Asadora, is still spunky in this role, making this manga one filled with action and true to the style of Urasawa, as the artistic work displays scenery that is simply eye catching willing your eyes to gather up all the images before taking in the words. This volume finally allows Asadora to meet the dreaded monster. Though the carrot is dangled a bit too long for this, the fact that the character finally gets to respond this nemesis.

This particular volume amplifies the impending kaiju terror through well-balanced and human problems from a photographer potentially leaking the pilot's identity to Asa's friend's opportunity to break into stardom. I am enthralled by how Urasawa makes each plot point relevant and suspenseful to Asa's distress (whether she knows it or not), after all, she is a high school girl who can pilot an airplane. Part of the fun reading this is seeing how all these plots will unfold once the true disaster comes. Asa is a survivor of a previous kaiju attack, and to see all these established relationships at risk of a bombshell, I can only wonder how she will make it out. And more often than not, how will she confront this monster?

Simply put, it is another brilliant installment for a series with great potential. I look forward to the next one.

The stakes are getting higher in the plots and subplots! To be honest, I didn't love what looked like a double whammy human trafficking / rape subplot with Asadora's friends, but the ramping up of the main monster storyline is getting exciting. Is the monster just a metaphor for suppressed post-war trauma?

After a moderate slowdown in the previous volume <i>Asadora!</i> is back on track as the monster appears off Enoshima Light, swamping a fishing vessel. That means that the government is in a panic to mobilize, especially since the opening ceremonies of the Olympics are a mere 24 hours away.

A lot of things come close to reaching their zenith in this volume, which is a welcome change from volume three, and they should make for a crowded volume five. Asa takes off with the young scientist at night to see the monster, her mentor pursues a reporter who has been taking photos of Asa and the plane thinking they're anarchists, the youngest brother gets sick, Yone's big break into showbiz is looking super duper shady, and Miyako, following after her, is taken by some ubiquitous manga thugs. Only so many of these things can be counted on to come out okay next time, which feels like a metaphor for the shifts the world was going through in the 1960s. Nothing that held true before WWII could really be counted on anymore, and understanding that the safe world of before is gone feels like the underlying theme of the volume.

As metaphors for the 60s go, it's a pretty good one. But I think it's going to take more than peace and love to get everyone through the next book intact.

This volume turns things up a notch, both in the slice of life parts and the secret kaiju chasers bits! A big storm has arrived, drenching the area in rain. Yone, one of Asa's friends, comes to Asa's house one morning to ask Asa to go to an audition with her. Asa can't go, she has to be ready to fly in case the monster appears, but she can't tell her friend that. As they hurry off to school, A-Kura, the bodyguard, is waiting outside; it seems he got a parking violation and his car has been towed, cutting off his communication. The girls go on their way, and A-Kura hears a camera nearby, but can't tell who it might have been. At the airport, Kasuga discovered signs of a break-in at their hanger, and finds a space close by being rented by a newspaper reporter who has been spying on them. When the reporter shows up, Kasuga confronts him, demanding his camera and film, along with all the photos he's taken. A car chase ensues, ending in an accident that ties up Kasuga, keeping him unavailable. Meanwhile, there's been another sighting near the Enoshima lighthouse- the time has come! Asa is collected at school and is about to fly the plane herself, when the research assistant arrives with important information about the monster, and volunteers to fly with her. What will they see out there in the storm?
In the slice of life parts of the story, we have drama between Asa and her two friends, each asking Asa to keep an eye on the other- one is doing secret things, the other knows something's up and wants to know what it is. With Asa distracted, Yone goes to her audition alone, and the other friend (I can't remember her name) follows her, and sees her meeting a man in a cafe. She accidentally bumps into a couple of guys, who become menacing when she knocks them over. We're left worrying about both girls in another city, involved with sketchy men who are likely up to no good, and no lie, I'm more worried about them than the monster right now. Where's Volume 5? I need to know what happens!

#AsadoraVol4 #NetGalley

When I reviewed the previous volume of Naoki Urasawa’s Asadora! I said that since the author was playing the long game regarding what the Kaiji is, the next installment would most likely feature the first confrontation between the monster and our protagonist, Asa Asada. On the basis of this volume’s opening chapter entitled “The Day It Appears,” are we finally getting some kaiju action?

When Asa reluctantly agrees to accompany her friend Yone to an audition at an entertainment agency, Mr. Jissoji arrives at their high school with the news that the mysterious creature has been spotted. With Kasuga nowhere to be found, due to chasing down a reporter who is determined to reveal the details of the classified mission, Asa prepares to take flight to identify the creature along with Nakaido, who claims to have found the creature’s weakness.

By this point in the story Asa, who already has a lot on her plate, has been given the tough challenge of surveilling a mysterious large threat to the Tokyo Olympics, an event that will allow the country to prosper. Although the central relationship between Asa and Kasuga is split up due to unforeseen circumstances they both still remain compelling characters off in their own situations. The former makes her stance to take care of her sickly brother, whilst the latter is on a desperate chase for the truth not to come out.

Although you can praise Urasawa for exploring the complexity of humanity throughout his works including this title, there is still a sense of frustration in that we have to see the creature in its full glory. There are many gears from other corners that the author wants to explore, not just the central mystery, and so the ongoing wait for what is really the selling point of this manga can get a bit tedious. As always, some of the supporting cast isn’t that interesting as the subplot featuring Yone takes up a good chunk of this volume and whilst I’m not sure where it’s going, it has its own cliffhanger that could have consequences for a number of characters.

The one thing that continues to reign supreme with this series is Urasawa’s exquisite art, which ranges from his expressive character designs to his highly-detailed environments. With the whole volume taking place in the heavy rain, it just adds an extra layer to the art, especially during some moments of tension from a car chase to a street squabble, all of which are done through impressive line-work. On a side note, although manga in general is predominately drawn in black and white, the few colored pages of Asadora! make you wish the whole book were colorized.

In the end Naoki Urasawa is still playing the long game with the central mystery, which is very frustrating, though there is still enough to like about this volume that hopefully the next installment will really deliver.

Asadora! Volume Four starts bringing together the various plotlines introduced in the series up to this point.

Asadora! Volume Four
Written by: Naoki Urasawa
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: October 19, 2021

The volume opens with two fishermen seeing the mysterious creature, and this is an important plot point that sets the stage for what is going to happen in this volume. However, right after this the focus shifts to Asa taking care of her siblings and trying to get them out the door to school. But it seems that just about anything that can go wrong is going wrong, and so chaos ensues. Asa can’t focus on any one sibling to notice that anything could potentially be amiss. It doesn’t help that Yone suddenly shows up and has left home due to a disagreement with her parents. They don’t know about the meeting with the talent scout that’s supposed to happen that day, and the argument she had arises over trying to get tickets for the Olympic opening ceremony.

As Asa and Yone head off to school, they see A-Kura standing out in the rain. It turns out his car had been towed while he was at breakfast because the authorities are cracking down on traffic violations due to the Olympics. Asa has a good laugh at this turn of events, but as we see later, this is going to cause some serious issues.

Meanwhile, Kasuga discovers that a reporter has been snooping around the hangar and has taken pictures of Asa. Kasuga has a confrontation with the reporter, and it leads to a chase between the two of them in the rain. It culminates into a car chase, with the reporter hitting someone walking down the road. While this gives Kasuga the opportunity to make a deal with the reporter for the pictures and negatives, this event is going to have negative repercussions for what happens later in the volume.

At the Enoshima lighthouse, B-To is trying to contact A-Kura about a sighting of the monster but is unable to get through to him because of his car being towed. Since he is not in possession of the car, A-Kura is unable to hear the calls being sent to it. After being unable to reach A-Kura, there are attempts to contact Kasuga… but because Kasuga is chasing after the reporter, he is unable to be reached as well. The gentleman in charge of the entire operation takes it upon himself to pick up Asa at school. After Asa is picked up, they can’t simply go to the airfield right away, because Asa was supposed to pick up her younger brother from kindergarten since Kinuyo is working an important catering gig. When they pick up her brother, he is dizzy and has a high fever. Asa didn’t notice he wasn’t feeling well due to all of the chaos of the morning. At this point, you can see that the tension is already high because Asa really needs to be getting to the airfield. When it looks like they have to lose more time in order to take Asa’s brother to the hospital, A-Kura shows up with his car after getting it back. He offers to take the child to the hospital so Asa can be taken to the airfield for her mission. As these various distractions come up, the reader can just feel the tension building. I found myself wondering if Asa was going to be able to make it to the airfield on time.

But prior to all of that, Miyako tries talking to Asa at school about Yone, because she thinks their mutual friend is hiding something. Asa tries to play dumb, but Miyako still has her suspicions. As we see later in the volume, Miyako follows Yone after school. Just as Miyako sees Yone meeting up with the talent scout, Miyako has a run-in with some men. With a shot we see at the end of the volume, it hints that something may have happened to Miyako. Hopefully the next volume will at least give the reader a hint as to what happened. But as I read the part with Yone meeting with the talent scout, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this talent scout is not to be trusted. I have some serious concerns about what this scout’s true intentions are for Yone. The last we see of her, Yone is accompanying the scout out of a restaurant to an audition.

Nakaido, meanwhile, discovers that amongst what he thinks is garbage in his mentor’s old notes, is a description of what the monster’s weakness is. He is brought to the airfield, armed with his newly found information. Since Kasuga is unavailable, Asa will have to pilot the plane on her own. And it’s stressed to her to not use any of the plane’s weapons on the monster unless her life is at risk. Nakaido realizes there’s a second seat on the plane and demands that he accompany Asa because he has valuable information. The two of them take off in the plane, and right at the end of the volume, they see the monster up close and personal.

Phew! A lot of important plot points take place in this volume. Not only that, but the urgency of the situation is perfectly captured by Urasawa throughout the entire volume. I also thought the fact that it’s been raining for days prior to the start of this volume, and the fact that it’s raining throughout this entire volume, helped add to the atmosphere and the sense of urgency that’s present in Volume Four. I was so engrossed by what I was reading that I just wanted to keep going and not stop for any reason.

Even though a lot of events are taking place in this volume, there are enough cliffhangers for the various storylines at the end of this volume that I found that I really want to be able to read Asadora! Volume Five in order to find out what’s going to happen to the various characters.

The fourth volume of Naoki Urasawa's incredible ongoing series, Asadora!, brings all the fun, mystery, and suspense Urasawa is known for! The dynamic between Asa and her school friends, and Nakaido, is lots of fun to read and adds some much-needed lightheartedness to a series about a girl whose family was killed kaiju. The translation and lettering are also stellar, as expected of John Werry and Steve Dutro (the latter of which has lettered every English Urasawa release sans the original 20th Century Boys run and Pluto), and I look forward to seeing them flaunt their hard work on future volumes!

The monster appears. Asa must fly the plane alone to determine what it is. In the meantime, Asa's schoolmate has an audition.