Okay, this is the middle of the series and boy am I not happy. But, let’s talk about what’s going on with our pink haired porn star protagonist, shall we?
The volume opens with Chiho starting her fight with the God of Destruction, which is where we left off last time. This fight is brutal. Chiho gets the snot beaten out of her and almost gets killed by the God’s fireballs. But, she’s actually really clever and shrinks down, only to grow back to huge size again, after jumping inside the God’s body. She just tears him apart and I was cheering.
After the battle, Rei and Chiho meet up and hug and kiss. And then she meets his parents. They don’t believe that she’s the giant until she changes size in front of them. Somehow, they get a cab and things go bad. Rei’s mother starts to interrogate her while they’re in the cab and we find out that Chiho is twenty four years old. Again, she is twenty four and Rei is, like, seventeen or something. And the mom points this out, and that’s illegal (which I’m not sure of, given Japan’s normally very liberal Age of Consent laws). So, Chiho just starts bawling in the cab sitting up front next to the driver. I fell so bad for the driver.
They get back home and Rei ends up meeting up with Chiho and having some hot sex. He stays until morning and has to head home. Not long after he leaves, the police show up and she’s arrested. Now, during this, we’re seeing news coverage of what’s been going on. The media is begging people to stop using E.T.E. and we see that the police are investigating the “pink haired giant” for possible connections to terrorists. Um, what? And after Chiho is arrested, she ends up getting charged, and convicted of Insurrection. Excuse me? I don’t… I can’t even that whole thing. She literally saved millions of people and they are going execute her. I am so mad right now just thinking about it.
Meanwhile. Rei ends up taking care of Mochi, Chiho’s cute Corgi, and coming clean to his friend about his relationship with Chiho. There’s a lot of stuff just kind of happening in the background and almost nothing of Chiho after she gets arrested. However, I did see some interesting bits involving the other Weirdo in the US. Apparently, the Americans are in love with this guy, while the Japanese seemed to be angry at Chiho and I have no idea why. During his fight with the “closely resembles but is legally distinct from” the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, he shoots bolts of light from his hands. I wonder if this is something all of the Weirdos can do or is it part of the device Chiho also has? I’m very interested to find out.
As we reach the end of the volume, two things happen: at least 853 people are abducted by UFOs after an E.T.E. vote and then not long later, dozens of giant people appear.
The first giants we’re introduced to are children who show up at Rei’s school, pull people out from the building by reaching into the windows, and killing them. Rei is saved by one of them by the police and hunters with a shotgun. As Rei and his friend travel home, they see all kinds of people who have become giants: Salarymen, Yakuza gangsters with swords, Sumo wrestlers, an old guy dressed up in a sailor dress, and more. It’s so surreal and out there. And they’re all killing people. And this brings me to another question I have, who are these people? Are they the people abducted by the UFOs? Or are they E.T.E. users who said they wished they were giants so they could take on Chiho? They’re not as large as the God of Destruction was, maybe half or a quarter of the size, but there’s a lot more of them. One key difference between these giants and Chiho is that all of them are wearing clothes, so their transformation wasn’t like hers.
Speaking of Chiho, this volume ends with a giant hand smashing into Rei’s bedroom at night and someone calling his name. Rei thinks its Chiho but I’m not sure if it is or not. For one, she’s been in jail since her arrest. Also, the arm connected to this hand is wearing a sweater, which we’ve never seen her been able to do before.
When I finished this volume for the first time, I felt angry. There’s so many unanswered questions that are still there. The DVD from volume one? Hasn’t been mentioned since. This should be Chiho’s story but it feels more like Rei’s and I don’t know why. Nor do I like Rei all that much. He’s not growing or changing, I feel. And I am beyond angry about Chiho being charged and sentenced to death. She saved lives and this the thanks the Japanese government gives her? Not to mention that if they go through with it, it mean the loss of their only chance of being saved from E.T.E.’s machinations. I know that they won’t kill her, there’s clearly more to come with her, but I just can’t help but be upset. It defies all logic. Ahem. Anyway. I hope that this volume is the lowest point we reach in this series, and it’s all uphill from here, but I now have reservations about what is going to happen now. I guess we’ll find out together.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Suggestion: If you’ve been reading this series up to this point, keep going. I’m hoping it gets better.
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