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The poll last week was on whether or not Raizel would survive the aftermath of this arc. A strong 3 to 1 majority thought he would live but respectably sized minority, including myself, voted he won't. We should know pretty soon which side is right.
Now onto the review!
This week begins with Shin Woo and the rest of Raizel's schoolmates in an intensive care ward, presumably inside Frankenstien's lab. As Takeo, M-21, Regis and Rael wait Tao tells them that though the antidote to Kelvin's poison is in their systems they're still in danger due to the time it took to get everything straightened out with the antidote; which seems to have been a legit (Kelvin why were you so stupid?) but imperfect somehow. Rael, having had enough of playing nice, decides it time to settle up with RK-4 making certain to take not of how Tao had him carrying humans around. Tao and Regis manage to placate him though by assuring him that Seira will be pleased with what he did.
Meanwhile, back at the site of the Raizel's battle with Siriana and Urokai, all present stare at Raizel's full red winged form. While everyone is impressed with the power. Frankenstein is horrified by the cost and Urokai, oddly enough, shares that sentiment. Recognizing that Raizel is going all out Urokai and Siriana do the same. Raizel casts one of his blood field tornado's at them and Urokai blows through it while Siriana used the opportunity to try and ambush Raizel from above but is caught and slammed back into the ground. The strain of the act causes Raizel to falter for a moment and cough up some blood. The two ex-clan leaders use the opportunity and launch a cooperative attack resembling a massive crimson dragon. As impressive as it looks Raizel dispels that too.
Finally Raizel calls forth a bunch of blood field tornadoes and informs Siriana and Urokai that under his authority he is sentencing them both to forced eternal sleep. Then he hits them with an attack that resembles a giant crimson and black bird; the flash from which is shown to be easily visible from orbit. Leaving a massive crater and both ex-clan leaders defeated and on their knees.
As Raizel approaches them. Urokai asks Raizel one final question. He asks him if he truly felt no anger upon learning what they had done. Raizel explains to him that he did not, all he felt was sadness. Upon hearing this Urokai seems satisfied and apologizes for causing him sadness and disintegrates into sparkling red ash.
Siriana tells Raizel that he betrayed Lukedonia because he no longer agreed with them and voices his regret that he could not keep himself from changing. Raizel explains to him that change is not wrong, nor was leaving Lukedonia, he just picked the wrong path. Siriana accepts this but says that once he stepped over the line he could never seem to stop and thanks Raizel for stopping him and then he disintegrates as well.
Raizel briefly thinks back to some some better times when Urokai had attempted to brew him tea and Siriana warned him about how terrible it was. As Frankenstein looks at him and realizes from Raizel's expression that his master must have been hoping never to have to pass judgement on his old friends like he did today.
Substance
Well the big fight is over. Urokai and Siriana died in spectacular fashion and Raizel used an ass load of power to make that happen. Two Ex-clan leaders down, four to go.
I'm pretty pleased with the way Raizel's fight against Urokai and Siriana played out. In large part because it wasn't the same old thing. Raizel did, in fact, use the same abilities he generally does and they just didn't work on opponents this strong. His Blood Field got broken and Blood Tornado was something Urokai was able to dispel with force. While they weren't able to land much in the way of attacks on him, in a prolonged battle the life draining nature of his power puts him at a disadvantage. So he was forced to resort to a spectacularly powerful, and probably spectacularly draining attack to end it. This really begs the question, what kind of strength do the remaining four ex-clan leaders have?
The overall situation going forward from this chapter looks like this. Raizel is probably going to be in pretty rough shape, blood coming from the mouth and eye is probably not a sign of good health. Franky is at his limit but in the long term he'll be ok. Seira and Rajak are still in fighting shape but could probably use some medical attention too, especially Seira. So in a bizarre turn of events the strongest potentially combat-ready person still standing is...the Lady Werewolf.
It will be interesting to see what she does because if she wants to escape I doubt anybody is going to be able to stop her; and if she decides she wants to take a shot at the weakened Noblesse she might have a chance of taking him down. The future of this situation is really up to her to dictate. But I suspect her dislike of fighting weakened opponents, her crush of Franky, and a healthy respect for how dangerous Raizel can be will help to keep her non-hostile; if we're lucky she may even borderline friendly. Though the South Korea government is probably going to want to have a word with her about the billions upon billions in property damage.
When they finally get back home from all this the situation they'll find in Frankenstein's lab seems to still be a bit unclear. Shin Woo and the gang are still in danger but, since the antidote seems to have been legit, the danger has been made a little less critical. The way things are now it seems significantly more possible they will be able to come out of it on their own or if not give Franky a chance to fix them up. Though I think there still is a strong possibility that Raizel will do something on his own to help them and in so doing push his body too far; but we'll have to wait and see.
Presentation
The artwork was good this week for the most part. The large scale battle panels had some real artistic flair to them. I particularly liked the way the giant dragon looked and pretty much all the other big attacks didn't lag to far behind that level of quality. Another thing that stands out to me was how well the background art did was blended into the attack panels, making for a more impressive sense of scale. This is something Noblesse has been fairly mediocre at overall so I am happy to see signs of improvement in that area. The weak point was the character detail again (in at least 3 panel's I'd call the art bad) but not bad enough that it will effect the rating.
You may notice I didn't mention the panels in which Urokai and Siriana died. There is a reason for that. To be honest, I didn't like they way they looked. The red stardust thing seemed a little more... "corney" than I would have liked. But this is one of those things that is probably more a matter of taste than anything else. So I'm not going to let it play into my rating either way.
In terms of pacing, it was deliberately slow. The story dragged out the final moments of Urokai and Siriana to the max, in order to give them as satisfying an ending as it could. I think this was very much worthwhile especially when it gave us the opportunity to see Urokai and Siriana through Raizel's eyes. Allowing us to fully appreciate that in his eyes he wasn't just killing a pair of villains but former friends that had gone too far down the wrong path. A subtle yet emotionally significant difference.
Overall Rating
This chapter brought to a close Raizel's battle with two of the former clan leaders and did so in a way that was climactic and satisfying. Leaving a lot of consequences to be worked through in the weeks to come. As good as it was though, I feel that it does fall short of deserving a perfect score.
I give it a 4 our of 5
New Prediction
The hostilities between the Raizel's group and the Lady Werewolf are over.
Old Predictions: (24 Wins/ 31 Losses)
"Urokai's gonna die." ~ Win
RIP crazy eyepatch guy.
Now onto the review!
Chapter Summary
The ultimate insult. Getting killed AND turned into red glitter.
The ultimate insult. Getting killed AND turned into red glitter.
This week begins with Shin Woo and the rest of Raizel's schoolmates in an intensive care ward, presumably inside Frankenstien's lab. As Takeo, M-21, Regis and Rael wait Tao tells them that though the antidote to Kelvin's poison is in their systems they're still in danger due to the time it took to get everything straightened out with the antidote; which seems to have been a legit (Kelvin why were you so stupid?) but imperfect somehow. Rael, having had enough of playing nice, decides it time to settle up with RK-4 making certain to take not of how Tao had him carrying humans around. Tao and Regis manage to placate him though by assuring him that Seira will be pleased with what he did.
Meanwhile, back at the site of the Raizel's battle with Siriana and Urokai, all present stare at Raizel's full red winged form. While everyone is impressed with the power. Frankenstein is horrified by the cost and Urokai, oddly enough, shares that sentiment. Recognizing that Raizel is going all out Urokai and Siriana do the same. Raizel casts one of his blood field tornado's at them and Urokai blows through it while Siriana used the opportunity to try and ambush Raizel from above but is caught and slammed back into the ground. The strain of the act causes Raizel to falter for a moment and cough up some blood. The two ex-clan leaders use the opportunity and launch a cooperative attack resembling a massive crimson dragon. As impressive as it looks Raizel dispels that too.
Finally Raizel calls forth a bunch of blood field tornadoes and informs Siriana and Urokai that under his authority he is sentencing them both to forced eternal sleep. Then he hits them with an attack that resembles a giant crimson and black bird; the flash from which is shown to be easily visible from orbit. Leaving a massive crater and both ex-clan leaders defeated and on their knees.
As Raizel approaches them. Urokai asks Raizel one final question. He asks him if he truly felt no anger upon learning what they had done. Raizel explains to him that he did not, all he felt was sadness. Upon hearing this Urokai seems satisfied and apologizes for causing him sadness and disintegrates into sparkling red ash.
Siriana tells Raizel that he betrayed Lukedonia because he no longer agreed with them and voices his regret that he could not keep himself from changing. Raizel explains to him that change is not wrong, nor was leaving Lukedonia, he just picked the wrong path. Siriana accepts this but says that once he stepped over the line he could never seem to stop and thanks Raizel for stopping him and then he disintegrates as well.
Raizel briefly thinks back to some some better times when Urokai had attempted to brew him tea and Siriana warned him about how terrible it was. As Frankenstein looks at him and realizes from Raizel's expression that his master must have been hoping never to have to pass judgement on his old friends like he did today.
Chapter Review
RIP Urokai, Siriana, and the entire the Korean Peninsula.
RIP Urokai, Siriana, and the entire the Korean Peninsula.
Substance
Well the big fight is over. Urokai and Siriana died in spectacular fashion and Raizel used an ass load of power to make that happen. Two Ex-clan leaders down, four to go.
I'm pretty pleased with the way Raizel's fight against Urokai and Siriana played out. In large part because it wasn't the same old thing. Raizel did, in fact, use the same abilities he generally does and they just didn't work on opponents this strong. His Blood Field got broken and Blood Tornado was something Urokai was able to dispel with force. While they weren't able to land much in the way of attacks on him, in a prolonged battle the life draining nature of his power puts him at a disadvantage. So he was forced to resort to a spectacularly powerful, and probably spectacularly draining attack to end it. This really begs the question, what kind of strength do the remaining four ex-clan leaders have?
The overall situation going forward from this chapter looks like this. Raizel is probably going to be in pretty rough shape, blood coming from the mouth and eye is probably not a sign of good health. Franky is at his limit but in the long term he'll be ok. Seira and Rajak are still in fighting shape but could probably use some medical attention too, especially Seira. So in a bizarre turn of events the strongest potentially combat-ready person still standing is...the Lady Werewolf.
It will be interesting to see what she does because if she wants to escape I doubt anybody is going to be able to stop her; and if she decides she wants to take a shot at the weakened Noblesse she might have a chance of taking him down. The future of this situation is really up to her to dictate. But I suspect her dislike of fighting weakened opponents, her crush of Franky, and a healthy respect for how dangerous Raizel can be will help to keep her non-hostile; if we're lucky she may even borderline friendly. Though the South Korea government is probably going to want to have a word with her about the billions upon billions in property damage.
When they finally get back home from all this the situation they'll find in Frankenstein's lab seems to still be a bit unclear. Shin Woo and the gang are still in danger but, since the antidote seems to have been legit, the danger has been made a little less critical. The way things are now it seems significantly more possible they will be able to come out of it on their own or if not give Franky a chance to fix them up. Though I think there still is a strong possibility that Raizel will do something on his own to help them and in so doing push his body too far; but we'll have to wait and see.
Presentation
The artwork was good this week for the most part. The large scale battle panels had some real artistic flair to them. I particularly liked the way the giant dragon looked and pretty much all the other big attacks didn't lag to far behind that level of quality. Another thing that stands out to me was how well the background art did was blended into the attack panels, making for a more impressive sense of scale. This is something Noblesse has been fairly mediocre at overall so I am happy to see signs of improvement in that area. The weak point was the character detail again (in at least 3 panel's I'd call the art bad) but not bad enough that it will effect the rating.
You may notice I didn't mention the panels in which Urokai and Siriana died. There is a reason for that. To be honest, I didn't like they way they looked. The red stardust thing seemed a little more... "corney" than I would have liked. But this is one of those things that is probably more a matter of taste than anything else. So I'm not going to let it play into my rating either way.
In terms of pacing, it was deliberately slow. The story dragged out the final moments of Urokai and Siriana to the max, in order to give them as satisfying an ending as it could. I think this was very much worthwhile especially when it gave us the opportunity to see Urokai and Siriana through Raizel's eyes. Allowing us to fully appreciate that in his eyes he wasn't just killing a pair of villains but former friends that had gone too far down the wrong path. A subtle yet emotionally significant difference.
Overall Rating
This chapter brought to a close Raizel's battle with two of the former clan leaders and did so in a way that was climactic and satisfying. Leaving a lot of consequences to be worked through in the weeks to come. As good as it was though, I feel that it does fall short of deserving a perfect score.
I give it a 4 our of 5
Predictions Section
New Prediction
The hostilities between the Raizel's group and the Lady Werewolf are over.
Old Predictions: (24 Wins/ 31 Losses)
"Urokai's gonna die." ~ Win
RIP crazy eyepatch guy.
- Rael will lose his next battle to the RK-4.
- I think Lee Youn-In is going to be more than just a soon-to-be-forgotten sub-character. I suspect she may have a role in the plot.
- 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.
- The coming combat arc will be Raizel's last.
- Raizel will be the one to heal the poisoned kids through some means or another.
- At some point the Lady Werewolf will turn on the Union.
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