Review by Frank Plowright

Michaël Sanlaville surprises by starting this volume a year after Helena Silver sensationally quit the Sioule Academy with Soni Daktari, as seen when Banana Sioule 2 ended. They’ve put together their own team, and the opening 28 pages showcase their skills. As before, during game sequences, no matter how dynamic the art is, it’s difficult to become involved in a game with so few rules.

Helena’s come a long way since being introduced as a naturally talented amateur with just a passing knowledge of sioule, but the cost has been a schism with her father, who’s now disappeared. She’s also been made a target by retired legend X, and earns herself a new enemy when she rightfully dishes out what’s coming to a groping billionaire.

Despite X taking the volume title, Banana Sioule remains very much about Helena, who’s central to everything that happens. Her public profile is now immense, with the downsides that brings from trolling to deepfakes, and she finds a dose of that world profoundly upsetting.

Sanlaville’s art continues to astound. He delivers the action in manga style with plenty of speed lines, but it’s the quieter scenes that remain in the head with their elegant beauty. There’s a natural flair to the way Helena is drawn, but it extends to everyone else not involved in playing sioule.

One big plot thread is tied up in this volume, and it’s likely Sanlaville will have wrong-footed many readers about what they thought was going to happen. Always avoiding the predictable cliché is a good idea and it leaves a big mystery heading forward. Unfortunately, as yet there is no fourth volume to be translated, so readers will have to wait some while to know what happens to Helena next.