Category: Freaks 3
Posted: December 25, 2008 Filed under: Category: Freaks Leave a comment »It figures that I get into this series in the third volume. Apparently the third volume is not the end of the series, but I kind of doubt that there will be more released. The transformation from confusing and boring to readable and interesting was kind of amazing, actually. I made a mental effort to sort out all the characters and place them at the beginning of the volume, and much to my amazement, everything fell right into place. The only person I was still confused about was the third bunny girl, I just can’t remember where she came from, but it doesn’t seem that important.
Most of the volume is a flashback to 70 years in the past, when all the… stands or whatever worked together under the command of the one that cross-dresses. All the rules of a story are followed, with details about the monster and what it is that they’re after, some interaction between their target (the woman who is summoning the freak) and the human member of their party, details and snippets of fights and motivations for the non-human characters who are in the present storyline, and a pretty good resolution to the flashback with a few good twists that shed light on the present timeline, too.
My biggest regret is probably that it will never be explained precisely what it is that the stands are and what kind of supernatural creature they come from. I’m actually kind of curious after reading this volume. I also grew to like the main character a lot more, even though most of the good things that happened didn’t have much to do with him.
There was a really, really cute chapter towards the end about the three bunny girls doing the job they do best by themselves. Part of me wants to dislike the bunny girls since they seem to be pretty blatant fanservice/joke fodder, but their role in the story is actually kind of… well odd, and not original or irreplaceable, but I like them anyway.
This still isn’t fantastic or a must-read, but it’s definitely more palatable than the other two volumes. Perhaps I just needed to be in the right mood or something.
