Content Warning: Nudity (duh at this point), suicide, demonic imagery, and exposition dumping.
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done anything with this series (much less this blog) and since this series is going to be coming to a close this year, at least for the official translation, I thought I’d catch up. Let’s get started!
This volume begins with a bit of a slow opening, with some panels showing how Chiho and Rei are dealing with the fallout of their break up. Rei seems listless, but Chiho is working hard and trying to get acting roles. This culminates to a fake out. We think that Rei and Chiho, who have been crying, are about to experience a happy reunion, but it’s not him in her apartment, it’s the Future Weirdos.
After a bit of confusion, and a Doremon reference, we get an exposition dump about the Future Weirdos and what’s actually going on. You see, our Weirdos (who are a military unit) have come back in time from 2135, where the human population has dropped to 85 million, due a war with a pair of AIs. Created in 2019 by your favorite Evil Empire, Google, Plato and Socrates have loaded themselves on to a satellite and have built a super satellite from space junk. In the future, after studying humanity, these AIs will end up trying to destroy humanity, and so our Future Weirdos have come back to stop them. This explains the Terminator references in the earlier volumes.
Moving on a bit, we have the Future Weirdos teaching Chiho how to fly and do energy blasts. It also looks like one of the Future Weirdos is falling in love with Chiho… Poor slob.
Meanwhile, we have some cuts to Rei and some of the stuff that’s going on. The birds start falling out of the sky as Satan approaches. In addition, suicides are increasing the closer Satan gets to Tokyo. While Rei’s friends are fleeing Tokyo, his dad is committed to seeing how all this plays out. People are also starting to feel sick, too, including Chiho. But it’s not because of Satan that Chiho is feeling unwell. It’s because she’s pregnant. Yeah. That broken condom in the last volume has come full circle. We’ll be circling back to this in a minute, but first, I want to talk about something that happens before that. When Chiho gets home, before she takes the test, she catches two of the Future Weirdos watching some of her adult films. Getting embarrassed, she turns it off, but we linger on these two. From what they say, mating isn’t something that’s done in the future, and is even damaging. However, humans being humans, this leads the two of them to experiment a bit, and they end up leaning in for a kiss. I find this whole thing fascinating, as they’ve been showing how sex focused our modern society is. I’m not saying it is, but the lens of the series thus far as been sexual in nature. Look at our main characters: An AV actress and her number one fan, who’s a teenage boy. We’ve seen Chiho naked and performing sexual acts since the very first chapter. Rei and Chiho have had sex several times on panel. And let’s not forget that Chiho is naked when she grows larger and fights. I just thought this whole contrast to be interesting.
Anyway, moving on, we have Chiho telling Rei what’s going on. There’s a tearful reunion, with Rei being very happy to be a father, but also not wanting to be a leech on Chiho. It’s one of those things that’s going to be hard to figure out in the future, but we must wonder, do these two even have a real future?
There’s a funny little thing involving Mochi, Chiho’s dog in case you’ve forgotten. While the Future Weirdos are discussing what happened to the Captain’s (the guy who died and gave Chiho the wrist thing way back at the beginning) “time orb,” Mochi finds it and accidentally used it. Chiho is upset, as that dog has been her close companion during all of this, but the Weirdo’s reason that he’s only gone a few days into the future, so he’ll be okay. This is probably one of the weirdest things in this volume so far, but I do wonder how it’ll be important in the future. Because I have a hunch it will be.
Now, it’s time to bring this volume to a close with the arrival of Satan. As Satan gets closer to Tokyo, we start following Rei as he travels… Somewhere. I’m assuming he’s on the way to school. He starts seeing people throwing up. And then people jumping in front of subway cars. He makes his way to the streets, only to have people landing on the ground around him, having thrown themselves off of the tops of the surrounding buildings. Chiho calls him and he admits that he’s feeling suicidal, and can’t stop himself. Meanwhile, we see Rei’s mom about to slit her wrists, but his father comes home right in the nick of time and stops her. When it comes to Chiho’s side of the story, she hasn’t told the Future Weirdos about her being pregnant and one of them overhears her discussing it with her assistant or manager, they don’t say who this guy is. Anyway, when the Weirdos find out about her condition, they say they’ll handle Satan by themselves. When Chiho asks if they’ll be okay, they don’t really answer. When pressed, the one that’s kind of developing a crush on her assures her that they’ll be fine. Chiho doesn’t seem to believe him but doesn’t try to go with them. This is when she calls Rei and then she takes off to help save the world.
The volume ends with the Weirdos facing off against Satan, seen in full for the first time…
This volume is really where we see that the creator realized that he had to “wrap it up” so to speak and get on with the ending. Several questions we’ve had since the beginning of the series are answered in just a few pages. We’re also seeing things that could have been left for a while, such as Chiho’s pregnancy, being brought up so they can also be resolved, too. All in all, I rather enjoyed finally getting to know what is actually going on and getting things moving. Even if this feels rushed…
Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: Pick it up,
we’re almost done.
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