Noblesse 325 Review

Jammin · Jun 10, 2014

The poll last week was on M-21's werewolf powers and the level of interest in them. Overall , the level is fair. While not a lot of people are super into it, most do care.

Now onto the review!

Chapter Summary

He's back, and has on his dancing shoes.

This week starts moments before the final page of last week's chapter with Karias, Takeo, Tao, and M-21 chatting in Franky's lab where they are all bandaged up from their recent scuffles. Exchanging stories of what just happened and Karias giving a little insight into M-21's new transformation. Which, as it turns out, was something pretty special; as Karias seemed to think that the Lady Werewolf and Kentas were pretty powerful by werewolf standards and to be able to fight even near their level is no small thing. Their time of reflection is interrupted though by a surge of the Raskeria's power that shakes the entire building.

Then things get a little tense when Franky and the gang enter the room where Raskeria and Raizel were meeting to find Rai impaled through the stomach by Ragnarok. Franky takes this poorly of cource and gets ready to try and kill the Raskeria but is stopped by Gejutel. Who explains that she is not trying to harm him, but instead using the sword to replenish his life force. Which Raskeria figured was what her father had in mind when he left it to Raizel in the first place. Though a risky and costly move, Raskeria decided to do it anyway... and the gamble pays off.

They stand there a bit and Raskeria asks him if wonders why she has decided to do this. Then tells him that she heard about his battles with Muzaka and berates him for his recklessness and tell him that he should have just lived a quiet life. He counters that, if she were in his position, she would have done the same. And in a flash of light Raizel looks healthier than he has in ages.

Chapter Review

Well, I guess Ras is a Yandere... I like it!

Substance

Raizel's healed! For now at least. Ragnarok proved to be the key to restoring him at the cost of making it so Raskeira will never have a completed soul weapon. Now what does this actually mean? Honestly, there is no way of knowing yet. It's going to depend a lot on how much life force Raizel actually has now. It could be he's got like 1000 years worth and is going to be unstoppable now. Or it could be that it will gave him enough for one last good fight, so he can take out Muzaka once and for all but that'll be the end. I tend to think the later is more likely but it's impossible to know yet either way.

To her credit, Raskeria paid a heavy price to for saving Raizel. She gave up a lot of power to help him and earned some bonus points with me by chewed him out for endangering himself in the first place. Not that he deserved a chewing out, just because it's pretty rare to see him get chewed out by anyone; and his answer of "you would have done the same thing" is pretty high praise of her.

The talk in the beginning from Karias about how strong M-21 is relative to most normal werewolves is also pretty interesting and lends credence to the theories about his heart being special or related to Muzaka in some way. Somethings definitely going on there. Sadly, ever since his character doubled down on emo-ness I've found it really hard to care about him. And even with this that trend is going strong. Hopefully, that's just me.

Presentation

I'm not going to mince words on this one. The artwork was ugly. It started really bad in just about every way during the part in Franky's lab and improved slightly as it went on but never got to anywhere near average honestly. Franky's panels were the best, but none of them were all that good except for his reaction to seeing his master impaled. Which hurt this chapter even more than it might have others because of how much it needed that subtle emotion.

In terms of pacing it was fine but the structure of the plotting was a little off. Mainly due to weirdness associated with the way it went back in time a few minutes from the end of last chapter in order to show the RK-3 and Karias' reaction to the Raskeria's big surprise. It wasn't too noticeable some but it also didn't really bring much to the story. The last chapter ended gave us a cliffhanger on what Raskeria was going to do and then this one started us off with something completely different and out of chronological order. That struck me as kind of an odd thing to do.

Overall Rating

Raskeria saves the day in an interesting chapter that suffered from just not being put together very well.

I give it a 2 out of 5

Predictions Section

New Prediction

Raizel is not fully restored.

Old Predictions: (33 Wins/ 43 Losses)

"Kentas is going weasel out of this and escape somehow." ~ Win
He lives to groom his eyebrows another day.

"The Lady Werewolf is going be captured or surrender to the good guys." ~ Loss
Nope...looks like I'll have to dream up a new way to get her and Franky to spend time together.

"The next arc will be Raizel's final one." ~ Loss
This qualified as an arc, and unless he comes down with exploding head syndrome, he's going to make it.

Rael will lose his next battle to the RK-4.
Raizel will name Shin Woo his successor; resulting in him inheriting the title and power of the Noblesse.
The female operative from the Union will eventually end up on Raizel's side, like M-21 and the others.
Raizel will ultimately choose to use himself up completely in order to help his friends.
The Union was originally created by the Traitorous Nobles.
M-21 and Yontsu. I think it's going to happen, even if I have no idea how.
At some point the Lady Werewolf will turn on the Union.
Rael is going to end up attending school. (I hate it, but it's gonna happen)
The Current Werewolf Lord backstabbed Muzaka somehow.
This is the final time Raizel will use this much power.
Muzaka will strike at humanity again.
The 3rd Elder is an Ex-Clan Leader