Volume: 7 (of 10+)
Creator: ONE and Yusuke Murata
Format: Right-to-Left
Original Publisher: Shueisha
US Publisher: Viz
Release Date: 7/5/16
Pages: 216
ISBN: 1421585286
MSRP: $9.99
Genre: Shonen Jump
Rated: T (Teens)
Description: Nothing about Saitama passes the eyeball test when it comes to superheroes, from his lifeless expression to his bald head to his unimpressive physique. However, this average-looking guy has a not-so-average problem-he just can't seem to find an opponent strong enough to take on!
When aliens invade Earth, a group of Class-S heroes finally finds a way to fight back and go on the offensive. Inside the enemy mother ship, Saitama fights Boros. Faced with the alien’s frightful power, he decides to get serious! What is the Earth’s fate?!
Contains Punch 35-37:
- Punch 35: The Fight
- Punch 36: Boros's True Strength
- Punch 37: Crash
- Bonus Manga: Big Construction
- Bonus Manga: A Top Pupil's Reminiscence
- Bonus Manga: Pork Cutlet Bowl
Review:
Cover: The cover for this volume features Boros, the current villain of this story arc, holding the world in his hands. Saitama sits on top of the world, just looking dazed and confused. The series title is on the top of the cover, in purple lettering. The volume number is on the lower left corner, with a red back ground and white lettering.
The spine from top-to-bottom contains the Shonen Jump brand logo, the series title, the volume number, the mangakas, an image of Boros, and the VIZ company logo.
The back cover features some of the other heroes in action poses hovering around a building with a ton of destruction on the ground below them. The volume summary is on the lower left portion of the cover, white text on a purple background.
I really love this cover, but then again most of the covers for this series have been handled exceptionally well. The portrayal of the villain, and actually the first villain in this series who has actually caused a significant amount of problems for all the heroes, and how he literally holds the planet in his hands is just a great representation of how bad ass Boros is. What really strikes me as amazing to is a lot of Shonen Jump titles used repeatable art at certain parts of the covers; this series however used unique art at every possible angle of the cover, which just shows how creative the cover designer was with this series!
The spine from top-to-bottom contains the Shonen Jump brand logo, the series title, the volume number, the mangakas, an image of Boros, and the VIZ company logo.
The back cover features some of the other heroes in action poses hovering around a building with a ton of destruction on the ground below them. The volume summary is on the lower left portion of the cover, white text on a purple background.
I really love this cover, but then again most of the covers for this series have been handled exceptionally well. The portrayal of the villain, and actually the first villain in this series who has actually caused a significant amount of problems for all the heroes, and how he literally holds the planet in his hands is just a great representation of how bad ass Boros is. What really strikes me as amazing to is a lot of Shonen Jump titles used repeatable art at certain parts of the covers; this series however used unique art at every possible angle of the cover, which just shows how creative the cover designer was with this series!
Artwork: The artwork for this series is stunning. What I love about it so much is that it really goes for what American comics are known for, HUGE SPLASH PAGES! This volume is no joke there as we get the final part of the Boros story arc and an amazing display of page after page of Saitama releasing his last attack in slow mo and it is GLORIOUS! The art never lacks any finesse as it stays consistent from cover to cover and never misses a single beat. Honestly I don't know who doesn't read this series yet just for the awesome fight scenes alone. If you don't you seriously need to check it out, especially this volume and how crazy the art was ramped up for it.
Translation: Characters, attacks, locations, cultural references and pretty much everything else you can think of remains unchanged. Sound effects however have been altered to English.
Extras: There's literally three massive bonus chapters in this volume. All of them deal with the aftermath of the Boros story arc, but they are all about individual characters. Well worth the time to read and all give insight to some of the lesser known S and A Rank heroes.
Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): This volumes content was relatively short this time around as there was literally only three chapters and lots of splash pages, but it doesn't really go for it being that bad of an addition to the series. This review though for this portion might be a bit shorter then normal though.
The fight outside the giant space ship with the other S and A Rank heroes reaches its climax against the alien general trying to prevent the heroes from getting inside to help out Saitama fight Boros. They all work together to find his weak point and manage to take care of him within the first couple of pages of the first chapter.
We then move onto the big fight, Boros vs. Saitama. This fight pretty much rounds out the rest of the manga's main story as the two battle it out and battle it out hard. There's even an instance where Boros manages to punch Saitama so hard he ends up on the moon itself, how he gets back to Earth you guys just need to read it to see!
In the end, Saitama eventually wins with a Splash page soiree that goes on for about 15 pages of just amazing imagery. Saitama brings down the whole UFO and saves the earth from total destruction. The final scenes has Metal Knight finally showing up to scavenge the wreckage for alien technology to help him improve his hero status (even though he didn't fight at all) as well as Amai Mask, the Number 1 rated A Rank who basically tells the other S Ranks he is the strongest hero, and he chooses to stay Number 1 A Rank so no one else can join the S Ranks. This may be a problem later for Saitama, but we really don't know where this is going yet. Peace begins anew for the remainder of the volume, so nothing really of a cliffhanger to lead onto V.08 yet, just a few unanswered questions.
As a whole, I really enjoyed the volume. We had a nice conclusion to this story, but I wish there was a little more character development. The introduction of Amai Mask though was a pretty interesting concept. Hopefully we dive a bit more into his mysteriousness in future volumes, cause I can't wait till we see Saitama at least get to Number 2 A Rank and have to find a way to get past this new challenger to move on to the big leagues!
Objectionable Content:
The fight outside the giant space ship with the other S and A Rank heroes reaches its climax against the alien general trying to prevent the heroes from getting inside to help out Saitama fight Boros. They all work together to find his weak point and manage to take care of him within the first couple of pages of the first chapter.
We then move onto the big fight, Boros vs. Saitama. This fight pretty much rounds out the rest of the manga's main story as the two battle it out and battle it out hard. There's even an instance where Boros manages to punch Saitama so hard he ends up on the moon itself, how he gets back to Earth you guys just need to read it to see!
In the end, Saitama eventually wins with a Splash page soiree that goes on for about 15 pages of just amazing imagery. Saitama brings down the whole UFO and saves the earth from total destruction. The final scenes has Metal Knight finally showing up to scavenge the wreckage for alien technology to help him improve his hero status (even though he didn't fight at all) as well as Amai Mask, the Number 1 rated A Rank who basically tells the other S Ranks he is the strongest hero, and he chooses to stay Number 1 A Rank so no one else can join the S Ranks. This may be a problem later for Saitama, but we really don't know where this is going yet. Peace begins anew for the remainder of the volume, so nothing really of a cliffhanger to lead onto V.08 yet, just a few unanswered questions.
As a whole, I really enjoyed the volume. We had a nice conclusion to this story, but I wish there was a little more character development. The introduction of Amai Mask though was a pretty interesting concept. Hopefully we dive a bit more into his mysteriousness in future volumes, cause I can't wait till we see Saitama at least get to Number 2 A Rank and have to find a way to get past this new challenger to move on to the big leagues!
Objectionable Content:
- Language: No
- Violence: Yes
- Nudity: No
- Sexual Situations: No
Score:
Cover: 10/10
Artwork: 10/10
Translation: 8/10
Extras: 10/10
Story: 8/10
Cover: 10/10
Artwork: 10/10
Translation: 8/10
Extras: 10/10
Story: 8/10
Overall Rating: 9/10
Where Purchased: Anime Expo 2016 (VIZ Booth)
Original Review Date: 8/8/16
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