Shonen Beam

[scanlation by JS Scans]

So ends the saga of Yo’s impending death. Apparently Feather is broken enough to change the future in totally irrelevant ways as well.

I don’t usually have a problem with Shiina’s characters looking too similar, but Yuuri on page 3 looks exactly like Kaoru. Don’t tell me she’s also Feather. Fortunately, she starts looking normal come next page.

Yuuri falling off the roof of a building with a hole blasted through her chest places her fairly high on the list of fatal injuries accrued. It also shows Hyoubu is still willing to kill people off, which we haven’t seen much lately.

The brief flashback showing Yuuri’s past starts by revealing she was a test-tube baby, and that she knew that at an early age. This does an alright job of giving her another set of believable issues, as opposed to the fact that she didn’t have a proper mom, which has been done before and carries less impact.

So now Yuuri’s life is legitimately flashing before her eyes. This is exactly the kind of moment I wanted to see from this arc. The three pages that mix close-ups of her coughing up blood and slamming into the ground with memories of time spent with Kaoru are short, but deliver very solid emotional impact. The ragdoll-style way her body is drawn on page 13 is a fitting cap to end this fight sequence.

Sad way to go

Nai teleports in…

… and is immediately shut down by Momiji. Hanzo also attacks, but gets oneshotted by Magi. Say what you want about the majority of Pandra’s staff, but those two are the no-nonsense pair, nicely complementing the serious tone for this arc.

Ninja this, Maruto fanboy!

So Yuuri died in Hyoubu’s illusion and fell into unconstructed dreamspace. A little bit of a disappointment given how good the “death” scene was. This means my overall impression of this arc still hinges on what exactly Hyoubu’s got planned.

Final Flash: Good emotional chapter for Yuuri’s flashback, and the fight has been taken care of. I’m really curious to see the happy ending for the play to which Yuuri alluded.