On the upside, the plot of Waqwaq receives some much-needed clarification in this volume. Unfortunately, it’s still pretty convoluted.
Two thousand years in the past, three magi created a race of machines and a race of black-blooded humans and set them in conflict. They also created machines known as gojin-zou, which, when bonded with a human, become a Guardian. When machines threaten humans, Guardians engage them in battle, culiminating in the gojin-zou devouring the machine’s heart and absorbing its wish. In volume one, one of the magi summons the Kami, a red-blooded human of legend, and nudges the Guardians into competition for the right to have her grant a single wish. So basically, the gojin-zou collect wishes from the humans that wield them and the machines (including the other Guardians’ gojin-zou) they defeat. The last Guardian standing will have access to everyone’s wishes when he uses an ancient machine called Spider’s Thread to have his wish granted. What’s sorely lacking in that explanation is why the magi would hatch such a time-consuming and complicated scheme.
Clearing up the point of the story is the primary focus of this volume, but it does offer some fun shonen adventure when Shio, the hero, must face off against two other Guardians as he strives to reach the Kami, who’s been whisked off to Spider’s Thread. Clichés like the idiotic-but-spirited protagonist and his former rival turned ally abound, and the attempts at comedy fall flat, but Waqwaq still succeeds in being a fairly intriguing read. It’s a short series, too, so reading two more volumes to see how it all ends doesn’t seem like a daunting prospect.
Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.
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