Title: For the Kid I Saw in My Dreams Vol. 9
Author: Kei Sanbe
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 210
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Publication Date: December 13, 2022
The Story
As we inch closer to the end of the series, things are, naturally heating up! In this volume, the race to the Fire Man heightens as Wakazono begins to take some more extreme measures to achieve his goals. Those extreme measures draw Kazuto’s ire and that may end up inhibiting Wakazono’s plans. On the other side, Senji continues his investigation into finding Kazuto.
In the last volume, Senri had a vision of a burning building and due to the wonderful technology of “Goggle Road View” Senri finds the building he saw. Once he arrives, he meets an old woman there who used to be the superintendent of the building. She speaks of a murder that happened in the river and then pins the murder on Senri! When that happens, they know Kazuto had, indeed, been there. After everything had been straightened out, the old woman said she would reach out to a contact that had some information.
That contact, unfortunately, was in the vicinity of the copycat Three Eyes when he was talking to Senri. Because as such, Copycat now knows of Senri’s involvement. Because as such, he begins to scheme of a way to get Senri involved… and does so by leaking information to a DigTuber (parody of YouTube) who blows the whistle on it all. With the video going viral, Senri is about to be challenged in ways he never conceived.
Characters
The majority of the development in this volume was placed on Wakazono. We, once again, dig into his past and reassert his motives for his actions. However, we also see him rapidly degenerating before our very eyes. When we last left off in volume eight, Wakazono and Kazuto had a face-to-face meeting. Here in volume nine, Kazuto flat out told Wakazono that there would be consequences if he involved his family. That was a stern message as clear as day; however, Wakazono’s thirst for revenge on the Fire Man is stronger than any threat. He has quickly degenerated into a highly motivated, yet, unstable man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal, threats or not.
What this does is it overshadows Fire Man as the main antagonist of the series. Rather than coming off as the “big evil,” the Fire Man now just seems like a back-burner goal for everyone involved. In a way, this sets up Wakazono as the main antagonist of the series but it’s also done so in a way where it makes Fire Man immune to irrelevancy. With Fire Man being responsible for Wakazono’s father’s murder, and Senri’s parent’s murder, AND turning Kazuto into a murderer himself which then he became the object of Kazuto’s ire when he didn’t need him anymore, the Fire Man, just on history alone, has done more than any antagonist in this series… including Wakazono.
The fact that Fire Man is literally just sitting off camera, doing nothing, and letting all of his past work turn our entire cast into puppets is brilliant. The ability to turn someone like Wakazono into a main antagonist while keeping Fire Man extremely relevant is amazing development.
Honestly, think about it. What has Fire Man done at all in this series in the present time? Outside of having Kazuto work alongside him on jobs, he hasn’t really done anything. Everything our main characters have gone through was based on things the Fire Man did in the past. He planted his seeds and this entire series is us watching him harvest his crops. Again, with Kazuto being the exception to all of this, explaining lore that happened before the story through the story itself and showing how it impacts our cast is simply brilliant.
I will say that Kei Sanbe dropped the ball a bit with ERASED in terms of character development but the way things are handled here is a very fine redemption in my eyes.
Final Thoughts
With two volumes left, we now have a clear vision of the end. Senri, Wakazono, and Kazuto are now intermixed with each other. All three of them have the goal of killing the Fire Man but Kazuto will be in Wakazono’s way while Wakazono will be in Senri’s way. Because Kazuto doesn’t want family involved… Senri will now be in Kazuto’s way indirectly. Meanwhile, Fire Man sits back and just takes it all in.
I can see this little three-way scuffle ending in the next volume, though. Moves have been made to set up a huge confrontation. Either it will end in the next volume or spill in the final volume with the final chapters being dedicated to someone finally claiming Fire Man’s life. Or… maybe the biggest plot twist ever and everyone just dies and Fire Man lives!
Yeah… I’m pretty sure this series would get destroyed by readers if that happened… like.. even more than Domestic na Kanojo! Either way, the ending, so far, is extremely interesting and thrilling. I can’t wait to see where we end up!
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
