Thunder 3 Volume 2 Review

I suspect that this might be Thunder 3’s ‘difficult’ second volume. While the first was able to make the most of contrasting art styles and action, it seems that the second volume is mostly concerned with world-building.

Readers of the first volume will remember that a trio of boys from a chibi-like world: Pynotaro, Tsubame and Hiroshi, who are nicknamed the Small Three, have travelled to a much more realistic-looking world after Pynotaro’s sister Futaba entered the world via the family’s TV, which was playing an unusual disc on a PS5. This world is occupied by an alien race that kidnapped Futaba, so the Small Three are trying to rescue her. During their time in this new world, the Small Three discover that they are much stronger in this place, being capable of running at great speeds, resisting huge drops from the sky and so on.

The first volume ended with the Small Three protecting a man and his child from some alien cops. The trio are easily able to stop the aliens due to their new-found strength, resisting the firepower of the aliens’ weapons, and even being able to make one of the aliens fly away just by Pynotaro flicking it with his finger. Meanwhile Futaba is still on an alien spaceship. Having escaped from her captors because she too has gained the same powers as her fellow travellers, she meets and frees an alien animal, a kind of winged dog that she names Q.

However, this is really all we get from our travellers. The rest of this volume concentrates on the people already living in this world. We come across a guy named Teiichi Segami, who hates the alien occupiers and is leafleted by a woman to join some kind of group. Eventually he decides to visit it. It turns out to be part of a resistance cell which is trying to overthrow the aliens. He eventually agrees to join. Later, Teiichi bumps into the Small Three, all of whom witness a Japanese air force pilot pursuing alien spaceships in what becomes a kamikaze attack.

While there is still plenty of action in this second volume, the fact that for most of this book we are pulling our attention away from the main heroes to concentrate what has been going on in this world in general feels a bit of drag. While it is interesting to know about how others are fighting back against the aliens, you would still rather see more of the main characters.

There are arguably other issues as well in this volume. This could just be me reading too much into things, but when we first come across Teiichi, he says that living under the aliens is like living in a communist country. With statements like that, alongside the kamikaze attack on the aliens at the end of this volume, you wonder what tone this manga is taking politically.

Aside from this however, the production of the manga is itself good. Translator Cat Anderson and editor Daniel Joseph continue to do good work, although once again I’m somewhat annoyed by the lack of credit given to whoever is doing the lettering.

Hopefully the third volume (due out in March) will concentrate more on our main characters, who will no doubt get involved with Teiichi’s group.

Our review copy from Vertical was supplied by Turnaround Publisher Services.