The story becomes more focused as the miniature fugitives make it out of the quarantined neighborhood and find a place of refuge to take a breath, make plans, and learn more about the mysterious Alice. But Japan's military is still in pursuit, intent on covering up all the paranormal events.
Gore fans may be disappointed by the lack of violence this time. Unfortunately, the art takes a strong left turn into fan service territory with an extended sequence of nudity in the middle of the book involving two girls who we are told are 17 and 12 (!!??). Oh, manga, why???
Just as a warning for those that are sensitive to nudity in manga this book does have a bath scene with depictions of breasts and backsides (along with an assortment of humanly curves) but thanks to convenient censoring no realistic depictions of sexual organs are revealed.
Trying to reach out to her friend with a now insanely large flip phone (thanks to everyone's shrunken stature) Yukko tries to get into contact with her boyfriend Takuya but he is instead contacted by SDF who have been trying to gather up the pint sized people to cover up Alice's involvement (by my guess) and to avoid a panic created by the knowledge of humans with special powers among them (kind of like the X-men but without a Cerebro or psychic professor to gather them up.) However their cover up while offering excuses to the masses through media is not so great to the point of even being mentioned in the book they are doing their best as we see a little into what is going on in their operations now while we see Alice, Yukko, and Gendo try to avoid detection even as they seek allies who might be able to help. In this book the pairing up of people changes as the SDF moves in and shakes things up for everyone even showing us a new person with powers recently unknown to us readers. :)
I almost forgot I had this tucked away on my shelf... I really enjoyed the art in volume one, but have been disappointed since. Super powered beings awakening in the world and secretive government agencies trying to control and suppress that information. Gone is the survival horror origins, and now we’re in well-trod territory. As for the whole secrecy aspect, for anyone who has ever worked for a government agency, the idea that an event as large as what we encountered in the first volume, could be so tightly sealed is preposterous. Information leaks happen. This is particularly true in a representative democracy with a free press. So my suspension of disbelief is struggling. Unfortunately, I preordered through volume five, so I’m in for a few more.
....things are getting curiouser and curiouser. Okay they are actually starting to explain some things but it is still fun reading where it is going knowing there will be more twists.
Yukko, Alice, and Genda-San finally make their way to Yukko’s school and meet up with her boyfriend, who cannot stomach what’s happened to them. He takes them home and hides them from the searching eyes of cats and rats, under the control of the ominous Iosef. While the group recuperates, they learn more about how they became shrunken in the first place. Meanwhile, the military is continuing to hunt down Alice and goes after Yukko, her boyfriend, and many others. While this series has been really good at revealing information in a slow, intriguing manner, this volume has slowed to a crawl. We get some information from the military in what has happened and why they're so intent on re-capturing Alice, but there's a lengthy scene of the characters bathing that seems unnecessary. Yes, they've been crawling around in sewers and whatever else for several days, but the story reveals happening in the bathtub could have happened anywhere. Alice's indicates that she is 12 years old, while Yukko is 17, and both are exposed from the waste up for most of the chapter. Genda-san is also naked, as public bathing is common in Japan, but his bits are covered with conveniently placed bathroom items. Overall, this was a low-point for a series that was rather enjoyable and mysterious.
Seven Seas rates this for older teen. There isn't as much gore/blood/violence in this volume, but the nudity gives this a higher age rating.
So glad that Yukko’s boyfriend found her and took her home so she’s safe. It’s crazy how all of a sudden Alice can turn her powers on and off. I hope she reconnects with Yukko and that weird lady leaves Yukko’s house. We can’t trust her.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.