O-Parts Hunter Vol 4 - Jio & Ball, rolling at warp speed!
Taking refuge in the air conditioning, I'm hiding inside and reading manga to beat the heat. It's so humid outside the sweat starts to drip the second you step outside! This made me wonder why Jio and Ball, even in the middle of intense physical training, never seemed to break a sweat! The only time Jio seemed to sweat was when he was forced to eat Kirin's pickles - what's up with that?!
666(サタン) # 4by:岸本 聖史
O-Parts Hunter #4 by Seishi Kishimoto
Rated: Teen +
Price: 9.99
Viz - Shounen - Action/Adventure
Review May Contain Spoilers
Jio and Ball continue their quest for Kirin. With his broken O-Part, Jio is desperate to locate the O-Part appraiser to see if he can repair Zero Shiki. He needs it fixed so he can rescue Ruby, who is still a prisoner of the local jail. While the two boys undergo a little strength training, the O-Part Mexis is unearthed, and the evil Jaga is determined to activate it. Its abilities will give him the power of a god! Will Jio and Ball be able to stop him before he destroys the city?
This installment took the series from mildly entertaining to just plain boring. In previous episodes, the settings were at least interesting enough to make me question the outcome of whatever mess Jio got himself into. This time around, the situations were so forced and inane that my attention repeatedly wandered during the course of the book's 188 pages. The entire Kirin training arc left me particularly disengaged from the plot; the O-Part appraiser's only motivation for assisting Jio and Ball is because he's bored. That's it! The lack of a compelling reason for Kirin to help his uninvited house guests made their entire interaction seem unimportant. I won't even go into the unimaginative training exercises themselves. I was disappointed that the toughest tests Kishimoto could concoct were chasing after dogs and swatting rocks with bats. Sigh. Shounen heroes have it so easy these days!
The one dimensional nature of the characters, especially the villains, also took its toll. Multi-layered villains, who have doses of good mixed in with the evil, make for a more interesting tale. Jaga really suffered from this flaw. Even worse, he is totally devoid of any personality whatsoever. He shudders and shakes and drools, and then he has tantrums about killing, killing, killing. Since he repeatedly yaps the same spiel, I found myself just skimming his dialog.
I am hoping that things will improve in the next volume. Loathsome Jaga and his gang of blood thirsty thugs should be dealt with in short order, and Jio and Ruby should soon be reunited. Maybe with Ruby's admittedly limited common sense to help guide our heroes, things will get back on track. Or we will at least move past the current story arc, which is horribly tedious.
Grade: C-
This review was written by Julie for the MangaCast. Please drop by the Manga Maniac Cafe and check out the menu. There's always tasty reviews on display!