*Not spell-checked so beware of typos*
*SPOILERS BELOW!*
Summary
Onboard the flying machine, Cou and the gang are approaching the national boarder of Nad Lezen. They’re still under the pursuit of the air force lead by Commander Houston. Bocca calls Cou to his side and whispers something in his ear that causes him to be taken aback. Unwillingly, Cou herds everyone to the back of the plane on Bocca’s instruction. Before heading to the back himself, Euschut stops him and reminds him of his promise to Ren.
Once in the rear compartment of the machine, Cisqua asks Cou why have they been relocated and Cou reveals Bocca’s plan of severing the plane in two to allow them to escape while Bocca himself acts as a decoy to lure away their pursuers.
Houston and his squad fires on the flying machine and manages to score a hit, but Bocca’s plan executes without a hitch and the rear compartment is ditched from the main body of the flying machine. As the gang falls, Cou purges the fuselage, exposing the true nature of their plummeting sarcophagus: a mini flying machine.
Having rid himself of some excess weight, Bocca gains the upper hand in manoeuvrability. He swerves behind one enemy fighter jet and puts it out of business. Anger by this sudden show of force, Houston faces off directly with Bocca in a game of chicken. As the two machines seemingly collide in the confrontation, readers are led to believe Bocca’s plane is downed.
Cou and company pray for the safety of Bocca and Euschut, but they are quickly spotted by the last remaining enemy fighter under the command of the female officer Coachner (コーチネル). Cisqua retaliates with her trademark missiles which, much to everyone’s surprise, rids them of their problem. Unfortunately, they are also out of fuel and the mini flyer resumes its uncontrolled descent towards the surface. The crew exits the wreckage miraculously unscathed to find themselves before the grand causeway that bridges the continent with Edel Garden.
But fate is not so kind to our traveller friends, as now the path to their final destination is well in sight they face a possible new threat. Blocking their way across the causeway is the gun-toting Pleasure from previous volumes and his Edel Raid partner, Endi (エンディー). After a round of questions and answers, the Pleasure refuses the group passage across the causeway, stating keeping them from reaching Edel Garden is the mission given to him. With negotiation no longer a viable option, Rowen, Kuea and Cisqua assaults this mysterious obstacle in hopes of toppling him. For the first time in the series, the ARC AILE trio is easily swept aside by a single opponent. It is now blatantly obvious that compared to the man standing before them, they are mere amateurs.
Seeing how his companions are in need of backup, Cou requests for a reaction, but his wish is unrequited by the snores of a sleeping Ren. Endi approaches Cou and cautions him to allow Ren to rest and is attacked by a Cou keen on keeping his promise to his partner. The displeased Endi makes quick work of our untrained hero and pins him to the ground with oversized hairpins that she pulls from her hair.
The skirmish with the Pleasure continues, but the ARC AILE trio is unable to even scratch their adversary no matter what they throw his way. The Pleasure is also shockingly knowledgeable about the trio and the workings of ARC AILE in general. Finally, in possibly one of the cheesiest plot twist techniques known to literature, the mystery man reveals his former* identity: the commanding officer of former ARC AILE Special Forces BG, Vargret (バーグレット).
The news comes as a shock to even the ARC AILE trio, who apparently has never met a member of the BG Corps. As a way of proving his identity, Vargret plays a recording from Commissioner Faulk briefing him, rather emotionally**, on the mission. While the recording is unquestionably from Faulk, Rowen recalls that the special forces are already dissolved, and Vargret notes the dissolution is due to his constant absence. He also addresses the possibility of punishment in the forms of demotion, pay deduction, transfer, with the worst case scenario being immediate dismissal for the trio upon their return to ARC AILE headquarters. Driven mad by the possibilities, Cisqua goes berserk and attacks Vargret with Rowen. Again they are easily dispatched by the skilled veteran, who then proceeds to point out their individual faults.
By now Ren has opened her eyes and is somewhat confused by the situation. In another twist of fate, Vargret announces they can now journey to Edel Garden, but on one condition. They must serve as his subordinates. He begins to impart about his other mission, but a dishevelled Coachner emerges and starts throwing a tantrum about how they destroyed her military passion and blah, and in the process discloses the information of Bocca’s survival. But the surprises don’t end there. Coachner’s real position isn’t with the Nad Lezen air force. She is a member of Benellita’s personal army, the Framboise Honey. At a snap of her fingers, the group is surrounded by a platoon of Viro.
Judging from their current position, escape for all of them is highly unlikely. Vargret has Cisqua convince Cou to take Ren and head across the causeway first while they hold off the Viro. Despite being reluctant to leave his comrades, Cou complies and takes off with Ren. This plans fails, however, as a hidden sniper shot makes the group realise nobody is going to get away unless they stand and fight.
The battle with the Viro proves extremely difficult. Endi is ensnared by her spider Viro enemy who traps her with adhesive strands formed from saliva. Vargret liberates her before the Viro could make the final strike, and slaughters two of them with ease. His physical prowess takes Coachner by surprise and he is able to seize her by the neck, but Coachner manages to injure Vargret and runs to her Pleasure Ferris the sniper. Together they react and put their sadistic session into action.
Vargret contacts the trio via radio informing them of the sniper and Coachner’s real form. He leaves the Viro for the trio to take care of while he sets his eyes on Ferris and Coachner.
Rowen is having quite a bit of trouble with his Viro opponent due to her cute appearance. Unable to bring himself to harm a female, Rowen’s progress is greatly hindered. In a flash of pure genius, he recalls his experience as a male escort and discovers a suitable tactic to tackling his troubling enemy. Employing the basics of pleasing female customers as a male escort Rowen woos the Viro into submission before delivering the final blow.
Cisqua isn’t faring well, either. Her battle with the Spinning Viro can only be described as catastrophic. Yet despite all her injuries, she does not fight back….
*Okay, so who introduces themselves with their former identity? This just strikes me as being very dumb considering the truth comes out right after his intro. Kills the dramatic reveal completely. Dumb. Just dumb.
**More like screaming his head off.
Impression
Boy, oh, boy. This has to be one of the worst and messiest volumes of the series so far. While the sudden return to humour is welcomed (even if it’s kind of stale and extremely intrusive), this volume simply fails to hold itself together. As if two inconclusive battles are not enough, Azuma goes the extra length and shoots herself in the foot with this Vargret character. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Vargret as a character other than he’s somewhat bland, but the contents of his dialogue bothers the living shit out of me, specifically his criticism of Rowen and Cisqua. If this is Azuma’s idea of character evolution, I’m just not for it at this point. Cisqua’s missile spam is a trademark of the slapstick humour in the series. Removing that would vastly undermine her comedic edge. Rowen’s “lack of determinism and certainty” in battle gives him a genuinely humanistic fortitude rarely seen in other shounen action titles. To “correct” that would reduce Rowen to a standard, run-of-the-mill, and possibly even mildly repulsive shounen fighter. Should any of this come to pass in future volumes I’d be pretty damn disappointed.
I’ve also a bone to pick with the whole Viro affair. Back in volume eleven when the unique portrayal of the internal state of Megane Viro captured my attention, I was curious as to how Azuma will take advantage of it. Well, she didn’t. Instead of capitalising on the infrastructure she’s already built, Azuma takes it apart and spits on it. With the stage set for some perfect exploration of the Viro order, their nature, and their twisted servitude to Orga Nite, and perhaps even some commentary on the psychology of the Viro, Azuma could have really kicked some new life into the stagnant story of Elemental Gelade. But she does the complete opposite by demoting the Viro to insignificant cannon fodder and cookie-cutter villains.
Elemental Gelade has really taken a turn for the worst. The story is steadily degrading into the villain-of-the-week format with no signs of improvement. A couple more volumes like this and I would seriously contemplate quitting the series. Elemental Gelade without its humour is bad enough, but to deprive the characters of their trademark nuances could prove to be a real show-stopper for me.
