Review by Ian Keogh

Hyaku is a human with a large quantity of mechanical parts. Her original limbs were appropriated and shared out among different kreaches, robots with human level intelligence. She’s on a mission to restore her body parts within the Soviet-style state of Hachikucha, which has manifested after a civil war.

Since the events of Vol. 1, Hyaku seems to have bonded with motormouth thief Dodo, and Atsushi Kaneko opens this volume with a discussion between them as Hyaku is surprised at the limitations of her new eyes when compared with her previous artificial equivalents. The theme of how desirable mechanical parts might be is picked up later, as we’re privy to a revealing conversation between Hachikucha’s mayor and the investigator looking into the murder of several prominent kreaches.

As was the case in Vol. 1, the impact of Kaneko’s art is an instant jolt. When applied to comic art the term ‘cinematic’ usually refers to a widescreen action sweep, which is certainly present in quantity, but there are other forms of cinema, and Kaneko channels these as well. An extended sequence highlighting hypocrisy is set at an exclusive venue, drawn by Kaneko with the seedy allure David Lynch’s films can supply. The Lynch approach is verified by the inclusion of unsettling people filtered in throughout. In other places the detail of Akira and the SF sweep of Star Wars are evident, but just as he’s twisted a plot borrowed from Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo, Kaneko blends the artistic influences into something new and different.

A passing reference to religious charitable works broadens throughout, eventually leading into consideration of what constitutes a soul. That looks to be a topic kept in hand for Vol. 3, but there’s plenty to digest here. With his trilogy’s middle volume Kaneko expands the viewpoints beyond Hyaku. Her appearance in Hachikucha has revealed a fragile house of cards beneath what seemed a stable dictatorship, and while the façade is maintained, the structure is beginning to crumble. It’s efficiently set-up and the execution is polished monochrome, so Search and Destroy continues to fascinate.