Review by Ian Keogh

Tomozo’s adaptation of Gonzo’s 2005 action anime concludes here. Kissed by Kagura in a fetish club, photographer Tatsumi has since had the ability to kill people by pointing his camera at them and pressing the button. It wasn’t looking good for Tatsumi as Speed Grapher 2 ended. He’s injured, and a couple of people wanting to kill him have tracked him down and they also have powers.

Once Tomozo’s extricated himself from the opening situation he’s given a tip as to who might be behind his troubles, but getting to them means dealing with a succession of monsters along the way.

Speed Grapher has always been about the action, and there’s plenty of it. As has been the case for previous volumes, Tomozo’s art accentuates a fast paced story, but as per the sample page, it can be difficult to figure out what’s going on. There’s a level of self-awareness about this as Tomozo will often have the characters comment on what’s happening as it occurs. It leads to what’s in effect superhero action where the dialogue does the heavy lifting rather than the art, and that’s unsatisfying.

Much monologuing is required for the villain to reveal his master plan, and the way they’ve been going about things considering the resources they have is eccentric to say the least. There’s a lot more justification to scenes of Tomozo arguing with another character about his potential love life amid increasing threats. That’s as good an example as any of Gonzo’s offbeat methods in the original film, and it’s very much in pastiche mode with some knowingly ridiculous over the top dialogue. Is there a happy ending? You’ll have to find out.

After the main story there’s a selection of whimsical short chapters fleshing out the main characters. They’re funny and some are surprisingly touching.

Over the three volumes Speed Grapher isn’t intended to be anything more than non-stop action fluff, and by that criteria it succeeds.