Tokyo Aliens Volume 6 Review

Volume 5 of Tokyo Aliens saw us learn more about Akira’s father and the connection AMO boss Amamiya has to him. Now we’ve reached Volume 6 and the story continues to heat up as Akira finds himself in increasingly concerning circumstances. Let’s find out what’s in store for our protagonist this time!

To kickstart Volume 6, we find Akira on a date with a dangerous alien Raika Nadeshiko who is wanted for destroying a building the day before as well as many other crimes. Readers may recognise Raika as we first met her back in Volume 2, where she stole Akira’s ID card before promptly vanishing from the scene.

Now she’s come to talk to Akira and return his stolen property. With Sho not around, our protagonist resigns himself to going along with Raika until he can get in touch with his partner. For now, at least Raika seems fairly harmless, simply wishing to indulge in tasty food and a spot of shopping. Raika eventually admits that spending time with him reminds her of his father, which surprises Akira. Once again, both we readers and Akira are left wondering why so many people have such surprising connections to him and what it all means.

Akira is beginning to believe Raika isn’t a bad alien despite what the AMO says and when he confronts her about her alleged crimes, Raika confides in him that she’s innocent. There’s another girl who looks just like her called Ririka Nadeshiko and Raika is only here on Earth to take down Ririka. Akira finds it hard to believe and the two are interrupted by the arrival of Sho, but our protagonist has always looked on the good side of humans and aliens so if there’s even a slim chance she’s telling the truth he wants to protect her. Even if it means going against Sho and the AMO!

Volume 6 of Tokyo Aliens continues to provide us with an action-packed and engaging read. There’s no downtime here once Sho arrives to protect Akira from Raika and we’re soon navigating several interesting twists and turns. I confess I didn’t expect there to be a Raika lookalike, so I was pleasantly surprised by the reveal and very willing to believe it. Raika seems perfectly placed to be a frenemy character and I didn’t want her to be the big bad of the series, so if she can instead work with Akira and Sho against a common enemy that seems far more interesting.

Mangaka Naoe very quickly confirms Raika’s telling the truth by introducing us to Ririka, but even that isn’t as simple as it first appears. Why is she murdering humans and causing trouble? Is she being controlled or was she always evil? And why does Raika want to “save her” and not just stop her? We’re left with a lot of unanswered questions, but it seems likely some of them will be addressed in the next book.

When I reviewed Volume 5 of Tokyo Aliens I talked about how the series has improved dramatically from its first outing and that remains true here as it continues to showcase Naoe’s skilful character writing and expressive artwork. The characters have always been the thing that holds the story together, even when everything was more jumbled earlier on, and that’s something Naoe continues to successfully capitalise on. The artwork, too, looks incredible this time around, both capturing the emotions of the cast and offering some fantastic battle scenes. I’m really glad Naoe eventually found their groove with the series because it’s quickly become one of my favourite currently running shonen.

Tokyo Aliens Volume 6 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix Manga and continues to be skilfully translated by Andria McKnight with lettering by Bianca Pistillo. As we’ve come to expect, the release reads well with no problems. Included at the beginning is a colour page depicting a somewhat anxious Akira and Sho, perhaps because Raika has stolen the cover!

Volume 7 of the series is currently scheduled for an English release in September, so unfortunately we’re in for a bit of a wait until we get more. Still, this series is proving worth the wait.

Overall, Tokyo Aliens Volume 6 reintroduces us to Raika who shares a surprising connection to Akira’s father. Plenty of questions are raised not all of them answered here, but we’re still treated to a very entertaining read as our protagonist gets to grips with the revelations Raika shares!

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).

A free preview of this volume can be read on the publisher’s website here.