Title: Queen’s Quality Vol. 2
Author: Kyousuke Motomi
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Sci-Fi, Romance
Publication Date: December 5, 2017
The Story
In volume 2 of Queen’s Quality, Ms. Hayashi continues to be infected by the phantasmal bugs. In fact, her case has gotten so severe that a major bug has developed and removing it is going to pose quite the challenge. Simply cleaning it won’t work as they are going to have to find the core and extract it first before they can clean the bug, otherwise it could cost Ms. Hayashi her life.
The entire volume focuses on this mission as Fumi and Kyutaro enter Ms. Hayashi’s mind vault to begin the extermination; however, they are not in there unopposed. Ataru, the bug handler that was responsible for the bug growing out of control, realizes how dire the situation had become. He enters Ms. Hayashi’s mind vault as well where he aims to exterminate the bug, even if it ends up costing him his life. Of course, Ataru and Kyutaro/Fumi run into each other and when Ataru is about to lay down his life to stop the bug, Fumi decides to call on the Queen’s power.
Apparently, there are three Queens inside of her, the Black Queen, the True Queen and a third Queen we know nothing about. Obviously, Fumi enters into a contract with this unknown Queen and even Ataru has no idea who she is. She uses the power of the Queen to extract Ms. Hayashi’s personality and emotions and then uses a command to instantly destroy all bugs plaguing her mind. The Sweepers end up taking Ataru back with them for questioning. The volume doesn’t really end on a cliffhanger, but with Kyutaro reaffirming his determination to be there with Fumi to protect her.
Interesting story points throughout the volume. While the majority of the volume focused on action, they were able to continue the story forward through the dialogue leading up to and during the battle. We also got treated to some nice character development.
Characters
The biggest development point here was with Fumi as the unknown Queen. There was a moment in the volume where Kyutaro recognized her as Fuyu, the girl that he loved so long ago. This seems to be leading us to the notion that Fuyu is a different type of Queen that no one knew about. Ataru mentioned a Black Queen and a True Queen, but they also eluded to the fact that this new Queen would lead Fumi on the path to becoming the True Queen, so the alternative to the Black Queen seems to be an end goal rather than a black and white choice between good and evil. Fumi, herself, became less afraid and a bit more determined to do the right thing. It shows some maturity in her character and I’d like to see this continue with her taking slightly bigger risks as the series goes on.
Ataru surprised me a bit. I didn’t think the bug handlers would show remorse for their actions, but Ataru did. After realizing that the bug he grew was spiraling out of control and beginning to infect others, he knew he had to deal with it himself. This is an odd plot point because I thought that the goal of the bug handlers would be to cause as much infection and chaos as possible. Apparently, Ataru wants to carry out a perfect revenge on this world and his little experiment grew beyond his control and is jeopardizing his plans. I guess that’s a solid enough reason, but the fact that he was willing to lay down his life to stop the bug contradicts that because dead people can’t continue their plans. It was pretty odd to say the least so I’d like to see his character explored some more so I can understand the reasoning behind his logic.
Final Thoughts
This was another great volume of Queen’s Quality that opened up some new questions while growing our characters, something a second volume should be doing. Usually a second volume would also do a bit of world building, but I feel that the lack of that here is due to the fact that they already established that with the three volumes of QQ Sweeper.
I like Fumi’s growth and it was a bit cliché to have Fuyu be this new Queen type. Since this is listed as a romance series, they needed that hook for the Fuyu x Kyutaro relationship. From the moment they suspected Fumi being Fuyu back in QQ Sweeper and with the introduction of multiple Queen personalities in this volume, it was pretty obvious that Fuyu would re-emerge as this new Queen. Still, it was pretty interesting to read and it makes me want to read volume three a bit more; especially after Ataru’s conflicting and confusing actions.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
