Tokyo Aliens Volume 10 Review

In Volume 9 of Tokyo Aliens, we saw Akira being kidnapped by a group of aliens running a black market auction, and now it’s a race against time to rescue him. What will become of our heroes? Let’s find out with Volume 10!

As we resume our story, we find the AMO raiding the site of the auction. Sho, Amamiya and the team have gone in all guns blazing as they’re all too aware that the longer Akira is left in the hands of the enemy, the more likely it is that he won’t make it out of the situation alive. And that’s certainly a valid concern when Akira is currently being tortured by a man called Harold, who seems to know a surprising amount about Akira already and is trying to work out why Amamiya placed him on a frontline team.

But as you would expect of an evil mastermind, Harold knows when the odds are stacked against him, and now that the AMO is here, he decides to flee and leave Akira behind. Sho is relieved to find his partner still alive and only slight worse for wear, but this encounter is sure to leave lasting scars for all involved…

Volume 10 is largely a transitional instalment. The black market storyline comes to a swift conclusion, and then we move into a new storyline that mangaka NAOE is insisting is a slice-of-life arc that’s supposed to be ‘a breather after the last arc’. But I beg to differ, given the trouble Akira soon finds himself in!

Still, what stands out here is not the kinetic battle scenes or the mysterious Harold, but what all of this has meant for Akira. Having heard that all the members of AMO’s Squad 3 are usually aliens, Akira is wondering why he was assigned there when he’s just an ordinary human. Sho reassures him that it’s simply because they had to be partners since they’re both searching for the alien Hakugin, and Akira has no reason to doubt he’s human, but still the question weighs on his mind.

And Akira isn’t worried about this just for his own sake; he’s still worried that he’s nothing but a burden to Sho. Although he has certainly got stronger over time, it’s still true that he was kidnapped and was helpless until Sho arrived to save him. If he were an alien, could he not be more useful? But despite it all, he was relieved to wake up in hospital and find Sho by his side when it was all over. And for the first time, he managed to convey his strong feelings to Sho directly, who couldn’t help but give us a rare heartfelt smile.

Tokyo Aliens is, of course, an action-packed sci-fi, and it excels at being that, thanks to NAOE’s polished art skills, but it’s these heartfelt character moments that stay with you for the long haul. And of course, how those are then interwoven back into the larger storyline is one of the things that makes them so memorable.

Now we’re ten volumes in, NAOE has had a lot of time to build up the cast and narrative. There are a lot of things being developed in the background, waiting patiently to come to the forefront, Harold being an example of that, as well as the increasing pressure for Akira to find out about who or what he really is. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how the story develops from here and whether we’ll be in for another ten volumes (Japan is currently at #12 with #13 in July).

As always, Tokyo Aliens Volume 10 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix Manga and has been translated by Andria McKnight with lettering by Bianca Pistillo. As usual, the book reads well and includes a colour page at the beginning showcasing our main cast. Volume 11 is currently scheduled for an English release in August, so despite more or less catching up to Japan, we’re still getting to enjoy new volumes of this quite frequently.

Overall, now in its tenth volume, Tokyo Aliens still has plenty of life left in it. This instalment proves something of a bridge between arcs, but there are plenty of important developments contained within. If you’ve followed the series this far, you certainly won’t be disappointed.

A free preview can be read on the publisher’s website
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services)
© SQUARE ENIX / NAOE