The games continue, as Minato is pulled into Kuromatsu’s shady world even further. When tasked with a job that’s far beyond the pale, Minato learns exactly how much honour there is among thieves. Elsewhere, Kuromatsu continues to make for a fairly useless young boy.
Kuromatsu’s reputation as a hitman has landed Minato in a real jam, as he’s sent after a crime boss with his new friend’s life being obliquely threatened if he doesn’t come through. Most of this plays out as a series of double, triple, and so forth, crosses as the weed of crime bears bitter fruit.
Meanwhile, Kuromatsu couldn’t be any more obvious that he isn’t actually Minato by this point, which rather saps the energy out of him running around. For somebody who seemed so clever, not putting a lock on a smartphone makes him seem like a total dumbass.
Coupled with his personality changes and oddities like, say, the sudden appearance of a television in a house of dirt poor kids, you really have to wonder how he’s getting away with any of this. Obviously the impossible nature of the story is one thing, but his personality change would make Phineas Gage think it was a bit much.
My problem with this story consequently comes from the niggling feeling that I should be enjoying it more. I brought up Monster last time and that was because that’s a masterpiece of suspense and I’d settle for this being half as strong in that department.
It’s also rather underwhelming that Minato manages at least one daring escape because somebody took something he said the wrong way. Dumb luck is a lot less fun than careful planning or clever thinking, so it robs that section of some oomph.
In the grand scheme of things, I think this is primarily Minato’s story, but there’s a lot that they could be doing with Kuromatsu as well that they’re just not. Minato is freaking out that he’s gradually transmuting into Kuromatsu given his occasional burst of skills he doesn’t have.
So where’s the opposite effect, where Kuromatsu is learning about family and compassion by being stuck in Minato? The likely answer is that they’re probably saving that for the ending, but it’s very one-sided right now. Neither section is especially strong, so there’s a balance there, but I’d much rather that both were excellent.
It’s not a bad story, there are just a lot of problems that need addressing to make it great. Those ridiculously over-the-top thugs led by the chainsaw guy are so nonsensical that they feel like they’re from a different story altogether, rather than the quiet anxiety the first volume had.
Maybe my expectations are different from the author’s, but this just doesn’t hit me the way I feel like it should. In the moment it’s fine, but it holds up to exactly no scrutiny and the second you train your eye on the narrative it begins to crumble.
3.5 stars - and a lean 3.5 at that; like I said, I enjoy this in the moment, but there’s a lot it’s not doing that it probably should be if it wants to really stand out in this genre.