Welcome to the world of Little Battlers eXperience! In the near future, a boy named Van Yamano owns Achilles, a miniaturized robot that battles on command! But Achilles is no ordinary LBX. Hidden inside him is secret data that Van must keep out of the hands of evil at all costs!
To save his father, who is being held hostage by the nefarious Cillian Kaido, Van must win the Artemis Tournament to secure the main prize—the only thing Cillian will take in trade for his dad. But his next opponent in the arena is a fierce one...Cillian’s grandson, Justin Kaido!
Whereas the second volume focused too much on action for my tastes, this volume balances the action with drama, flashbacks, and bonding time between friends and allies. This volume marks the end of the first arc, so Hideaki Fujii had several loose ends to tie up before the second arc could begin. While this volume is good in a general sense, the fast pace and Hideaki Fujii's choice in how he tied up the volume left me lacking any sense of completion. The plot holes, unexplained upgrades, and other events felt poorly planned, yet I still recommend this series to anyone who is a fan of mecha series.
Fun series to read, the action shots are incredibly good.
I decided to give the series a re-read after playing Custom Robo on N64, I have LBX sitting around on 3DS and Level-5 is developing a new mecha fighting game. I should give it a quick play and sell the cart off, it’s worth more than I purchased it for.