Review by Frank Plowright

The primary cast members have had rather a rollercoaster ride of it, what with secrets revealed and fallout inevitable, while readers have learned about relationships more complex than they may have seemed. There was so much emotional turmoil in Kamen Rider Kuuga 05 that the potty mouthed monster loosed on Tokyo barely got any time in the spotlight.

He reappeared right at the end, and for reasons unexplained then, Yusuke Godai is unable to transform into his battle suit. There’s a logical reason based on previous events, but will take some overcoming, and even worse for Godai is his enemies rapidly becoming aware of his situation, as per Hitotsu Yokoshima’s sample art.

Under Toshini Inoue adapting Shotaro Ishinomori’s TV show scripts it’s predictable that Godai will again be able to transform into Kuuga, but it’s about the only segment of what follows that is predictable. Much time is spent with a new character, the Gurongi have problems of their own, and the police are gradually closing the massive technological gap, with a new weapon available.

As ever, Yokoshima is an excellent artist whose storytelling sometimes fails to make the grade as it can be difficult to figure out what’s happening from panel to panel in some scenes. Otherwise the cast convey an emotional presence, the designs impress, and there’s a lot of work put into the individual panels.

There is an unfortunate element worth highlighting. As a group of young girls are idolising a teacher with a guitar the dialogue has one of them claiming she wants the teacher to kill her! What the hell?!!? Unfortunately it’s not a single occasion. There’s a bizarre justification after a murder has been witnessed, with another young girl almost ecstatic at the idea of being killed to further his art. It drops what had been a generally light action thriller with a couple of dark moments into altogether disturbing territory. Romanticising death is hardly a new fictional concept, but here it’s trivialising tragedy without justifiable context.

A cliffhanger ending leads into the next volume, but the troubling sequence is of concern.