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Jabberwocky 1914, vol. 2, Masato Hisa. Grade: A-
Jigoro wraps up Samoed's knife wound, and then discusses what had just happened with Apricot (we learn her first name is Lily). Jigoro mentions that his student had learned of a battle in China a little while back (mentioned in vol. 1) where the Japanese forces had attacked like berzerkers, absolutely free from fear. The only clue was that a Japanese orchestra had been playing next to acoustic amplifiers. Maybe the dinosaurs learned how to manipulate human fear sensors through sound. If so, then the city of Aoshima may be the next target. The two of them vow revenge for what had just happened to them, and set out for the building in the hills Jigoro's student had pinpointed as an enemy base. Meanwhile, Shelty is hating herself for injuring her brother, so she runs out to her bike and tries to disappear forever. The sound of the engine wakes Samoed up, and he runs out after her. Her bike is too fast for him to catch up, but he has a sudden flash of insight that a side alley would act as a shortcut. A little later, Shelty's not paying attention and she hits a tree branch lying in the road. This sends her flying and she prepares for a just ending, and then smashes on top of Samoed. He asks if she's afraid of him, and she says "no." He replies that the first time they'd met, he was afraid of her. Lily had just delivered Shelty as a baby, and she was so soft and helpless that he refused to hold her. They reconcile, and Samoed suddenly realizes that the drawing they'd looked at for the sound weapon wasn't a schematic - it's the Aoshima city map. Kuun had worked with the Japanese army to design the new buildings they'd erected specifically to amplify and route sound throughout the town.
(Samoed refusing to hold baby Shelty.)
Kuun, the dinosaur leader, is a Styracosaurus. The frill on the sides of his head acts as a sound amplifier. Originally, this protected his ancestors from attackers approaching from behind. Now, it's helped him become a master-class concert conductor and composer. His latest work is "Goodbye Aoshima." His dinosaur orchestra plays it for the Japanese general and the men that erected all of the new buildings in town, and by the end of the song there's not a soldier left in the building alive. Kuun's boss, Pagu, is happy with the results, and they eagerly look forward to killing the thousands of civilians in town next. Kuun then comments that they have visitors. Jigoro and Apricot enter the building and make their way up to the top floor. Jigoro easily wipes out the orchestra musicians, but Pagu turns out to be a much tougher opponent because he has a very low center of gravity and a whip-like tail. Kuun goes to the roof to implement his plan, and is accidentally intercepted by Apricot, who'd simply been planning on climbing the outer walls to the roof and then entering the building from a second point. These two start fighting, but Kuun's hearing acts like sonar and he knows exactly when and from where Apricot is going to strike, and he throws his batons at her to hit like bullets. Back in town, the two kids have returned to the brewery and discovered that all the kegs are covered with a webbing that cancels out sound. If they could get the kegs distributed in town, they would save everyone. The problem is that they're all full and too heavy for the kids to move them by themselves. It looks like the town is doomed.
(Kuun leads his orchestra on his latest composition, dedicated to the Japanese forces.)
Pagu smashes Jigoro into a wall and is about to finish off the old man once and for all. The guy then says that he's learned two things. First, Pagu is like a weeble who wobbles but doesn't fall down, and is almost an immovable statue. Second, the building is hollow all the way down from the top floor to the ground. Pagu replies that most everyone comments on that, and it was part of Kuun's designs. Jigoro then proceeds to sumo stomp the wooden floor in a circle around the dinosaur leader (safely outside the reach of Pagu's tail). Eventually, the floor collapses and they fall 6 stories. Jigoro demonstrates that it is possible to judo throw someone in mid-air, and smashes Pagu's face into the walls to slow their fall somewhat. He uses Pagu as an airbag, and just barely manages to survive the impact at the end (Pagu doesn't). On the roof, Apricot is in a similar bind, and she calls "time." She grabs a bottle of alcohol, takes a swig, spits the liquid at Kuun and then ignites the bottle. When the smoke clears, the woman has jumped down to the next floor and raced through a bedroom to come up the other side of the building behind him. Kuun prepares to kill her this time, and is stunned to find the enemy right at his back. Apricot slits his throat, and he looks down to see that she'd tied pillows to her feet. "Goodbye Aoshima" had been burned to a record, and Kuun gives it to his minion to play for him. The minion flies up to a building shaped like a huge record player, and sets the needle on the disk. Kuun relaxes, waiting for the lovely sounds of humans screaming in pain and terror. Instead, he just hears laughter. In a rage that his plan has failed, Kuun rips out his own brain and pulls his head off his neck. Down in town, Shelty and Samoed are leading the townsfolk in an impromptu beer fest in the brewery.
The next day, Apricot berates them for giving away all that beer, which she'd been planning on selling to make a profit on this adventure. Instead, she's going to dock them one year's worth of wages. Jigoro is going to continue on his way, but Apricot asks him if he'd been able to gather any information on "him." "He" is Lily's former lover (not sure if they'd been married), and Shelty's father. He'd disappeared many years ago to fight the war his way. Lily wants him back, and Jigoro says that if the guy is going to be found anywhere, it'll be where the fighting is the thickest. She goes out to the bike, and rubs Shelty on the head, telling her to grow up to be a good kid. Shelty panics over her mother acting nice like this, and Samoed demands to know what his sister has done wrong this time.
(The founder of Judo analyzes how to throw a regular dinosaur.)
The next chapter is set in Nov., 1914,
Baarle-Nassau. Baarle is a village divided up into segments that are either Dutch or Belgian properties. Lily Apricot tells Samoed that with the German occupation now, the camp of Jandehoven is even crazier. Barbwire separates little pieces of land into German, Dutch and Belgian domains, and no one is allowed to cross between them (if they try, the German guards will shoot to kill). However, Apricot Corp. has been hired as a package and letter courier service, and to that end Shelty has specially-fitted tires that let her
very carefully ride along the top of the barbwire to reach anyone that has something to post in the mail. Suddenly, a group of men surround Lily and Samoed and tell them to not try anything stupid - there's no room to maneuver to get a clear shot at the boss (a guy with a scarred face and a foreign speaking style. Samoed pulls out his pistol and twists to get his shot to prove the guy wrong, and the attacker lashes out and twists the hammer off the pistol. Lily and Samoed relent and let the enemy escort them to a nearby building. Barbwire runs through the house as well, with Lily and Samoed on one side, and their "host" safely on the other. Lily recognizes their host as Boothloyd (Bu-suroido), currently head of the British secret service, OHMSS (OHMSS = "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is a James Bond film). He and Lily had worked together with a group dedicated to having dinosaurs and humans living peacefully together, but then he betrayed everyone somehow. Lily lunges at Boothloyd, only to have the foreigner guy grab her by the shoulder and casually throw her to a couch at the other side of the room. Boothloyd tells his minion, John Clayton, to not damage their guests. (Note: John Clayton is the name of that Tarzan guy that was raised by apes in the jungle. He's very strong, you know.)
(Dakkel orders his "men" to use Dart Ryuu to destroy the town, as Shelty dangles helplessly from the barbwire above.)
Boothloyd tosses Samoed a replacement hammer, and the boy sets to repairing his Colt 1911 while Clayton eats cold Campbell's condensed soup directly from the can (he doesn't care about the taste). When Samoed is done, he aims the gun around, and Clayton tells him to not shoot it because the sound will alarm the Germans and get them shot. Lily asks what OHMSS wants with her, and Boothloyd replies that he has business in Jandehoven that doesn't concern her, but it's delicate and he's waiting for his contact. He doesn't want her interfering. Lily gets alarmed, wondering what the guy means by "partners", at the same time that Shelty finds herself wandering into a region of the camp that's not on her map. The map has 4 colors, but up to this point she'd only encountered Germans, Belgians and the Dutch. But, the land in front of her belongs to a fourth group; the buildings are unoccupied but filled with dirt. Lily yells "Impossible, "@" is here!?" as a couple dinosaurs pop out of the ground and try to stick spears into Shelty. Samoed leaps to the window and Clayton again attempts to break his gun. This time, though, the boy is faster, grabbing the soup can and jumping up on top of Clayton's arm. He uses the can as a silencer, and shoots through the dinosaurs' spears, but Shelty is still knocked off her bike and ends up having to grab onto the barbwire to keep from hitting the ground. Boothloyd finally gets to clearly see the boy's face and marks him as an aviraptor. He realizes that the the boy is from the egg that Lily stole a long time ago. They don't have time react on this information, because another dinosaur comes out of the hole. This one is commanding officer Dakkel, who has a drill bit for a cap. Dakkel orders his men to wipe out everyone, and they activate Dart Ryuu ("ryuu" = "dragon), a giant drilling machine. Dart creates a huge hole directly under Shelty, destroying the nearby posts and snapping several of the lines of barbwire.
There's also a bonus short story at the end. It's Dec., 1914, and a dinosaur known as "Assassination Teacher" has orchestrated a battle between the British and the Germans that results in both armies wiping each other out, with 23,783 dead. Lily tracks down AT, and they fight. The problem is that AT can't be killed conventionally, and his preferred weapon is the barbwire he normally has wrapped around his body like a jacket. AT easily subdues and binds up Lily in the barbwire, then wonders why she's still smiling. When she first arrived, she'd grabbed the field telephone and called her location in to the British commander at HQ. She's just been acting as a distraction to keep AT from noticing the incoming artillery until its too late. The shells hit, and AT is blown to pieces. Lily frees herself and returns to the phone. We now learn that the commander had hired Lily to locate his son's body. She tells him that there are now the corpses of 23,783 "sons" to wade through.
Summary: Again, I love Hisa's art style and his sense of humor. The characters are imaginative and the action sequences are well-drawn. But,
J1914 is still not quite as much fun as
Area 51 was, and the violence that the heroes have to withstand borders on the sadistic side. Still, I've already bought volume 3, which came out last August, and I will probably get number 4 as well when that's released. Recommended if you like over-the-top action.
