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ajtye 's review for:
One-Punch Man, Vol. 26
by ONE
Confession time: I have read ahead.
Can you blame a guy? The MA arc has been close to disastrous in printed form, with ONE all-but abandoning Murata to hold the fort with endless tete-a-tetes. Waiting a year for a Volume to release is an exercise in tedium, but blasting through them on the Shonen Jump app? Well, it greases the wheels somewhat.
The irony of this is that I decided to look ahead just as the story moves into its final stages. There's enough detail and forward momentum to suggest ONE's more-committed return to the writing chair, and the result is one of the most enjoyable instalments in almost ten volumes. The balance of Saitama into the larger story seems to have reached a pleasant equilibrium, and one that even hints at a change in his universal circumstances now that other people are beginning to take note of his power. Psychos isn't much of anything just yet, but her presence signals a much needed escalation in the battle. Garo exceeding his limits against Blackluster is the return to the fray that the character needed after a limp return in Volume 25. And I say it every/goddamn/time but Murata is smoking some weapons-grade shit, and this book features arguably his finest work yet, with grand, epic full-page panels and intense shading.
It's a shame that the general unwieldy shape of the material still means that paperback distribution utterly murders the pacing. Volume 26 starts to lower its foot on the gas, but runs out of pages before it really starts to cook. If not for this, I'd be happy to rate this one even higher. As it stands, it's a solid thumbs up, albeit one tempered by the knowledge that the real fireworks are yet to come.
Can you blame a guy? The MA arc has been close to disastrous in printed form, with ONE all-but abandoning Murata to hold the fort with endless tete-a-tetes. Waiting a year for a Volume to release is an exercise in tedium, but blasting through them on the Shonen Jump app? Well, it greases the wheels somewhat.
The irony of this is that I decided to look ahead just as the story moves into its final stages. There's enough detail and forward momentum to suggest ONE's more-committed return to the writing chair, and the result is one of the most enjoyable instalments in almost ten volumes. The balance of Saitama into the larger story seems to have reached a pleasant equilibrium, and one that even hints at a change in his universal circumstances now that other people are beginning to take note of his power. Psychos isn't much of anything just yet, but her presence signals a much needed escalation in the battle. Garo exceeding his limits against Blackluster is the return to the fray that the character needed after a limp return in Volume 25. And I say it every/goddamn/time but Murata is smoking some weapons-grade shit, and this book features arguably his finest work yet, with grand, epic full-page panels and intense shading.
It's a shame that the general unwieldy shape of the material still means that paperback distribution utterly murders the pacing. Volume 26 starts to lower its foot on the gas, but runs out of pages before it really starts to cook. If not for this, I'd be happy to rate this one even higher. As it stands, it's a solid thumbs up, albeit one tempered by the knowledge that the real fireworks are yet to come.