By Seishi Kishimoto
VIZ, 195 pp.
Rating: Older Teen, 16+

I think it should be a general rule that when a manga makes a four- to five-year transition, it usually ends up being the one of the best things that’s happened in the story. The plot thickens as time goes on, allowing characters to grow. Such is the case for the fourteenth volume of Seishi Kishimoto’s O-Parts Hunter, which comes out this month. For those who haven’t been keeping up with the story, Jio and his friends Kirin, Ruby, Ball, Cross, Jajamaru, and Amidaba are smack dab in the middle of a war between two factions, who are trying to gain control of the 12 Gods and Demons of the Kabbalah and Reverse Kabbalah.

Overall, I would say that the story makes a lot more sense four years into the future, mainly due to the characters. Ball and Jio are the two characters that have made the most drastic changes in the series after the time jump. Ball becomes burdened with the task of finding Jio—with Kirin, Amidaba and Cross’s help—who disappeared after the Rock Bird Battle. He proves himself a much more competent fighter, exhibiting a newer, better version of the Tricky Ball, which is conveniently split into four smaller ones. I’ve always enjoyed magnetism as ability in the shonen world and Ball’s use brings a lot of creativity to the mix.

Jio follows the same route as Ball after four years. He is shockingly more mature, devoting himself to protecting a secret village after they nurse him back to health. The old Jio was obsessed with taking over the world and getting rich, which is still apparent in his character, but like many little kids, he’s outgrown his dreams. His abilities are quite different, also. Instead of lugging around the big old boomerang, he carries a ring that reacts to its opponent’s hatred. Once again, creative usage of abilities makes the characters stronger, replacing the awkward kids we knew with mature, relatable adults. Other characters like Cross and Jajamaru also go through drastic changes but remain in the background of the story, while others like Kirin and Amidaba don’t change at all (which is just fine).

Aside from the character development, the writing doesn’t change all that much. It’s still very fast-paced and straightforward, as most shonen is. I was actually a bit disappointed by this, considering I thought such an epic story was going to have an epic buildup. Kishimoto wastes no time, however, in finding Jio and getting right on with the tale. In addition to the story and characters growing stronger as time goes on, Kishimoto’s art grows as well. With the story being heavily reliant on the characters and their items, Seishi’s artwork has to be very detail-oriented, which is always a treat. Every O-Part looks fantastic and the character designs of the book are wonderful.

Unlike volume twenty-eight of Naruto, this isn’t a good place to pick up the series. Volume fourteen explains the plot well and offers a great amount of violence; however, because many of the character relationships are established very far in the past—as well as the entire idea of O-Parts—many new readers could get lost. It’s funny to compare the two books, though. Recently, I was researching O-Parts Hunter just to get a better gist of the series, when I found out that Seishi Kishimoto and Masashi Kishimoto are actually twin brothers! What a sibling rivalry that would be! All in all, I would recommend O-Parts Hunter as a series to read straight through.

Volume fourteen of O-Parts Hunter will be available on February 10, 2009.