KageTora Vol. #08

By Matthew Alexander     June 20, 2008
Release Date: January 30, 2008



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Akira Segami
Translated by:Satsuki Yamashita
Adapted by:Nunzio DeFilipis and Christina Weir

What They Say
Kagetora is in love with his student, Yuki, and that's a big no-no. His duty as a ninja is to train and protect her, but his heart has taken him places no ninja can ever go. Now Kagetora's brother Taka is in town to test Yuki - which only strains the relationship between Kagetora and his charge. Will Taka's presence cause more problems for a pair who already have too many?

The Review
Kagetora just can't seem to gain either of his two brothers confidence. Every time he turns around, one of his older brothers is checking up on him. This time, it is the somewhat enigmatic brother Taka. Upon his arrival, Taka informs Kagetora and Yuki that they are being tested to see if Yuki has improved since her grandmother's last visit. If Yuki can successfully strike Taka, then she has improved. If she doesn't succeed, then grandmother will return to train Yuki and inevitably give Kagetora a ton of grief. Maybe Yuki should get drunk before she faces Taka? After all, she is super strong when she's tipsy.

Yuki has more to worry about than her ball-and-chain wielding grandmother. It seems Yuki has put on a few pounds. This would bother most high school girls, but with as often as Kagetora carries her, Yuki is terrified that he will notice. This leads to ninja endurance training with Sakuya, who just happens to be visiting. This scenario ends up being funny as both girls secretly envy each other's physique, since they both think Kagetora likes the others attributes better. This actually leaves me wondering what Kagetora's true preference would be, all other things between Yuki and Sakuya being equal.

The last four chapters of this volume are out of sequence stories from a different magazine than the magazine running the current series. These chapters are from when Kagetora and Yuki are juniors in high school (currently they are seniors). I am not sure exactly how these chapters ended up making it into the book, but they seem out of context (not just sequentially). The first chapter is a rerun of earlier training sessions between Kagetora and Yuki. The later chapters are interesting, as Yuki more aggressively shows her feelings for Kagetora. I like that aspect of these chapters, but it is ultimately out of context for Yuki's character as far as the previous seven volumes are concerned. Ultimately, I think the inclusion of these 'special' chapters annoyed me more than anything else.

The Packaging grade bumps back up with this volume as the alignment issues that plagued volume 7 has been fixed. Unfortunately, this does not fix the problem with Kagetora's story. This series suffers from the prolonging of a mildly interesting premise. I believe Kagetora would have a good pace and hold my interest much better if the entire series was wrapped up in 5 to 7 volumes.