Tokyo Aliens Volume 8 Review

Volume 7 of Tokyo Aliens brought an end to a major arc and then shifted the focus from our leads, Akira and Sho, onto Natsuki, Amamiya’s dependable servant/partner at the AMO. And it’s this storyline that continues into Volume 8, which I’m here to take a look at today.

In the previous volume, we saw Natsuki reunite with his childhood friend and first love, Chizuru Sato. She’s come to Tokyo since she’s working on a manga one-shot that will be published soon, which she hopes Natsuki will read. Now they’ve reunited, old feelings are beginning to reignite between the two, and Natsuki is feeling optimistic that maybe they could take a step forward in their relationship.

Unfortunately, his dreams are swiftly put to rest when it becomes apparent that Chizuru has been infected by a new type of alien parasite. This parasite is powerful enough that it instantly puts the infected at a level 5 infection rate, for which there is no longer a cure. The only option is to destroy the host’s brain, thereby killing both them and the parasite.

Left with no choice, Natsuki now has to kill his childhood friend before the parasite infecting her causes her to murder hundreds of innocent people. Naturally, he struggles to pull the trigger, and when Amamiya arrives on the scene to take over, he begins to remember the reason behind joining the AMO.

Natsuki and Amamiya’s past is something I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. Both characters have been major parts of the main story, yet remained shrouded in mystery until now. The reason Natsuki ended up joining the AMO is that someone else close to him was infected with a parasite that Amamiya killed and when they came to wipe Natsuki’s memories of the whole event (which they usually do for humans in contact with aliens or the AMO!), they discovered that Natsuki was immune to the memory wipe. That left him with two options: be imprisoned so he couldn’t leak details of the AMO, or work under Amamiya as his servant.

The events leading up to Natsuki joining the team aren’t too dissimilar to poor Akira. Amamiya, as usual, was pulling the strings to ensure he got what he wanted out of the situation, and it’s easy to see how such a firm partnership developed between him and the young Natsuki. I almost wish there were a spin-off about the two in their younger years, since I’m sure there are plenty of interesting stories to tell. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of their history in the volumes to come.

Natsuki’s arc comes to an end toward the end of the volume, and we move into a new storyline for Akira, which mangaka Naoe promises to be a long one! As much as I very much enjoyed getting to explore more of Natsuki’s life, I can’t deny that I’m looking forward to reuniting with our main duo and finding out what’s in store for them next.

Although this is a series that went through quite a few wobbles early on in terms of pacing and setting a consistent tone, we’re now approaching ten volumes, and Naoe has managed to find the balance. This has become an exciting shonen series that proves very compelling volume to volume, thanks to some thoughtful storytelling and impactful action scenes. It has certainly rewarded the readers who’ve stuck with it through the initial rough pace!

Tokyo Aliens Volume 8 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix and continues to be translated by Andria McKnight with lettering by Bianca Pistillo. As always, the release reads well and comes with colour pages at the beginning as well as some special ‘short comics’ at the end.

In Japan, the series is up to 10 volumes with #11 scheduled for July, while here in English, we’re due to get Volume 9 in mid-October. Having caught up more or less, the releases have slowed down considerably for us. Of course, they’re always more than worth the wait!

Overall, Tokyo Aliens Volume 8 sheds some light on how Natsuki joined the AMO as well as his relationship to Amamiya. While some may miss our usual leads, this is an intriguing storyline all of its own, and it was worthwhile taking the time to dive into.

A free preview can be read on the Square Enix Manga & Books website. 

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