X-Day 2
June 20, 2008
This wound up surprising me a lot. It did some thngs I expected it to, and other things totally surprised me. I was expecting a big drama-tastic scene between the main character, her boyfriend, and Mr. Money. This did not happen, but a surprisingly brutal scene played out around Mr. Money that explained why it was he was depressed enough to want to blow up the school.
While the pairing of Polaris and the teacher wasn’t all that surprising, something happens and… well, they have to flee before they’re accused of murder, which was totally out of left field.
As dark and depressing as I was expecting this series to be, it’s got a surprisingly positive ending. I don’t think I would have forgiven this of any other story that promised to blow up a school, but it really works here. It’s a nice story.
There’s a short story at the end which is one of the weirder manga short stories that I can remember reading. In it, cows are in the shape of humans, but still treated as cows, and still slaughtered for their meat. A rich boy keeps one as a pet… bad things happen, there’s a plague where the only cure is beef, the pet is the last cow in the area, etc. It’s good, and it’s just not very often you run across a vegetarian-oriented manga.
June 21, 2008 at 12:50 am
I only skimmed this review, since your review of the first volume inspired me to acquire the set. Just wanted to let you know you’d had that effect! :)
June 21, 2008 at 1:22 am
Thanks! It’s pretty good for a little two-volume series. Really a weird read.
June 21, 2008 at 1:55 am
That’s what I’d expect from this creator. I’m waiting for ASN to be done before I read it, though it’s hard to resist.
June 23, 2008 at 3:42 am
I really enjoyed X-Day and agree with much of what you said here. I couldn’t help but look forward to the attempts at blowing up the school, and yet found myself quite satisfied at the end despite it never happening. The bonus short story creeped me out to no end but in the way that made me give praise to the writer for writing it well enough to have that effect.