Buso Renkin, Vol. 8

武装錬金 [Buso Renkin] #8

by Nobuhiro Watsuki

High school students heroic act turns into epic human vs. monster sword fight!

Buso Renkin is the story of teenager Kazuki Muto, who dies trying to save a girl who was being attacked by an eerie monster. The next morning, however, Kazuki is left wondering whether it was all a dream. Lo and behold, the girl, the monster, and his death are all real! The girl, Tokiko Tsumura, was actually trying to slay the homunculus (a beast that can take the form of humans, and whose main source of food is people), but Kazuki got in her way. To revive Kazuki, Tokiko replaces his heart with a "kakugane," an alchemic device that allows him to summon a lance with which to fight the monsters. It turns out that Tokiko is a member of the Alchemist Warriors, an organization sworn to protect the world from the diabolical creatures. Soon, Kazuki joins Tokiko in her quest to terminate the sinister being that creates and controls the homunculus.

Kazuki and Tokiko are on the run from the hunters of the Alchemist Warriors! Tokiko, now reduced to the size of a doll, fights alongside Kazuki and Gouta as they take on three of the hunters and Captain Bravo himself, whose past is finally revealed! As Kazuki and Captain Bravo's battle draws to a close, another Warrior Chief appears, as well as a man calling himself the Great Warrior Chief. What will it mean for Kazuki and his friends?

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Shonen, Action, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels

200 pages, Paperback

First published July 4, 2005

About the author

Watsuki Nobuhiro (和月伸宏) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for his samurai-themed series Rurouni Kenshin. He once worked as an assistant for his favorite author Takeshi Obata.

Reviews

[melhara]

This review is part of a personal challenge to: 1) read more French books; 2) improve my French; 3) read all the French manga novels from my mom's manga collection. Seeing as I read this book in French, the actual review will be in French (duh).
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Cette critique fait partie d'un défi personnel: d’améliorer mon français!

Ceci s'agit du huitième volume de la série. J'ai bien aimé la bataille entre Le Papillon et Ikusabe (la solution pour la régénération d'Ikusabe était plutot géniale). Je pensais aussi que la bataille entre Tokiko et Maruyama et l'autre combat entre Gôta et Negoro étaient également très bien faites (mais je ne comprends pas comment Maruyama et Negoro sont encore en vie?). Cependant, j'ai aussi trouvé que les derniers chapitres de ce volume étaient un peu bizarres... pourquoi le capitaine Sakagushi Shôsei est-il intervenu? Nous le saurons peut-être dans le prochain volume ...

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Note moyenne de la série: 2.7/5
Critiques pour le reste de la série:
Tome 1 | Tome 2 | Tome 3 | Tome 4 | Tome 5 | Tome 6 | Tome 7 | Tome 8 | Tome 9 | Tome 10

[M.D. Williams]

This where the decline begins

I'm not going to say that Buso Renkin is a great series. I'm not even going to say it's good. This was kind of the beginning of the end for me. I enjoyed the Ideas. But this was pretty much just an action volume.

Gouta vs Ninja Sword guy, which was great. Watsuki has a great eye sometimes for more utility based fights.

Tokiko vs Bubble Guy Round 2. Boo. This was resolved by Tokiko turning into inch tall based on a miscalculation. She they rips out dudes stomach. Brutal. But kinda meh. Bubble guy could literally solve all our problems.

Kazuki vs Bravo Round 2. Though good, flashy and quite exciting. It didn't hold the same weight as the first one. I kind of knew where this would end and that kind of took away the narrative edge for me. I kind of felt like we could have done more. This was the big climax to the arc, and his sacrifice was done well. But it was inevitiably for nothing as the end the superior shows up and is like "Well, I guess we can use you to help us now....why we didn't do this before is anyone's best guess. It felt cheap and contrived.

Also, the inclusion of a superior this late in comparison to their only being two volumes left was kinda meh to me. In all seriousness, he wasn't ever even hinted at. Bravo's and Tokikos past wasn't explored more in depth here and it NEEDED to be. Overall, a lot of flubs. The beginning of the decline for sure.

Rating 6/10

[John]

OK, this series is battle manga, but the battles totally bore me. The author's comments are the most interesting part, and he actually says it's hard to draw interesting battle scenes. If characters fight for three days and three nights, how do you draw that in any reasonable way? So I have some sympathy for him, but I still don't like the manga.

The story is also pretty poor - the characters change their quest every volume or so, and nobody ever seems to be killed, only "defeated" in a pretty uninteresting way. Then some new opponent turns up, and you know they'll be defeated in a few panels of incomprehensible POWs and ZAPs and random explosions. Basically, I never know what's going to happen next except that Kazuki won't be defeated, and when things look bad he'll gain some new power that's even better than the last amazing power. I can't wait for the series to end.

[Shin Donghae]

Saya cukup menyukai pertarungan antara Papillon dan Ikusabe. Saya juga berpikir Tokiko vs Maruyama dan pertarungan lainnya antara Gôta vs Negoro juga dilakukan dengan sangat baik (tapi kenapa Maruyama dan Negoro masih hidup?). Namun, begitu banyak pertanyaan sementara ini sudah menuju akhir. Saya juga menemukan bab terakhir dari jilid ini agak aneh. Mengapa Sakagushi Shôsei campur tangan? Kita dapat mengetahuinya di volume berikutnya.

[Kurtis Burkhardt]

From the creator of Rurouni Kenshin, This series is definitely far from the greatness of that manga! The plot and art was all over the place, Great at times and hard to stay with it at times... 👌😁💕

[Alexis]

I still struggle to understand this story.

[Jeffrey]

It's hard to actually snap disbelief suspenders in a manga because so much is absurdly possible. Somehow, in this volume Nobuhiro Watsuki managed to do so. It's a shame, because some clever writing earlier in this issue had me close to awarding it four stars.