prize gave us a reason to root for this character that we know very little about and have seen nowhere else.

Entering The Paranormal

Werewolf By Night is the first time that Marvel has explored its paranormal side. Some people may be tempted to say that Doctor Strange explored these worlds, but I would argue that they are mystical, not paranormal. Doctor Strange is the world of magic, whereas Werewolf By Night is the world of the unexplained and monsters.

I’m excited by this development. Marvel has become stale and boring. There is nothing stale and boring about vampires, werewolves, zombies, and other monsters. There is a simple reason that they have endured for centuries: they are thrilling. These are creatures that chill people to their core, that are terrifying to think of. It’s beyond fun to imagine them in the world, and even more fun to imagine them in a world where superheroes exist.

Becoming The Werewolf

As enjoyable as the battle royale, atmosphere, and the character aspects were, the best part of the special is without a doubt the moment went Jack Russell finally becomes a werewolf. This is the moment that we were waiting( the special is titled Werewolf By Night, after all). The creators took their time building to this moment, waiting until the very end to reveal Jack Russell’s alter ego.

Suffice it to say, the werewolf scene was worth the wait. It was old-school horror. A monster rampaging without restraints, not a single person capable of even delaying his rampage. The director beautifully shot this scene, making sure that every moment captured the terror of the werewolf and the complete helplessness of the people in the room. It reminded me a lot of Rogue One’s ending, when Darth Vader is just mowing down every rebel unfortunate enough to step into his path of destruction. Simply brilliant.

The Incredible Hulk

Jack Russell’s character is very similar to Bruce Banner’s. They both are relatively ‘normal’ people who will transform into an unstoppable killing machine and lose control of themselves. Unlike Banner, Russell’s powers only activate on nights with full moons, keeping the norm of the usual werewolf myth.

What separates the two(prior to Bruce having total control of his Hulk persona) is that Jack Russell operates in the world of paranormal. He is aware of and fights the things that go bump in the night. Russell lives in the world of zombies, ghouls, and other monsters. Bruce walks in the day, but Russell walks in the dark. In some way, they are the polar opposites of each, and Werewolf By Nights taps into this by putting Russell into a deadly competition for leadership of a paranormal organization.

Universal Monster Movies

Frankenstein is the only Universal Monster movie that I have ever seen. I could understand why it was celebrated for its time, but I didn’t enjoy the movie at all. Since the gold standard of Universal Monster movies didn’t impress me, I choice not to bother watching the other movies, like Wolfman and The Mummy.

Although I’ve only seen one Universal monster movie, I feel that I, and most people, are aware of them through their cultural impact. Numerous movies and shows have paid homage to them and their influence continues to spread throughout the culture. Pop culture is so littered with references to these influential films that even anybody who has never seen one of them is at least vaguely aware of them.

The best part of Werewolf By Night is the great care taken to replicate the Universal Monster movies. Werewolf By Night looks like an old-school 1940’s movie. It was filmed in black and white, has limited CGI by modern standards, and is full of charm. I’m glad that the creators of Werewolf By Night took the time necessary to pay homage to the legendary Universal Monster Movies, keeping them in the publics mind for just a little bit longer.

More Specials, Less Serialized Stories

Marvel’s movies and series for the past three years, since Endgame came out, have mostly been terrible. There have been a couple expectations, though they are few and far between. For whatever reason, Marvel has lost its ability to tell engaging stories that can stand on their own, while also building its grander narrative. Werewolf By Night and The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special prove that Marvel still has excellent stories to tell; they just need to be one-off specials disconnected from a grander narrative rather than attempting to replicate their original formula that probably can never be duplicated. Hopefully Werewolf By Night can become an annual tradition for Disney+, because I want more horror themed Marvel specials.

Sayaka’s group has encountered another group of monsters, led by a man named Madoka. His group has more strength and numbers than Sayaka does. He is willing to let them join on his crew on the condition that they pick one member to die, as retribution for previously harming one of his subordinates. Without the resources to fight back, Sayaka and the others must use their cunning to escape this perilous situation.

Author Continues to surprise

Once again, I am shocked by how Gleipnir’s story unfolded. I thought that this volume would be devoted to an all out war between the forces of Sayaka and Madoka. Yota easily defeated the scout that ran ahead to attack them. This gave me the impression that he would be able to mount a defense with the help of Shuichi and Clare. With the group surrounded, it seemed that fighting was the only choice they had. But the author had other plans. Madoka easily overpowered Shuichi and Yota, leaving the group no choice other than submission.

I always enjoy when author’s put protagonists in situations that present a legitimate quandary that demands making tough choices. Fight scenes can be enjoyable, but too often they are used as a crutch to overcome poor storytelling. The amount of tension that exists is limited when we know that the hero is going to punch their way out of a situation. Here, the group is faced with a difficult choice: do they accept his conditions and pick a person to die, or will they all attempt to escape and risk everybody dying.

Civil War

Madoka gives Sayaka’s group time to determine which member will serve as a sacrifice. Madoka forbids Claire from being chosen because he thought that she should intelligence by offering up a comrade who may be dead as their sacrifice. Having a limited amount of time to determine what the best path forward is, the group turns to fighting amongst each other.

This section of the volume made great use of psychological torture. Watching the group struggle over Madoka’s ultimatum was gut wrenching. The group knew that the possibility of dying existed, but they have never had to confront the imminence of death. None of them dealt with it well. They struggled and fought about the proper response to their ultimatum, and some of the members decided that it was better that one of them should die rather than all of them. This debate only lasted for a chapter, but it exposed some fissures in the group.

Spoilers Below!

If you’re concerned about spoilers from Gleipnir’s fifth volume, stop reading here and come back once you’re caught up.

Fighting Dirty

Claire was unwilling to offer up any of her new friends and made the decision to fight back. Madoka was too powerful to confront head on, so Claire had to fight dirty. She came up with a cunning tactic that made great use of her teammates ability to age plants. Claire collected a great amount of poisonous flowers, had her teammate make a grove of them, and set them on fire. Sayaka’s group knew that the fumes were poisonous, but Madoka’s didn’t. Unwilling to let his prey escape, Madoka ran head first into a lethal trap.

What About The Oath?

As much as I enjoyed the battle between Madoka and Sayaka’s group, I did have one concern: Shouldn’t several of the courses of actions they break their oath and result in death. Offering up a member to be killed would be a betrayal, as would ditching the group in a desperate attempt to escape. I would even go so far as to argue that attempting to fight back may be considered betrayal because it could result in everybody’s death. Despite every member of Sayaka’s group debating what to do, nobody mentioned the oath they are all bound to. If this oath is not going to be a problem, why was it even introduced?

Sympathetic Antagonist

In the runup to Madoka meeting Sayaka’s group, I thought that he was going to be a generic villain. We’ve been repeatedly warned that the primary purpose of seeking out the coins is to prevent an evil force from obtaining such fabulous power. Anybody who has collects 100 coins could easily destroy the world, and it appeared that Madoka was one of these psychopaths that we were warned about. After all, we did witness him kill a woman who refused to accept his conditions, and he rules with an iron first, swiftly quashing any and all insubordination.

But Madoka was actually a three dimensional character. He had a motive beyond simply wanting power. He was a loner without friends, an outcast in society. Madoka bonded with the other monsters because they were also outcasts. Nothing would make him happier than making sure his new family can get anything and everything they want. The coins are the best way to do that, and he will destroy anybody who stands between him and his family.

Ramifications

A sign of great storytelling is when actions come with ramifications. It’s easy and cheap to have a hero make a decision that only produces positive results. Decision making, however, is rarely that simple. A decision that benefits one group may come at the expense of another. Star Trek The Next Generation explored this a lot, with the crew of the Enterprise frequently forced to make difficult decisions that will adversely impact one group. Stories rarely make characters face the consequences of their actions. Gleipnir brings the ramifications of decision making to the forefront and produces some compelling character drama as a result.

Claire decision to poison Madoka’s group has come with consequences. Not everybody in his group died, and the survivors have come seeking vengeance. Madoka’s group knows the identities of everybody in Sayaka’s group. That means that the remnants of Madoka can attack anywhere at any time. It is the reason that Claire and Shuichi stated that should strive to conceal their identity, despite taking on precautions to do so. Claire may have saved them momentarily, but did she put a target on all of their lives now?

Not only has Claire put all their lives at risk, but the actions that appeared to be limited to the mountains have come into the town. Shuichi notices that his classmate is missing and begins to wonder if he was a member of Madoka’s group that died. This reality is confirmed when the body is found. Will the town slowly begin to tear itself apart, now that the conflict is no longer limited to the confines of the mountains? Will friends and neighbors eventually begin to turn on each other?

Shuichi’s Decision

Like I said, Claire’s decision to poison Madoka’s group was not a simple solution that solved all of their problems. She solved a single problem - their eminent death - but created several new ones. One of these problems - a member of Madoka’s group - is determined to kill her. But this person ran into a single problem: he ran into Shuichi before Claire. Shuichi, wanting to protect Claire, killed this man before he could escape and harm anybody.

This was a shocking twist. Shuichi had refused to kill anybody up until this point. Regardless of how dangerous or threatening, Shuichi always shown mercy. Only Claire ever killed anybody. But Shuichi ultimately decided that this man had to die. I believe that this was because he had no other way to guarantee Claire’s safety, once again proving that Claire matters to him more than anybody. I’m curious if this is a permanent change in Shuichi’s outlook or a regrettable solution to a threat to Claire.

The Man With Ultimate Power

What if somebody collected 100 coins? We no longer have to wonder, because this person has finally appeared. They have made it their mission to protect the crashed spaceship and prevent anybody else from collecting 100 coins. This man doesn’t enjoy killing good people, he claims, but will do so if he feels obligated. He boldly proclaims that this is his story and he has a plan that needs to unfold.

I was excited to see this person appear in the story. His appearance has been set and I eagerly anticipated it. Elena willingly abandoned her life and dedicated herself to defeating some unknown person. We now know who this person was, and we got a glimpse of how powerful he is. Oh, and he was once friends with Shuichi and Elena. It will be interesting to see how this man’s plan will conflict with the plans of everybody else and what his history with Shuichi is.

Needful Things

The coin collector made another limited appearance in this volume of Gleipnir. Unlike his past appearances, his past prior to the starts of the series were revealed. He was still hanging out in his same spot, reading comics, but he had no concern about locating the aliens he was traveling with. The collector found them boring and he was interested in having fun. He only started searching for his fellow travelers because his first friend on Earth told him that he must and he found a way to make it fun, by turning it into a game. And this friend of the collector insisted that she meet her best friends -Elena, Shuichi, and the man who has collected 100 coins.

This makes me wonder what his true purpose is. Is he no different than the devil from Needful Things? Has he shown up just to wreak havoc and disappear when there is nobody left in town. As an advanced alien life form, he must have been aware that giving random power fantastical powers would cause immense problems for a small village. His primary concern appears to only be being entertained, hence the reason we always see him reading manga. He has no apparent concern for life and has ruined those who have come into contact with him. What happened to the girl he befriended and how does everybody else fit into this game that he has concocted.

The alien continues to be one the biggest mysteries and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just willing to let the town burn for his entertainment. This really bodes true now that the terror has left the mountains and made its way into town.

Shuichi and Yoshioka are bleeding out and dying after being attacked at the end of the last volume. Unlike last time, there is nobody around to save Shuichi. It appears that his life is at an end, but he has another ability that he didn’t know about: Becoming One. Shuichi and Yoshioka merge into a single entity, combining their bodies, memories, and abilities. This allows them to survive and live to see another day. Once they reunite with their group, it is collectively decided that they should search for the alien collector’s missing spaceship, because that will be the best location to seek out coins.

Avengers Assemble

Now that Claire and Shuichi are full members of the group, they are formally introduced to everybody. The monsters who hid their identities by staying in their transformation show their normal human forms. A group of strangers, bound by the oath from Sayaka’s powers, are now a team working to achieve a single objective.

Two members of the team hogged up the majority of the spotlight, previously. Yoshioka and Sayaka spent time with Shuichi and Claire, respectively. The other four members of the team had limited appearances. We got some glimpses of their personality, but not enough to understand who they are. Seeing the individual members have their own moments in the spotlight gave me a better understanding of who they are and why they have joined together.

Becoming One

Becoming One is probably the most interesting aspect of this volume of Gleipnir and builds upon several facets of Shuichi that we know. We’ve known since the start that people can enter Shuichi and Pilot him. We know that Shuichi feels incapable of succeeding on his own and his dependent upon other people. Lastly, we know that Shuichi inspires other and brings them joy, as seen through Claire and the classmate he gave the scholarship ship to. Becoming One takes all of Shuichi traits - piloting, needing others, and inspiring others - and takes them to their ultimate conclusion: Shuichi literally becoming one with another person. This ability is used to save himself and Yoshioka from certain death, fusing their bodies into a single entity.

The fact that Claire and Shuichi never became one raises a fairly simple question: Why? There’s actually a pretty good explanation if you think about it. Claire is the only person who values Shuichi for the person that he is, rather than the things that he can do. When Yoshioka Became One with Shuichi, she took over his entire existence. Sure, she kept his memories, but she was fully in control. In a way, she didn’t care if Shuichi existed. She was more concerned about preserving her life and Shuichi was a necessary sacrifice to achieve her objective. Claire would never consider sacrificing her friend or removing him from existence.

Claire, however, sees her inability to Become One with Shuichi as a failure. She believes that Shuichi and her have never Become One because Shuichi doesn’t trust her. This self doubt that Claire harbors may fracture their deep friendship, as Claire will question if Shuichi wants to be around her.

Claire’s Inconsistency

A section of my previous review was devoted to espousing my love of what I call the “Peter Parker Burden”. It is the idea that heroes have to keep their identities a secret to protect their friends and family. Despite concealing an identity being a well intention means of keeping people safe, it will inevitably lead to conflict, as the secret must be safeguarded from even loved ones. Claire and Shuichi came to this conclusion as well, only to completely disregard it almost immediately, revealing their identity to everybody they came across.

With Claire completely disregarding her concern about concealing her true identity, I could not fathom why she was so concerned about Yota doing nothing to protect his. Yota does not see a purpose in hiding himself, choosing to always walk around with his face revealed. For some reason, Claire spent time lecturing him about the danger of doing this. Why is it Claire is capable of seeing the dangers when he does it, but not the dangers when she does it? Spending so much time having characters debate the merits of protecting themselves, just to have the core protagonists continually disregard it without cause is ridiculous. It’s an idea that could have worked, but should just be dropped now.

Why Did Shuichi Take The Oath?

Claire’s conflict last volume was about whether or not she should take Sayaka’s oath. Taking her oath was the condition for the two to join the team. It was a promise that Claire could never do anything to betray the group. The enforcement mechanic is Sayaka’s ability, which allows her to manipulate a magical barbwire. Should Claire ever break her vow, she would die.

This was an excellent dilemma because there may have come a time when Claire may be forced between helping Shuichi and betraying the group. Claire would have to make a decision knowing that helping Shuichi may lead to her death. It demonstrated that Shuichi and Claire’s friendship wasn’t a one way street. Claire was willing to sacrifice herself for Shuichi as much as he would sacrifice himself for her.

Unfortunately, this enjoy dilemma went out the window as fast as their desire to protect their identity. Shuichi decides to take the oath himself. Now him and Claire are limited by the same constraints, and Claire’s heroics were for nothing. It’s odd that the author continues to introduce elements that would present conflicts for and between our protagonists, only to rescind them a few chapters later.

The Truth About Elena

The first three volumes of Gleipnir led readers to believe that Elena was a cold blooded murderer. Claire told Shuichi that Elena was responsible for the murder of their parents, and the first time Elena appeared on page was when she attacked Shuichi, nearly killing him. Being told that she was a murderer and witnessing her instinctually attacking Shuichi gave us no reason to doubt what were told. That doubt was cemented when she saved Shuichi from being killed by a member of her tribe.

Elena continues to be a highlight of the series. The author has managed to cloud her true intention in a shroud of secrecy, while also slowly dripping out information about what she is up to. The best hints, I believe, have actually been things that Shuichi has said. His repeated statements that he is not the hero and that his suit was created for somebody else leads me to believe that Elena has a plan that Shuichi is critical too. Why else would she risk being killed by her group, in which she appears to simply be another member, if she didn’t want him to save the world? Elena is the only person whose intentions are unclear and I’m having fun guessing what they are.

In Search of a Spaceship

Sayaka’s group has only found five coins. The locations that have been searching have no yielded much, but pinpointing the locations on a map allowed them to calculate where the spaceship crashed. Since the coins came from the crashed ship, it would be best to search near that location.

The alien and his(its?) people remain shrouded in darkness. We know very little about them, other than the fact that they are not from our earth and have amazing technology. Locating the spaceship may present an opportunity to determine more about who the aliens are and why they came to our planet. But that is not all it presents. It also presents an opportunity for Shuichi and the enter a dangerous area of the mountains.

The Mystery of Shuichi

Shuichi has been able to transform into a monster since the start of the series. Although he initially didn’t know how he obtained his powers, Elena revealed that she was the person responsible for his transformation into a monster. It was weird that Elena would give him these powers, because, as far we knew, they were strangers without any relationship. However, the way the Elena behaved towards him suggested this wasn’t true. Yoshioka confirmed this when she became one with Shuichi and obtained his memories. He has repressed memories of a woman who appears as black shadow. Yoshioka confirms this is Elena because she is able to obtain her phone number from Shuichi’s memories.

This was an interesting development that I enjoyed. It progress the story and Shuichi’s character, while also introducing more mysteries that readers can ponder over. What happened that caused Shuichi to lose his memories? What caused him and Elena to cease their friendship? Was there a third party responsible for destroying a fulfilling friendship? These new questions keep the story interesting and engaging.

A Warning Sign

While searching for the crashed spaceship, the crew comes across a strange symbol. Claire concludes that it is a warning to anybody who has stumbled into this area, a mark meant to tell people to turnaround and stay away. The group agrees to ignore this warning, believing that any area worth marking must be ripe to collect coins. It turns out this was the symbol of the unknown monsters seen at the end of volume two. The monsters surrounded a woman and promised to kill her if she refused to hand over the coins that she had collected. The resolution of that confrontation was withheld until the end of this volume, when our heroes finally encountered this threat.

I appreciate that the author didn’t rush into a fight with these organization. Truthfully, I was expecting them to be the primary antagonists of the volume. I did not expect that Shuichi and Claire would spend most of their time putting together a team. Delaying this confrontation allowed the fighting to be more interesting. We’ve seen what Shuichi can do as a fighter. He’s great, but it would be boring if he was the only character. Luffy has his crew, Goku has his friends, Shuichi needs his team. Witnessing the members use their individual powers to contribute to the battle was more engaging than seeing Shuichi hug his opponent so Claire can shoot them again.

Monster War

This volume ends on an exciting note by setting up Gleipnir’s first monster war. Our heroes fought a scout and were able to easily dispatch him. But that scout was merely a means to study the group, to understand everybody’s power. The bad monsters(I wish these groups had names) now understand what they’re up against and are going to launch a full out assault.

The enemy group presents a grave threat because Sayaka’s group because they have more members and Sayaka’s group is weak. Sayaka immediately looks for an escape when presented with danger, saying that it is their specialty. But that isn’t going to work because they are surrounded in enemy territory. Sayaka’s group are going to have to use their wits and teamwork if they have any shot of making it out alive.

My Woefully Inaccurate Predictions

In my review of Volume 3 of Gleipnir, I predicated that the number of coins that Shuichi and Claire collected would serve as an indicator of how far along the story was. It was my thought that a group or individual would only near collecting 100 coins as the series entered into its endgame. Ratcheting up the tension and pacing as the monsters fought over the aliens ultimate seemed the most logical path for the story. My predictions could not have been more inaccurate.

Elena reveals to Yoshioka that there is a monster who already has collected the 100 coins necessary to receive the alien’s ultimate power. There goes everything I thought out the window. But I’m not upset about it. The fun of reading a series is guessing how the plot will develop and seeing how accurate your predictions were. It would be boring if I were to constantly figure out how the story would work. Being surprised just means the story is fun and the author has a unique vision.

Picking up where the last volume ended, Claire and Shuichi are looking for coins in the mountains. On their expedition they encounter another monster. This chance encounter leads to a series of events that ends up the two contacting a small tribe of monsters. Claire and Shuichi deduce that these people can be somewhat trusted, and they meet with them to discuss an alliance.

100 Coins

Claire and Shuichi are in the mountains searching for the alien’s missing coins(friends?). It is revealed that the first person to collect 100 coins will receive the alien’s ultimate power. Though there is no information provided about what that great power exactly is, the two are concerned about what would happen if this power fell into the wrong hands. Monsters can already easily kill any normal human. How much havoc would a wielder of the ultimate power wreak? We knew that the two of them would be searching for coins, but now we know how many they will need to find and what their reward will be.

Setting a concrete amount of coins to locate also sets up a precise endgame goal. We will know how far the story is coming along based on how many coins the two of them have found. Conversely, we will also know how powerful the antagonists are based on the number of coins that they have found. I’m glad that we have a benchmark for power and story progress that will continually push the plot forward.

Plus the search for the coins ties in well with Claire’s search for her sister Elena. Claire deduces that Elena is in the mountains, because she knows that her sister is searching for the coins. It is Claire’s belief that searching for the coins will lead them towards more monsters, who may be able to provide information about Elena’s whereabouts. Seeking out coins to stop evil is a bit generic and hard to care about. But seeking out coins to reconnect with a lost family member gives us a reason to buy into the mission.

Taking On Peter Parker’s Burden

Let me get this out the way: No, Peter Parker(Aka Spider-Man) is not in Gleipnir. There is no character with the abilities of spider, living with his aunt, while juggling the responsibilities of using his powers for a greater good and also fulfilling his personal obligations.

But Claire and Shuichi do take on a famous aspect of Peter Parker’s burden. They decide that they must do their best to conceal their identity. The two conclude that anybody who figured out their identity would harm innocent people. Therefore, it would be irresponsible for them to allow anybody find out who they. It’s a heroic decisions, with the two placing the burden of the squarely on their shoulders. The people of their village will remain safe because they won’t allow anybody to find out who they are.

I’ve always loved Spider-Man, and my favorite aspect of his character is this burden of hiding his identity. It causes Peter Parker a ton of problems. He struggles to stay employed, maintain relationships, and obtain an education because of his great responsibilities. His absences and disappearances are thought to be the result of a lazy disposition. Peter is unable to tell anybody that he was missing because he was off fighting crime. Nothing scares him more than a loved one being targeted by a villain, and he would gladly suffer to keep them safe.

Unfortunately, this idea is dropped almost as soon as it is introduced. Despite claiming that they need to conceal their identity, Claire and Shuichi reveal themselves to EVERY single monster that they encounter, with the exception of the final one. It was ridiculous to introduce this idea only to completely drop it without providing hesitation or explanation. A rare miscalculation for a series I have been enjoying.

Horror Aesthetics

As mentioned, volume 3 of Gleipnir changes the setting from Shuichi’s small-town to the large, wild mountains that surround it. Whereas the village felt safe, if a little odd sometimes, the mountains have an entirely different vibe to them. They are scary and dangerous. People do not regularly go up to the mountains, and the rare few that do make sure to stay on the trails. Only monsters occupy this area full of decrepit abandoned buildings - monsters seeking immense power who would kill anybody that would take their precious coins.

This atmosphere and sense of danger are further enhanced by the monster that Claire and Shuichi encounter(Pictured Above). He is a towering monster with two blades for arms. His power dwarfs Shuichi’s and he has a bloodlust, seeking only to get stronger, completely indifferent to the alien’s coins. Shuichi has no choice but to fight these hulking beast because there is nowhere to hide in the immediate vicinity.

Teamwork

Shuichi would have lost fighting by himself. He still wants to avoid fighting and live peacefully. His opponent did not share his pacific ideals and was fighting to kill. Thankfully, Shuichi had Claire there to help him in his battle. She was the coach(and pilot) that he needed. Telling his body where to go and what to do, keeping him in the battle, refusing to surrender to defeat.

Claire is the commander and strategist, but that doesn’t mean that Shuichi is useless. Shuichi’s concern for the well beings of others is ultimately the only reason that they were able to pull through. He was willing to sacrifice himself to give Claire a chance to escape. Claire adapts his idea of having him leave the suit and uses it to their advantage, taking their opponent, who was unaware of their dual nature, by surprise. Using each others strengths allowed them to win a battle that either of them would have lost individually.

These moments of Claire and Shuichi working together are my favorite parts of the series. It is unusual for a series to have protagonists that work together so well, filling in the gaps of the other. Normally, the protagonists would have their various skills that would fit a specific situations, rotating who gets to deliver the final blow. Claire and Shuichi invert the standard, making Gleipnir stand out in a crowded field.

The Monsters on the Mountains

Fighting the large monster makes them realize that they are going to encounter more difficult, ruthless monsters. They barely won their first encounter in the mountains. They’re going to need a team and they have a lead on a small monster tribe. The two of them go to meet these new people, but before they can join the group they have to agree to undergo a secretive ritual.

I liked this section but it had some problems. The logistics of meeting up with the group takes place offscreen. I would have liked to see them arranging this meeting. I would imagine that convincing strangers that you want to help them with secret society would be a difficult conversation. Nope. These people allow two strangers to meet up with them, at their base of operations. I get that the author did this to keep the story moving, but I don’t think a chapter devoted to set up would have the story.

However, the new monsters had well developed personalities that eased my concerns. Shuichi and Claire are asking to be new members of an old club. The members are apprehensive and worried about their motives. Their arrival throws the established dynamics of the group into disarray. Each person has a role to play and they to maintain their purpose. The members are envious, jealous, headstrong, and tightknit. They are not going to yield to Shuichi and Claire’s request without getting some concessions. Concessions that come at a cost.

Splitting Up

Ironically, seeking out a team causes Claire and Shuichi to separate. The two of them work best as a team, but the circumstances of joining the monsters necessitates a moment of separation. For the first time in Gleipnir, the two of them are going to have to survive on their own, without any help from the other.

It was interesting to see how the two of them behaved when separated. Their personalities practically inverted, with Claire becoming shy and submissive and Shuichi becoming more independent and courageous. Both of them are operating outside of their comfort zone and must attempt adapt to the demands of the situation. Without the protection of the other, the two make poor decisions independently. Both of them err tremendously.

The independent sections were the best part of the volume. We got to witness first hand how much the two of them need each other. Since the beginning, the two have been inseparable. We never got a chance to see them operate on their own. This sections show us what broken people the two of them are and why they rely so heavily on each other.

Cliffhanger Ending

Volume three ends on a banger of a cliffhanger. Shuichi and his new friend/teammate Yoshioka are looking for her missing wallet. She is concerned that one of the monsters will stumble upon it and conclude that she is a monster looking for coins. In order to keep her safe, Shuichi decides that they must retrieve the wallet. But they stumble into an overwhelming powerful monster, even more powerful than the one they met earlier.

Shuichi is being piloted by Yoshioka. She is inexperienced and doesn’t have Claire’s natural proclivity for combat. Shuichi himself is paralyzed by fear, incapable of coming to any decision. This makes it impossible for them to respond any meaningful manner, and the two are left to the whims of this stranger.

Gambling on his ability to function on his own was a mistake. Claire may be capable of independent decision making, but Shuichi is not. He rolled the dice and came up a loser. Now he is immense danger without any clear indication of how he will escape. Having Shuichi go outside his comfort zone, only to fail miserably, was a great way to end the volume and leave the readers wanting for more.

Fire Force Volume 2 picks up immediately from where the first volume ended. The Rookie Fire Soldier games have been infiltrated by a mysterious man named Joker. He attacks the participants so that he can speak to Shinra, divulging that he has information about the day his mother died. Although Shinra doesn’t believe everything that Joker tells him, it instills doubt in him about the organization the Fire Force organization. Shinra’s doubts are further cemented when Captain Obi tells him the true purpose of Company 8 and when Company 5 intervenes to save a raging infernal.

Rookie Fire Solider Games

It’s a common trope in Shonen manga to have the characters enter some sort of trial or test within the first several volumes. Naruto, Kaiju No. 8, My Hero Academia, and many others all did it. Sometimes it is executed well enough that I can enjoy it, like in Naruto, but too often it’s just a stale means to introduce a ton of characters at once. I was worried that the Rookie Fire Soldier Games were just going to be a character dump.

And it is, to an extent. The games were used to introduce the captain of Company 1 and several other smaller characters. It also showed several other people that I believe are going to be important, without giving them a proper introduction, like the CEO of Hajima Industries, the company that manufactures the equipment used by the Fire Force soldiers.

However, the primary purpose of the games was to introduce a villain into the series. Every series needs a good villain who is there to oppose the protagonist and force them to make difficult decisions. The first volume was missing an antagonist(Joker technically appears at the end of the first volume but we didn’t know anything about him). Shinra and Company 8 fought random people who randomly combusted. It was boring, in my opinion, because they had no agency or purpose. It was as bad as the villain of the week formula that early CW shows used. Introducing a villain drastically improved the quality of the series.

Joker

Joker is an intriguing villain. He is powerful, manipulative, and cunning. He easily infiltrates the Rookie Fire Games, sneaking in past several captains and escaping without being seen. Joker also successfully instill doubt in Shinra by providing information about the fire that killed his family and offering him further information if Shinra will join him.

I enjoyed that Joker wasn’t a normal villain seeking to simply impede or kill the antagonist. Joker clearly has his own objectives and he believes that Shinra will help him achieve it. An antagonist seeking to persuade a protagonist to join him is not a new idea, but having him attempt to do it so early in the series, at their first meeting, is not something that I have seen before. Joker knows something about Shinra that we don’t and I’m curious to find out what it is.

There was also a beautiful brevity to his debut. Joker vanished as quickly as he appeared, retreating to the shadows. Once again, I cannot recall another series that had a villain meet the protagonist face to face, only to offer him an opportunity and leave. Too often Shonen series will stretch material out as long as they can. I’m glad to see Fire Force is not falling victim to the genres usual tropes. The subversion of genre standards is amazing.

Fixing Shinra

Speaking of Shinra, in my review of the first volume, I declared him to be one of the worst protagonists of any series I ever read. He was setup to be an outcast because many people suspected him of murdering his family. The series introduced this idea and did nothing with. His only character trait was smirking at inappropriate times. He was an entirely reactive protagonist, being shuffled from place to place, without any idea how he was going to fulfill his purpose of solving the mystery of his family’s death. I found the first volume to be bad mostly because of how poor his character was.

Shinra was drastically improved in this volume, almost feeling like a completely different character. He went from being one of the most uninteresting characters that I’ve ever seen to one of the most interesting. We got to witness him being heroic, have his own agency, make difficult decisions, question his orders, and harbor secrets. No longer was he a simply being directed by his captain, content to wander through the agency hoping that he would stumble into information about the fire that killed his family. He took action and guided the direction of the series through his own decisions, which is actually what a protagonist must do.

The Members of Company 8

Shinra is not the only character improved in the second volume. I found the members of Company 8 so uninteresting that I didn’t mention them in my review of volume 1. They were generic and only distinguishable due to the fact that they were all drawn in a distinct manner. Some of them were given weird quirks, but I don’t think quirks make a personality. Of the entirety of Company 8, the only person who was memorable was Arthur because of his hostility toward Shinra.

The other members of Company 8 are given unique roles that make them easily distinguishable from one another. Captain Obi is shown to be a man of integrity put into a difficult position; Takehisa is shown to be dutiful to Obi, making the decisions that he can’t as second in command; and Iris is shown to be a dutiful nun who genuinely cares about others.

As I mentioned, Arthur was the only member of Company 8 that I enjoyed in the first volume. I found him even more enjoyable this time around. He serves as the comedic relief and foil to Shinra. Arthur’s deadly combination of being arrogant and foolish causes his him to rush into terrible decisions. Although he intends to be helpful, he ends up impending Shinra. I genuinely laughed when Shinra was heading toward an infernal, only for Arthur to slow him down by attempting to mount him like a horse. Other than Shinra, Arthur is my favorite character because of the humor he bring to the story.

The Only member who still felt undeveloped at the end of the second volume was Maki. At this point, it seems like the only reason she exists is to serve as eye candy to the readers. I understand that authors believe this will attract male readers to their series, but I always find it distasteful and distracting. I hope that she will have a more defined purpose in the next volume, because it was established in the first that she is powerful.

World Buildilng

A Big complaint that I had about the start of Fire Force was the lack of world building. Despite the exposition dumps, the world felt very small. Very little appeared to exist outside of the immediate vicinity of the Company 8’s headquarters, and what we did get was not interesting in the least. The infernals were mindless villains, no different than a zombie. Lets be honest. When was a single zombie ever interesting?

Joker implants a single idea that is explored throughout volume two of Fire Force. Is the Fire Defense Agency what it claims to be? Joker makes a claim about the fate of Shinra’s brother that makes Shinra question everything he knows. Although Joker’s claims initially seems like ludicrous ideas, there are numerous developments that make them seem plausibly, if not outright likely. The exploration of the integrity of the Fire Defense Agency brings about the worldbuilding that the series needed to thrive.

It all starts with was Captain Obi revealing the true purpose of Company 8. Contrary to what we were led to believe, Company 8 is not just another company meant to investigate and fight spontaneous combustion. They were given a special mission, one that is meant to be a secret: They are responsible for investigating the other branches. The leaders of The Fire Defense Agency believe that the other companies should have discovered what causing combustion by now. Company 8 was tasked with finding out what, if anything, they are hiding.

Shinra is also confronted with the corruption present in society on his mission with an infernal. He is tasked with eliminating an infernal that has retained its consciousness. The infernal is a former firefighter who, for reasons unknown, became a serial killer. The judge presiding over the case finds the firefighter not guilty due to his former service. However, the firefighter changed into an infernal in the court room, directing his rage toward everybody who he claims wronged him, including the judge. In a desperate attempt to plead for his life, the judge claims that he “helped” the firefighter. Implying that the case was not on the up and up.

Shinra is conflicted about killing a being that still retains a human element. But this concern is quashed by the arrival of Fire Company 5 and their leader Princess Habana. Habana exemplifies the sort of cavalier attitude and secrecy that Company 8 should be investigating. She is more concerned about rescuing an infernal with a consciousness than she is with protecting civilians. Her troops view the civilians as fodder that they would gladly sacrifice for their princess(they worship her). They want the infernal for their company so they can conduct experiments on it. For what goal is unknown, but it may be something Company 8 is interested in learning more about.

All of the worldbuilding done in this volume helped establish a reason for Shinra to doubt the integrity of the agency he’s working for. It must be remembered that Shinra’s goal is to discover how his family died. If the Fire Force Agency may be responsible, even minimally, it will cause Shinra to doubt his decisions in life. What impact would it have on Shinra if he learned that he agency he joined is actually responsible for his family’s death? If the Agency is so corrupt that they require a division to secretly investigate themselves, what corruption can individual members like Princess Habana be capable of? Would they kill a family if they thought there was something to gain? These questions gave the story a depth that was sorely missing.

Two Complaints

My first complaint about this volume was the order of events. I loved Joker and his ability to instill doubt in Shinra. But I thought that it should have happened at the end, rather than at the beginning. Shinra’s only reason to believe Joker was that the captain of Company 1 gave him a strange reaction to his question. Shinra falling victim to Jokers machinations would have been more believable at the end of this volume, after Shinra had learned more about the true nature of The Fire Force Agency.

My second complaint is that fire needs to be scary. This is supposed to be a world where people are terrorized by the threat of fire. However, all of the characters that we know are firefighters that have the ability to manipulate fire, wield fire, or just spent so much time around it that it no longer bothers them. At the games, we caught a glimpse of a character afraid of fire, but it was for comedic effect.

What this series needs more than anything is a character who is terrified of fire, a normal person whose life was ruined by fire. Shinra fits this mold, a bit. His life was ruined by fire, but he has no fire of it, because he can manipulate it to his will now. A person without powers, with only a tangential connection to the Fire Agency, who regularly interacts with Shinra, would improve the threat of fire by showing how dangerous it can be to a normal person.

Final Thought

It’s hard to believe that this volume was written by the same person who wrote the first. I genuinely could not fathom how the team that adapted the series for television were able to create an enjoyable show from such terrible source material. But I now understand that the first volume was a fluke. The second volume was phenomenal and rectified every problem I had with the first. Based on what I’ve seen in the television show, I’m assuming that the third volume will continue the improvement demonstrated here.

Fire Force creator Atsushi Ohkubo saved the series in the second volume by drastically improving the quality of the storytelling. The first volume took a ton of shortcuts in an attempt to quickly introduce Shinra and the larger world. What this resulted in was a boring story with a terrible protagonist. By adjusting the exposition, making Shinra the focus, and giving each member of Company 8 their own purpose Ohkubo turned Fire Force into an excellent series.

Shuichi and Claire’s training is interrupted when Shuichi catches a whiff of Claire’s sister. The woman that they set out to look for is nearby and Claire impulsively rushes to catch her. They manage to catch her off-guard, but Shuichi’s unwillingness to kill a relative of Claire gives Elena a chance to respond. Despite being more powerful, Elena refuses to hurt her sister and is upset that she accidentally injured Shuichi. She gives Claire a coin to take to the mysterious coin collector, promising that he will be able to heal their injured friend.

One Piece

I have spent most of the past year binging One Piece, desperately hoping I could get caught up before the release of One Piece Film: Red. After reading 1064 chapters of a single manga in about six months time, I became too accustomed to the storytelling style of One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda. He loves to introduces mysteries and let them linger for a long time. One Piece debuted in 1997. Twenty Five years later and readers still don’t even know what the One Piece, where it’s located, or who hid it(Joyboy’s real identity). With my mind expecting resolutions to be continually pushed off in favor of expanding mysteries, I was shocked by how quickly the world of Gleipnir developed.

Claire’s Sister Elena

Claire’s stated goal in the first volume was to find her sister. I was certain that searching for her family member was going to be the impetus that propelled our heroes on their journey. They would need to continue searching for the coins scattered throughout their town so that they could gather information about Elena’s whereabouts, I thought. I could not have been more wrong.

It turns out that the disappearance of Elena was solved in the sixth chapter. She was still in her hometown and Shuichi was able to easily locate her with his enhanced sense of smell.

This was a genuine shock to me because of how I expected the story to progress. If Claire located her sister what reason would her and Shuichi have to continue on their adventure? As far as I could tell, the two of them would have no reason to work together once Elena was located. Surely a series couldn’t end this quickly, could it?

Locating Elena didn’t eliminate the reason for the series existence, it enhanced it. Elena is devastated that she harmed Shuichi. She reveals that she loves Shuichi and is the person who gave him the ability to transform. Shuichi is confused by this because, to the best of his recollection, he has no relationship with Elena. Yet, she unequivocally claims responsibility for his current predicament and points Claire to the coin collector, so that he can save Shuichi’s life.

I am excited to discover why Elena cares so deeply for a person who didn’t know she existed. To me, this is more exciting than a simple adventure to locate a person. We saw last volume that Shuichi can be extremely generous, such as when he gave up his scholarship to his friend. My guess is that Shuichi showed Elena compassion in his past and forgot about it. Whatever the true reason is, I want to learn more.

The Alien Coin Collector

Elena’s location wasn’t the only big revelation this early in the series. We also got answers about who the mysterious coin collector is and why he’s tracking down the coins. It turns out that he is an alien and the coins are the physical embodiment of his friends. He is physically incapable of gathering the coins himself, for reasons that are still unclear, so he rewards people with alien technology in exchange for his friends.

I enjoyed these revelations because it gives the audience a basic understanding of what was going without revealing his purpose for being on Earth. We now know that they are aliens who were heading for our planet, but we still don’t know why they were heading for our planet. The alien claims that he isn’t a bad guy, that he can be trusted. There is no proof to support his claim. He could easily be a villain, and enlisting his treasure hunt may be inadvertently putting our species at risk of extinction. Nobody knows what he will do once all his friends have return. This unknown purpose, this risk of annihilation, adds another sense of danger that keeps Gleipnir exciting.

The alien also gives Shuichi and Claire a reason to continue working together, now that they have found Elena. The more coins they collect, the more rewards he will give them. Sure, it’s not as compelling as their original motivation to collaborate, but it’s better than nothing, I guess. Plus, the way I see it, the true grand mystery of the series is now the relationship between Shuichi and Elena. This is simply an icing on the cake, another layer to keep putting the characters in dangerous situations.

Shuichi’s Condition

At the start of the series, Shuichi had no clue how he obtained his powers. He viewed them as a curse and was content to remove himself from society, in order to avoid revealing his true nature. It was only when Claire blackmailed him that he began to embrace his powers, pledging that he would help her locate her sister.

Reading Volume two I couldn’t help but think of Tyrion Lannister’s quote about life and death. “Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.” This quote applies perfectly to Shuichi. What began as a curse is improving his life. The medicine given to Shuichi to save his life has made him a stronger, healthier person. He no longer needs his glasses to see and is strong enough to easily overpower his classmate. His improved strength and condition gives him newfound confidence that also improves his reputation at school. Whereas he was once viewed as an introverted nerd, he is now seen as mature and alluring.

Plus, If it wasn’t for the suit, he wouldn’t be friends with Claire. While the two started working together because of circumstance, they have become genuine friends. When Shuichi almost died from Elena’s attack, it was Claire ensuring his survival. She was genuinely concerned about his wellbeing. Not only that, but the two have no real reason to work together anymore. The agreement they made was fulfilled. They located Elena. However, the two of them agree that they want to hunt for the coins together, because they have become actual friends.

The Other Coin Collectors

While most of this volume was devoted to developing the world of Gleipnir, all good stories need opponents who oppose the protagonists. At the end of the second volume, we got a glimpse at some of the other coin collectors who will oppose Shuichi and Claire.

The Other Coin Collectors appeared to be very powerful and well organized. They were not operating alone, as the collector from the previous volume was. They appeared as a group in the mountains, surrounding another collector to demand that she join them or die. It was not shown how that fight was resolved, but we can assume that the person they attacked is in mortal danger if they survived.

In the very last panel, we see Shuichi and Claire heading towards the mountain. They are unknowingly heading toward the dangerous group, to a threat unlike any other that they have ever faced.

Unwanted Fan Service

Once again, my sole complaint about Gleipnir is the fan service. It is distracting and completely unwanted. I read manga for compelling stories and interesting characters - both of which Gleipnir has in spades. Fan services serves only to diminish the creators storytelling. It was even worse this volume than the last and I was annoyed by its prominence in an otherwise excellent manga.

Final Thoughts

It will be interesting to see how two people operating a single monster will react to a group of opponents. The extent of Shuichi’s powers remains unknown, so I’m guessing that we’re going to see them develop in some manner. We will also get to see what forms the other collectors have. I’m excited to see how the other participants in the alien’s treasure hunt develop and how our protagonists will react to their hostilities.

Despite having read all of the manga, this is only the fourth One Piece movie that I have ever seen. I didn’t really care for either of the original theatrical movies that I saw(Strong World and Z), but I did like the remake of Chopper’s introduction(Bloom in Winter, Miracle Sakura), if only because Chopper is my favorite character. I don’t care to watch the numerous movies due to the fact that they are not canon. One Piece is at its best when Oda is revealing the secrets of the world and advancing its plot. I struggle to justify investing my time in adventures that don’t advance Luffy’s goal of becoming king of the pirates. However, I decided to see Red because I never saw a One Piece film in theatres and I love Shanks.

Going into Red, I was aware that Uta was Shanks’ daughter. I can’t recall if it was revealed outright in the trailer or just strongly hinted. Either way, I did not think she was going to be the villain of the film. Shanks is a heroic, inspiring figure. Shanks inspired Luffy to be great by sacrificing his arm to save him. It made sense that his daughter would emulate her father, and we’re initially led to believe that is the case. Luffy shares his fond memories of Uta with the crew and the two of them joyfully reunite. Their relationship takes a turn for the worse when Uta is unable to convince Luffy to quit being a pirate. It is at this stage that we learn that Uta attacks her old friend and is revealed to be the villain of the movie.

Uta has eaten the sing-sing fruit, allowing her to send people’s soul into an alternate world that she controls. It is her belief that the only way to end suffering is to remove everybody from the world. The real world is full of governments and pirates who only want to hurt people. Everybody watching her concert, whether in person or through a broadcast, is transported to her dream world, including the Straw Hats. Concerned about how powerful she is, the navy is sent to subdue her. At the same time, knowing that Uta’s power will attract the attention of powerful adversaries, Shanks sets out to protect his daughter.

I was shocked by the amount of music in Red. Knowing that Uta was a famous singer, I assumed there would be a song or two. It was shocking to hear just how many songs were performed in this movie. While Red is not a musical, Red is very musical(does that make sense?). Uta’s performances heavily reminded me of the two Frontier Macross movies. Her songs were inspiring pop songs that were very visual. Unlike Macross, her music is not meant to empower other people(at least not directly); they are her abilities that allow her to control the audience. Like Macross, I also enjoyed the songs and their visuals. I went into Red expecting a couple of mediocre songs but was surprised by an excellent soundtrack that was essential to the film.

But the real star of the movie is Shanks. Despite his very limited appearances in One Piece, Shanks has been essential to the series. He gave Luffy his iconic Straw Hat and is largely responsible for shaping Luffy into the man he became through his careful attitude and selflessness. Even though he has had such a large influence on the series, he remains shrouded in mystery. So little is known about him, and the draw of this movie was the fact that he would have a prominent role.

Luckily, Red delivers on its promise to flesh out Shanks. Fans will get to learn more of his backstory, his relationship with Uta, and how powerful he truly is. While his appearance is limited for the first two acts of the movie, he becomes the star of the movie by the third act. It is easily the most we have ever seen of him at one time. Seeing Shanks was the highlight of the movie. We finally got to see a glimpse of Red Hair crew in action - and it does not disappoint. Shank’s prominence in the third act of the film made the movie worth the price of admission alone.

For twenty five years, people have been waiting for a Shanks and Luffy reunion. The dreamworld combined with Shank’s observation haki allow the two to work together without actually meeting, saving the big moment for the manga. Luffy is fighting Uta in her fantasy world, while Shanks is reasoning with her in the real world. The writers came up with a clever workout to have the two ‘meet’ without spoiling what Oda has spent decades setting up.

There were some problems with the movie - too many characters, the dreamworld could have been more exciting, and the second act was too long - but One Piece Film: Red was a worthy addition to the One Piece franchise. It was great to see Shanks in action and learn more about who he is. The music was also great and Uta was a compelling villain because of her relationship to Shanks. I also liked that her plan was meant to help people, even if she couldn’t understand the damage she was actually doing. It remains to be seen how much of this movie is canonical, but it will satisfy the fans of the series until Oda reunites Luffy and Shanks in the series.

Inuyashiki repeatedly tries to break the news to his family, only to be continually cut off by their insensitive remarks. Faced with the fact that he is going to die sad and alone, Inuyashiki breaks down while walking his dog. He runs to a nearby hill, where another man is staring into the sky. The two of them are struct by an alien object. Rather than dying, they are rebuilt in a hurry by panicked aliens who don’t want their presence discovered. Inuyashiki awakens to discover that he is no longer dying and his body is a machine. Without a family who cares for him, he decides that he is going to use his new powers to save as many people as possible, to prove that he is still human.

I was introduced to the works of Hiroya Oku through my discovery of Gantz(which gets mentioned in this series). With very little knowledge about the series, I ordered it online when I wanted to binge a completed series. The bizarre premise, the gut wrenching tension, and the outstanding characters instantly hooked me. Gantz was an easy, fun read and I couldn’t wait to finish it. I wanted to discover all the mysteries of the Gantz world and find out what the purpose of these games were. Unfortunately, the realities of publishing put my dream on hold. While Gantz was finished, the old volumes were out of print and cost a fortune to purchase secondhand. The omnibus editions that I was reading were still being printed and had not yet reached the end of the series. With no desire to pirate the rest of the series, I decided to seek out Oku’s other works.

Oku has the uncanny ability to gripe the readers from the first page. This story about a pathetic man captivated me. I sympathized with him from the jump. He works diligently, hoping for a better future, but getting nowhere in life and earning nobody’s respect. After a lifetime of working towards a goal, he is hit with the reality that he has only three months to live. Lots of people(myself included) feel underappreciated and aimless. But not many stories include a protagonist that isn’t gifted in some sort of way. Inuyashiki was the every man that I wanted to root for, even if he never got any powers.

But it does help immensely that he did get powers. As much as I would have enjoyed a story about about a man facing the prospect of dying, Oku’s talents would have been wasted on such a story. Gantz was amazing, in part, because of how bizarre it was. It was a story about characters who suddenly died discovering that they were resurrected, only to be placed in a series of life or death game. They were supposed to go about their normal lives outside of the competition, knowing that they were technically reincarnated and could be called to a new competition at any moment. It was amazing because of how bonkers it was. Oku does not take the safe path on any story, and there is nothing more risky than having a fifty eight year old, salaryman without any support network, obtain powers that could destroy the world.

Inuyashiki is a man with a million reasons to hate humanity. By all accounts, he drew the short stick in life - short, ugly, poor, with a family who hates him. He could easily be full of anger. But he’s not. Inuyashiki decides that he is going to use his second chance at life to do as much good in the world as possible.

It helps that he himself hated his old life. A noticed a detail on my second readthrough that I missed on my first. Inuyashiki can’t cry. He attributes this to the fact that he is no longer human. However, the other person struck by the aliens, who we briefly met in the final chapter of this volume, can cry. And he cries from reading a chapter of One Piece - a manga that, though it does have sad moments, can hardly be considered anything other than a fun manga. Why is this man capable of crying from a comic book and Inuyashiki can’t cry from his ‘death’? It’s because, in my opinion, he is glad that he old Inuyashiki died. Deep down, he knew that he was pathetic and he’s going to prove his worth to the world now, by forging his own path.

I absolutely loved this first volume. Inuyashiki was the best protagonist that have seen in a long time. He completely subverts the expectation of the courageous, handsome hero. His pathetic life makes him the perfect candidate for a rebirth and second shot at the world. I can’t want to see how he’s going to handle his gifts. And more importantly, I can’t wait to see how the other person hit by the aliens is going to develop.

Oddly, I couldn’t stop thinking about Five Nights at Freddy’s when reading Gleipnir, particularly the new game, Security Breach. This is because Shuichi’s transformation reminded me of an animatronic mascot, the coins made me think of an arcade, and Claire piloting Shuichi was similar to the protagonist of Security Breach piloting Freddy Fazbear. Gleipnir even has the same aesthetics. It is dark, gritty, and very violent. It takes elements from childhood, like harmless mascots, and makes them terrifying.

My favorite aspect of Gleipnir is that Shuichi doesn’t have a clue what is going on. Shuichi wanted nothing more than to be normal. He didn’t ask for his powers and he doesn’t know how he got them. They were simply thrust upon him for unknown reasons. He isn’t Luffy setting out to become king of the pirates. There is no interest to fight anybody; there is no interest to go on a grand adventure; there is no a grand goal. His goal is a simple one that anybody can relate to: he wants to be blend in with everybody else. Shuichi enters into an alliance with Claire because she is his only hope of getting his old life back.

Speaking of Claire, she is the polar opposite of Shuichi in every manner. Claire is obsessed with learning more about the monsters like Shuichi. She is excited by the power of Shuichi’s monster form. Claire is unwilling to live a normal life. She wants to go out, fight the other monsters, and figure out the importance of the coin she has. Although she doesn’t have any physical power, she is extremely manipulative. Shuichi is helpless against her machinations. Claire has him completely under her thumb and she is going to use him to achieve her goals. She is the force that drives the series and makes it so engaging.

Unlike my last review, I was thoroughly interested in the larger world of Gleipnir. Gleipnir author Sun Takeda piqued my interest in their series by creating a fascinating mystery. The token that Claire possesses(unbeknownst to her) grants wishes when put into a specific vending machine. Anybody who returns a coin will be meet a man who emerges from the vending machine. He claims that lost is coins and unable to locate them. Who is this guy? What is he after? Why are the coins important to him? I wanted to learn more about this mysterious person(monster?) and find out who else is searching for these tokens.

My only complaint is that the series had way too much fan service. I few fan service as completely unnecessary. In my opinion, it exists only to attract readers to subpar series. I don’t know why a series with a great start like Gleipnir would lower its standards by engaging in such a cheap stunt. I hope that the new volume eliminates the fan service and focuses on the excellent story.