BakeGyamon, Volume 3 Book

Originally posted here at Anime Radius.

Ah, volume three. The smack-dab-in-the-middle volume for Bakegyamon (you can read the reviews of previous volumes here and here) and the games are really ramping up for Sanshiro and his fellow contestants. The pushing bun games, which at first glance seemed awfully silly even for this manga, has taken on some seriously sinister hues; the stakes have been raised and from now on, being pushed out of the arena literally means death for both the contestant and his geki fu partner. One thing is for sure: this is definitely not a children's game anymore. As the games get more serious, so do the players, and they start taking desperate measures to advance above the others and reach the top. All the while, our personal moral barometer Sanshiro struggles to both advance through the Tokyo Tower battlefield of Backwards Japan while keeping his fellow contestants and geki fu monsters from being knocked out.

One of the driving forces so far in Bakegyamon is one that has separated Sanshiro from a lot of other protagonists in the same genre: he cares about the monsters he has to use to play the games. In effect, this puts Sanshiro against the entire backwards game system, which only regards the geki fu as tools in the games and not living creatures with feelings and agendas. Sanshiro is part of the small percentage of players who care about their geki fu partners; the others just use them at will and don't think too much about them. This is illustrated in the match between Sanshiro and Toru, who clearly and callously uses his geki fu monster to its breaking point without a single care for its safety. As the games progress, we can see the geki fu monsters slowly form personalities through their matches. We met Sanshiro's dorokozo friends already and they were friendly and excitable and extremely loyal. Now we meet Inoshiji, the boar monster who is super strong and has super hearing - and is also terribly afraid of heights, our first monster with a clear set of fears. We also meet in this volume the geki fu monster Hitosuki, who still holds a grudge against Mick from a previous fight and scares him into surrendering his match. The more geki fu monsters we meet, the more we see they are more than just monsters - they are creatures with distinct personalities slowly emerging with each match, which only proves Sanshiro's point that they should be treated with respect. Hopefully, they will take up a greater role in the next two volumes, especially as Sanshiro progresses through the tournament.

Another thing that is progressing nicely is the art; Mitsuhisa Tamura's artwork is improving with each volume, and it becomes much more notable in volume three, especially during the more action-orientated scenes. I particularly love how expressive Sanshiro has become in the series so far - he makes the best faces of surprise and shock, especially in the face of Mick's devious antics (who has taken to disguising himself with a ridiculous hat, cape, and moustache combo). Along with better art, there are also better battle scenes; the fights between contestants have become more and more intense and the perils for Sanshiro and his friend has gone from bad to life-threatening, especially after the fights move to the Tokyo Tower, where a fall from any of the platforms can kill a person. Consequently, as the fights become more intense the contestants get more desperate to win - from the odd (Rick greasing up the platform) to the dangerous (Toru attacking Sanshiro directly with his geki fu partner). The fight scenes which were once much more comedic in nature have become more shonen-flavored and much more interesting to read - and there's no sign of these scenes slowing down or decreasing in appearance any time soon.

Right now, the Bakegyamon series has been focused on the action as well as the parallels between the humans and the geki fu monsters; the mystery of the game itself has been quietly building up in the background waiting for some decent exposure. As Sanshiro advances through the stages of the Tokyo Tower tournament, it's clear that we'll see more and more of how the game works and more importantly why the game exists in the first place. What is the trickster host Neid's master plan? What does his devious servant Fue have to do with Sanshiro's being in the backwards game? I'm certainly looking forward to how the games play out - and more of Sanshiro's bright-eyed energetic antics, of course!