#the coffee klatsch finally decided to do something

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga 138 Review: Into the Abyss

allright allright allright... I barely know where to start with this one.  Folks I need you to go away and brew some drink of your choice, pick up a snack, and seat yourselves comfortably.  I can’t guarantee that this is going to be short!

We’re not in Kansas any more.  If it wasn’t clear earlier that the manga is taking a different route to the webcomic, I hope this is your Wake Up Call!

What happened?  In short, Man’s search for God may have a definitive conclusion.   Or not.  I’m not sure if ‘Together We’re Stronger’ was meant quite this way.   The power of nakedness will astound you.  And  when you think of terraforming, I’m sure that what’s in the chapter isn’t what comes to mind.

The Story

1. Flipping Fights

I need to remember not to tell jokes about what might happen next in OPM; they have a better track record of coming true than the more serious analyses.  I was saying earlier that with the way Orochi has survived things that should have killed him and indeed adapted to and overcome them, I was worried that he’d flip the tables on the cyborgs.  And if so I hoped they’d be in one piece, just not welded together. 

See? I should have kept my mouth shut.  

One moment, Drive Knight and Genos are not just burning Psykos-Orochi, but they’re cutting Orochi’s body open too.  He looks to be on the point of bursting into a million pieces, and then incredibly, the next, he’s blasting *them* instead.  The blast broke Drive Knight’s durable Bishop armor apart -- but at least he had that to take the punishment.  Genos, being trapped under Drive Knight, took the full brunt of the blast.  As they go plunging towards the ground, Psykos taunts them, saying ‘Game Over.’

She goes to attack Tatsumaki who is still fully engaged in keeping the barrier up, but what’s this?

2.  Yeet Master TankTop

Now we get to see why Atomic was so happy to see Tank Top Master come to battle.  He throws multiple projectiles at Psykos-Orochi, forcing them to dodge around, which Psykos starts to mock until...

...what now?

Yes, the cyborgs are back!  With Genos providing the power and Drive Knight the parts, they’ve fused to form a tactical combination known as Promoted Rook.  They stop the monster in its tracks and Tank Top Master launches his biggest missile to date, what looks to be six stories of an apartment block.  As it reaches the monster, its top is sliced apart to reveal its splendid little trio of gifts, namely Atomic Samurai,  Puri Puri Prisoner and Superalloy Darkshine.

Adversity sharpens ability and this is incredibly on display here.  Black Sperm taught Atomic Samurai the futility of a thousand little cuts when one good cut is what’s needed.  There’s a fantastic montage of Atomic adjusting his technique kinesthetically, without a single word being said to deliver one god almighty slash that cuts clean through the monster.    Puri Puri Prisoner combines what he learned from both Baquma and Meltzegards to unleash a flying barrage of blows, the Dark Vibration Angel Rush, that shatters the monster like a rat caught in a mangle.  Superalloy Darkshine uses himself as a missile to launch the mess of a monster downwards with a kick Garou would have nodded approvingly at.

Psykos, like all good cartoon villains, bails at this point to leave her lieutenant to face the music, which isn’t long in coming as Silverfang and Bomb jump up to pound Orochi into an immobile mound of mochi not even able to squirm along the ground.  Can things get any worse for this monster?

3.  Oh yes they can!

Terraforming, but not as NASA would approve of.  Now that the monster is subdued, Tatsumaki no longer needs to expend all her energy keeping the barrier up and she makes good on her promise of ripping the Subterranean city from the earth.   OMG.

But that’s not enough.  Oh no, no mercy for miserable monsters making malevolent plans on her sister.  She sharpens the tip of the base, heats it white hot and looks set to launch it back to pass clean through of what once had been Monster King Orochi,  looking even scarier and more feral than we’d ever seen her...

4. ...aaand cut!

We cut to what’s going on with Saitama and crew.  They’re just about done freeing Flashy Flash from whatever has his arm trapped and Flash complains of something heavy pinning his arm down.   Saitama reaches in and retrieves a cube.  A suspiciously familiar cube, being as we saw one just like that in Blast’s hands in last chapter’s flashback.  Saitama tosses the cube, which breaks into the ground as if it’s a ridiculously dense, hard substance, an impression substantiated by Manako trying and failing to budge it in the slightest.

Flashy Flash withdraws his arm to finally get his precious Instakill back... Oh.  It appears that Tatsumaki lifting the city has sheared the sword off just about the hilt.  Bummer.  Flashy Flash’s look of dismay is one for the ages, as is Saitama’s disgruntlement at having dug so carefully for this miserable knife.

Manako sees her chance to make a break for it (smart monster, never trust a hero to not be a hero) and starts to clamber through the hole.   And beholds a sight that literally makes no sense.   None whatsoever.

The hole is full of stars.  And in the vastness of a space far more commodious than the one created by Tatsumaki lifting the base is the curled up figure of a truly gargantuan man.   Or man-like object at any rate.

Which is where we leave off. 

Meta

Berserker buttons

It seems that many characters have a berserker button, that one thing that just should *not* be said to them or else.  For Saitama, it’s someone alluding to his baldness.  For Garou, it’s being called insignificant.  For Genos it looks like being dismissed will JUST NOT DO.  Psykos taunting him was a big mistake on her part.

The logical thing for him to do would have been to drop to the ground, stay out of the battle and save his damaged core, but when Drive Knight offered the chance to get back in the fight, logic (and survival) be damned, he grabbed the opportunity.    He knows he’s invited his own death, but the ‘heh-heh you die’ smile he gives Psykos tells you everything you need to know -- also he never smiles or quips in a fight. Until now.

...right now, I really, really want you dead

We know that it’s incredibly unlikely that Genos will die -- unless the manga is going to a reaally different place -- but his decision to press on is going to have serious repercussions both immediate and longer-term, particularly if/when the brewing cyborg war breaks out.

Mechanations

Speaking of reprecussions, one of the things we’ve now learned about Drive Knight is just how little energy his core is able to store.  For him, two days’ regular operation is a long time.  His regular transformations run him out of power in minutes.  It’s a stark contrast to how Genos has no meaningful idea of range anxiety when Drive Knight has to weigh up the cost of every action carefully.   So... these promoted forms Drive Knight has available won’t be actually useable to him without a supplementary power source, and judging from how handy-dandy a mask was, a pilot.   Which Genos has obligingly provided.  I guess when Drive Knight said it was a gamble it wasn’t the technology but rather his pitch that was at stake.   What are the chances that Drive Knight isn’t going to make further plans on Genos’s head or see if he can finagle that beautiful, hyper-powerful core somehow?   No idea, but I’d not bet against him.

Btw, Drive Knight has achieved his objective of snagging a bit of Orochi.  What’s he going to do now?  We wait to see!

All heroes are Tank Toppers

I started a meta with that title, but more and more it seems to me that every hero has some ‘thing’ that they invest emotionally in.  This thing may be the silliest thing but nevertheless it’s something they can draw power from.  We laugh at Tank Top Master because for him, it’s an item of clothing, but I just think he’s more honest about it than most.

McGuffin of Doom

That cube... what the hell is that thing?  And more importantly for the moment, what is it doing in a mile-deep hole in what used to be the Subterranean city?  It’s making me worry about what has happened to Blast since we last heard from him two years ago.  If it had been continuously in Blast’s possession since, then it’d imply that he’d visited the city.  Why? Was he chasing one of Elder Centipede’s known whereabouts?  In which case, what has become of him?  Has he been killed?  Is he...Orochi?   I really hope not.  And if so, then I hope that the other heroes never find out.   Has Sicchi been bluffing to the rest of the Hero Association and the world that Blast is being held in reserve when the truth is no one knows what has become of him?   Worrisome.

Finally we come to the mysteriousest mystery of them all: WHAT THE HELL IS ON THE OTHER SIDE?  There does seem to be a temporal relationship between Saitama handling that cube and the appearance of space and a being where neither should be, but whether that’s the case we do not know.  Maybe it’s not important.  What matters is a) what is that thing?  b) is it alive?  c) has it noticed the pinhole of light shining on its head?  and d) is it friendly?

I wouldn’t bet on the answer to d) being yes.

Hoo hoo, we’ve known this planet was weird.  It’s about to get a lot weirder.

Spotted

Sharp-eyed fans have of course been spotting some very nice Easter eggs.

First, it looks like the dream ONE sketched Genos as having many years ago has come true, albeit at a terrible price.

Second, Volume 23′s art featured the cube sitting on what looked like the Ark of the Covenant.  What I’ve not seen anyone mention yet is that there was a time when it was captured and put in a room with other idols.  All those idols were found fallen on the ground the next day.   Oddly like the other idols shown in this picture... why? Is  it an allusion to there being a ‘true’ god of this place?  If so, what’s it got to do with the cube?

btw, I do get a kick out of Japanese authors playing fast and loose with Western religion the way westerners play fast and loose with Eastern ones. Turnaround is fair play. :D

#manga #review #meta #all hell broke loose today #God? #Saitama #the coffee klatsch finally decided to do something #Drive Knight #Genos #Orochi #that will to survive incredible #OPM #One Punch Man