A volume that's just marginally less silly and a little more story-focused than previous ones have been as it adapts Octo Expansion, one of the more story heavy parts of Splatoon as a game series.
Of course, when I say "marginally" I really do mean marginally, because silly gags involving things like jars of pickled plums, impromptu rice ball creation and the endless pulling down of different characters trousers still abound, as you'd expect after reading books one to six, but new character Eight is played surprisingly pretty straight throughout and serves as a good foil to Goggles' usual ridiculous antics. And rest assured there are plenty of those antics! Ending up on top of a Baller and accidentally ending up airborne during some mysterious challenges were some highlights there.
The gradual reuniting of Team Blue throughout the volume provides a good structure to the story, too, and gives us a chapter where Headphones really gets to shine, as well, which was very nice as we get to see her in her own light rather than just as the backup to Specs as a kind of secondary straightwoman to the cast. Maybe we'll get some more from Bobble Hat in the future, as well! She does get one of the funniest lines in the whole book in "Here comes Specs! There goes Specs!" when he first appears and promptly vanishes again, at least.
The bonus chapter at the end with all the different specs is just funny, as well, on top of the genuinely interesting story of the Deepsea Metro, so there's plenty to enjoy here for anyone who liked the previous volumes. Maybe a little more than in those ones, even!