I’ve said before that Hinowa ga CRUSH! needs to get better soon. Well, good news: this third volume is an improvement over the others!
Bad news is that it’s still not really spectacular.
Soukai and Tenrou’s battle at Shiranui Fortress officially kicks off here. Kyoukotsu leads the charge by using some of his special and/or enhanced tools like a catapult, and Yomihime supervises-slash-assists in order to see if he’s eligible to join the country’s elite team, the Ten Stars.
Meanwhile, Hinowa tries to prevent any casualties, Hisame defends his beloved princess, Maruge continues being a coward, and Shion tries to figure out what Tenrou is up to once they switch strategies. The latter has the lowlight of the volume when he takes off his loincloth in a dramatic fashion and proclaims he “can make do with a spider”. (Barf…) Ironically (or rather, unfortunately), this connects to a plot point about one particular warrior.
As you would expect, this volume is pretty battle-heavy. With so many main characters as well as key members of Hinowa’s squad, the manga tends to focus on short, fast-paced encounters over long, skilled duels. Enemies go down fast — very fast. It’s hard to get a sense of either sides’ numbers or skill levels when it’s either just a bunch of manga-style slash marks or fallen warriors on each page. Tenrou ends up having both humans and monsters try to take down the fortress, and it’s a conflict of Hollywood fantasy-size proportions. The manga ends with the summoning of the Ten Stars, so I’m guessing Hinowa ga CRUSH! will start mirroring its predecessors with more 1v1, 2v2, etc. battles instead of squads of 30 working in tandem.
Speaking of Akame ga KILL!, someone from one of the prequel series makes an appearance here. But between their new name, the abundance of characters, and my hazy memory, I didn’t even recognize them until I read the blurb on the back about “an unexpected face”. While Hinowa ga CRUSH! has already been relying heavily on Akame’s presence to keep readers interested, I worry that the series may get caught up in its own lore. I’m sure big Akame ga KILL! and Akame ga KILL! Zero fans may enjoy this, but I don’t know if the average manga reader wants to have to keep going back to doublecheck everything. But since I didn’t recognize them at first, maybe it won’t make a difference that this is a returning character and not a new one.
Volume 3, when it takes breaks from battles, features quite a few girls bathing and chests fully exposed. I don’t think this fanservice could be any more obvious if the girls were holding a sign saying “Fanservice time!” Rather than boobs, I was impressed that Hisame’s devotion to a princess he only spoke to once may not be as ridiculous as I initially thought. All of Hinowa’s friends are capable warriors in their own right, but Hisame gets a huge stat boost when Princess Rinzu stops by to encourage her soldiers. This also emphasizes why Hinowa ga CRUSH! should switch to 1v1/2v2 face-offs: Hisame vs. his opponent is much easier to be emotionally invested in, and strelka’s average-to-below-average art is better suited to the fiery passion of someone protecting others than awkward smiles or large-scale conflicts.
Still, volume 3 ends with me not totally be down about this series, which is exactly what I wanted so see — or rather, feel. I still don’t think Hinowa ga CRUSH! will ever match its predecessors, but at least this one isn’t the low-level work of its first two volumes.