Kamuya Ride, vol. 2

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Image from Amazon.co.jp used here for review purposes only.)

Kamuya Ride, vol. 2, Masato Hisa. Grade: A-
We're back with what's essentially Japanese history meets Quentin Tarantino. Monko, the mysterious specialist at sending monsters back to their own dimension is in his Kamuya Ride outfit, fighting a monster in the shape of a stilt house shrine. When he kicks it, he injures his leg. The wood of the stilt house shatters to reveal that the monster is actually made of metal. His disciple, Ousu, needs to pull out his power bow to make a difficult shot, and he doesn't feel like he's up to it. The idea is for Monko to hold up the small clay figurine of the bird they'd captured at the lake in volume one, and Ousu is to shoot a stretched-out energy arrow into its tiny eyesocket. Izumotakeru, the new hero-wannabe that worships Ousu steadies the boy's back, and he takes the shot. The arrow threads the figurine's eye, and unlocks the barrier that releases the full force of the lake trapped in it all at one time. This creates a water cutter that Monko uses to slice the stilt-house monster's legs off. The monster is incapacitated long enough for Monko to use Ride's lock and key powers to force the monster back into its own dimension, and turning its body into a small figurine of a stilt house with snake heads on the roof.

Monko lands on his injured leg, loses his armor, and passes out on the ground from the pain. Ousu picks up the figurine to look at it, and Izumotakeru calls out to him for help. Izumotakeru had claimed a strange katana in volume 1, which had given him super powers similar to Ousu's bow. Unfortunately, part of the monster's spirit enters the sword and turns it into a serpent that merges into the guy's arm and starts sucking out all of his life. Ousu fights with the thing for a few minutes before getting inside its reach. He slices the man's arm open and jams one of Monko's clay warrior figurines into the wound. The warrior explodes in contact with anything that's not human, and that's exactly what happens. The monster component within Izumotakeru is destroyed. Unfortunately, that included the guy's right arm and part of his body up into his face. Izumotakeru and Ousu also collapse to the ground, as the rescued villages run up to save them.

Later, Izumotakeru gets bandaged up, and thanks Ousu for saving him. As they leave, Monko tells the boy that there's still part of the monster in the guy's body, but this is probably what's keeping him alive. He'll never be normal again, but he's not a threat to anyone right now. A few minutes later, the two encounter a field of dead bodies - the remains of the army that was returning to the village to help save it. Standing over the corpses is the guy that has been opening the doors and letting the monsters into this world. When Ousu realizes that this guy is the one responsible for killing off his retainers at the beginning of volume one, the boy goes into a rage and attacks him. The guy easy fends him off, then opens a door to release a monkey-based monster to keep the boy busy as "the adults talk." The guy calls himself Uzume, and says that his ultimate goal to find the thing that had made the gigantic human-shaped crater at the lake thousands of years ago. Uzume then says he wants to "dance" with Ride, and the two start fighting.

Eventually, Ousu tricks the monkey monster into attacking Uzume, and the guy sprouts a blade arm to stop the thing. Monko and Ousu also engage him, and he sprouts two more blade arms. He says that this dance is no longer beautiful, and he smashes the boy away before escaping. Monko rushes to the boy, but he's more humiliated than hurt. Elsewhere, Uzume curses the boy's strength - Ousu's last punch actually caused his mask to fracture, leaving exposed a black vacant space and what looks like a crow's eye and part of a beak.

The scene changes to Nanba (currently a district of Osaka). It's a port village, and they're expecting a ship from Baekje (an ancient village that used to be in southwestern Korea). In one of the buildings near the docks is the Black Shield Army, and what looks like an iron coffin. Some of the soldiers brag about their fighting prowess until someone in the coffin kicks the cover, causing a steward to warn the men that "Okashira" ("head", or "leader") is trying to sleep and they shouldn't keep her awake. Everyone grabs their mouths in fear. After some time, a mist envelops the ship as it enters the port. The dock workers scatter before the ship runs aground; all of the crew aboard have been turned into mere bones. The Black Shield Army rushes out and they use their shields to protect the village from the giant monster the ship has become. The shields can also be locked together to create a kind of large tube, and one of the men waves two shields behind the tube to make a wind that blows the mist away, revealing a metallic weird scissors monster.

Monko and Ousu arrive outside of the village in time to see Okashira - a massively muscled woman - use her soul to possess her coffin and turn it into a variation on Kamuya Ride. She lets the monster smash her around a bit, until she gets a feel for how strong it is. Then, the monster's blade arms start shattering against her armor (the result being that Okashira's body begins bleeding from the damage her soul is taking). Monko is disgusted at this crass display of power and disregard for her body's well-being. Ousu, though, is in love. The monster switches tactics, turning into more of a pincer machine than a scythe. It bypasses Okashira's arms and pierces the stomach portion of the armor. She escapes, and has her men set up their shields to act as a ramp. She races up the shields, and pulls out an energy saber from her right arm to dice up the monster. Everyone cheers, including Ousu, but Monko walks in, turns into Kamuya Ride, and uses his lock and key leg to ultimately defeat the monster and turn it into a clay figurine of a one-armed crab. Okashira returns to her body, and she and Monko insult each other until she grabs Monko's bad leg and gives it a hard squeeze. He collapses, frothing at the mouth, and Ousu races up to help him. Okashira grabs the boy from behind and throws him with a wrestling suplex move that knocks him unconscious. Okashira decides that the two interlopers are unknowns that need to be dealt with, so she has them hog tied to a pair of shields to be presented to the Kingdom of Yamato.

Summary: I love Hisa's character designs and sense for action scenes. He is violent, and a little too eager to put Ousu into compromising positions. But, his handling of Japanese history, and his representations of the Yayoi era people and buildings are great. The black shields look like they could be assembled to form a Doutaku bell. I especially like finding out what Haniwa (the clay figures) will be chosen for each monster when they're locked out.  Overall, lots of fun. Recommended if you liked Nobunaga or Jabberwocky (maybe not if you preferred Area 51).