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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “When the prize is a Ring of the Dead, murder is a small price to pay! Stealing the comatose body of Wolfina’s brother (and the ring buried inside it), Balmunk the mystic lures our heroes to his deadly circus, where fire-breathers and knife-throwers await them. Has master swordsman Gamma Akutabi finally met a foe worthy of his skills? As the circus train races across the desert, Wolfina struggles to free her brother’s body before it becomes an ingredient in Balmunk’s recipe for immortality. But the ride isn’t over yet . . .” And the fighting commences. Oh well. I’m not much of a fan of manga that spend endless chapters on physical battles between the forces of good and evil. Rarely they can be compelling, such as in Akira or Vagabond, but often it boils down to muscle-flexing, or “magic-flexing,” as is the case for Balmunk’s horde of circus freaks. These foes are rather interesting, such as the knife-thrower whose bullseye targets come alive and position themselves behind the victims so he can score a bullseye and a kill in the same throw. Balmunk also demonstrates some nifty appendage rearrangement and his special summoned form is monstrous in its simplicity. But designs aside, it’s still just fighting in place of characterization and quest progression. What’s worse, the last fifty or so pages are once again given over a previously unpublished early work of Kubo’s, this time called Rune Master Urara, which seems to have desperately wanted to become the big franchise that Bleach, Kubo’s most popular series, has become. It’s a forgettable throwaway introduction to a series that had never manifested. What happened to the Zombie Powder and the Rings of the Dead – those artifacts that threaten the fate of the world, not to mention their very users? The life of Emilio, who has a ring stuck inside him, is at stake, but the rings don’t play a central role anymore. I suppose a four-volume series that doesn’t have much to build to doesn’t feel compelled to climax spectacularly. Comment on this review of Zombie Powder v3 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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