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   have the concept of a plan to revive him, even though it might also revive   
   Sensei, the amoral immortal behind the School on Guicheng Island.  We get   
   caught up on some of the other shuffling of alliances that have occurred in   
   the last few years, and then it's time to beat the city like a pinata until a   
   solution falls out.  I mean, play to your strengths, right?  This volume's   
   iteration of the eponymous tank chair is basically a cryostorage unit holding   
   Nagi, which can configure into various combat-useful shapes to keep him close   
   while ultraviolence commences (at one point, it turns into a giant hammer,   
   for instance).  This keeps up with the running theme that being around   
   "murderous intent" is helpful to Nagi's recovery, it's just Yuuri that's   
   wearing the mask (well, a slightly cuter version) this time.  Of course,   
   since Wisdom is almost everyone's dump stat, violence tends to be the   
   solution to most problems as well as the cause of most problems.  Nagi might   
   be the most sensible person in this volume, and only by virtue of being in a   
   coma and therefore unable to make bad choices.  Speaking of choices, I   
   definitely get the feeling that Manabu Yashiro originally planned on just a   
   three volume series, but then decided to use the success of the series to   
   keep going rather than write something else (or even write a series set in   
   this world but not involving Nagi).  Still, while one of the characters even   
   lampshades the "you're undoing the resolution of the story" thing, it's   
   working so far.  I think part of why it does is that, unlike when Chainsaw   
   Man shifted to focus on a new character, Nagi never really was the main   
   character...the series has always been about the people around him, like   
   Shizuka or Doc Radio, and Yuuri's digression didn't drag on past its welcome,   
   since Shizuka showed up at the end of vol 4.  So, the transition was pulled   
   off.  Recommended if you don't mind the occasional splattergore in black and   
   white or the very casual attitude towards murdering.  These are protagonists,   
   not good people.  $13.99/$18.99Cn, rated Teen 16+ for massive amounts of   
   violence, including cannibalism.   
      
        Kaiju No. 8 vol 14: Viz Media - Other than a few fairly short flashbacks   
   (mostly training-related), this is a volume-long slugfest between Kafka and   
   the enigmatic Number 9, with occasional help from other members of the   
   anti-Kaiju forces (notably Kafka's childhood friend captain Mina Ashiro).   
   This is probably the climax of the whole arc, but enough mysteries have been   
   laid out along the way that they could still really destroy Number 9 for good   
   (9 doesn't seem to think that's gonna happen, though) and still have grist   
   for the story, showing a bit more evidence of long-term plotting on Naoya   
   Matsumoto's part than in the two manga preceding this review.  Matsumoto is   
   also pretty good at keeping the action clear despite being high-energy, with   
   clean linework and characters who are mostly distinct enough to avoid   
   problems of the "who's that?" variety (not immune to it, but the characters   
   who suffer from some of the samey appearances don't draw focus this volume).   
   Even if there's more fighting to come after the volume-ending Big Damn   
   Attack, this was definitely the emotional climax of the "Kafka and Mina   
   reunite after years apart" plotline.  I'd say strongly recommended for the   
   emotional payoff, but you really need to have read the series so far in order   
   for that to really impact.  It's probably a decent read if you actually start   
   here, especially if you just like kaiju big battles, so generally   
   recommended.  $11.99/$15.99Cn/#8.99Cn, rated Teen (fantasy violence)   
      
        After God vol 6: Viz Media - More worldbuilding, but between the highly   
   skewed perspectives of the various gods and the chance at least one of the   
   people involved in the conversation was bluffing, it's hard to tell what's   
   truth and what's just someone's hallucination.  With the gods, hallucinations   
   can become reality, notably in Volov's house where much of last volume and   
   almost all of this volume take place.  A central theme of this volume is,   
   "Can you become better?  And what does better even mean?"  The gods have   
   become much more sympathetic, if still alien, characters during the time at   
   Volov's place.  They may not think like humans do, but they still feel pain   
   and want the pain to go away.  They still make bad choices out of love or   
   fear, and they are as much products of human influence as they are utterly   
   inhuman.  Alura, the god in Waka's body, has desires that are insane, but   
   they're comprehensibly insane.  She wants Waka to go back to being useful for   
   achieving those designs, but as Waka has become a better person since moving   
   in with the IPO taskforce, she's become worse as a vessel for Alura.  Obikawa   
   is still mercurial and sees life far differently than we do, but he tries to   
   be compassionate to a friend, even if he's angry at the choices his friend   
   made.  Tokinaga, the taskforce's veterinarian and the man who brought Waka   
   in, may or may not be more than he lets on...is he bluffing to try to save   
   Waka, or has be been keeping secrets the whole time because he knows how to   
   destroy the gods but would rather find common ground between humanity and   
   IPOs (who by their own accounting, are over 700 million years old, predating   
   the Cambrian Explosion) and share the world rather than one species trying to   
   exterminate the other.  What started as a monster-fighting story with comic   
   relief from cats has definitely taken a turn into a lot of philosophical   
   struggling (with comic relief from cats).  Recommended.  $14.99/$19.99Cn/   
   #10.99UK, rated Older Teen (body horror, gore, vore)   
      
        Cat + Gamer vol 8 (of 8): Dark Horse Manga - Now for a break from all   
   the ultraviolence and deep questions of life, but keep the cats.  I was   
   wondering whether running two books at once would cause problems for creator   
   Wataru Nadatani, but it turns out that Cat + Crazy is more of a followup than   
   a simultaneous thing, as the story of Riko and her cats wraps up this volume   
   (they're fine, it's more of a "and that's how I got where I am now" ending).   
   It does make sense for this to not go on too long, since there's only so much   
   for Riko to learn about having cats, and the focus really has been more on   
   the learning than on the hijinks that result.  Eventually either Riko would   
   have to seem excessively clueless, or the focus would drift to general   
   "adorable cat does cat thing" stuff...while that certainly has its place, it   
   would represent a change in the series that might not have legs.  So,   
   instead, at about the 2/3 mark a plot complication comes up: the company is   
   moving to a different city, too far for a practical commute, but finding   
   housing that permits cats is hard.  The reason she hadn't been fretting about   
   it the entire series is plausible as well...back when it was announced months   
   before volume 1, she just figured she'd take company housing (which doesn't   
   allow pets) and go on with life, so she put it from her mind.  Now she has a   
   couple months to deal with a looming problem, and it's time for her to decide   
   what her life needs to be.  A nice bit of "normal stakes" drama to close out   
   on, and to inspire and justify the choice she makes.  So, on to Cat + Crazy,   
   where the stakes promise to be a bit weirder.  Recommended.  $11.99/$15.99Cn,   
   all ages.   
      
        Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear vol 12: Seven Seas Entertainment - Almost no   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)