Blood Blockade Battlefront vol. 8

Here’s the latest volume of the other Dark Horse manga series to get a reprieve thanks to two successful anime series.  I say other series because between “Battlefront” and “Drifters” this is clearly the lesser of the two titles.  It’s still not without its charms as the opening story in this volume shows.  The Libra team has a new potential sponsor lined up and he’s invited them to the most exclusive restaurant in Hellsalem’s Lot, a place where the fusion of human and demon cuisine leaves its customers in a state of rapture.  Given the low-class vibe most of the Libra members have, the setup is rife with comic potential which mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow delivers on in ways both expected and not.  Nightow even finds time for some well-placed action as Leo manages an unexpected team-up during his bathroom break to save the restaurant from a bad man and his demon menagerie.

The other story in this volume, which takes up its remaining two-thirds, isn’t as fun because it prioritizes drama and action over comedy.  It still has some interesting bits to it as it kicks off with Zap — on the brink of death after having his ass kicked, again — being brought to a hospital in Hellsalem’s Lot for treatment.  Now, this hospital is strange even by the city’s standards because the last time it made an appearance was when the Beyond first merged with New York and Klaus and Steven had to defend the hospital from a Blood Breed and his parasitic pet dog.  The action is solid, if occasionally hard to follow, and I thought Doctor Estevez’s transformation was pretty interesting.  Yet the story never really manages to become anything more than one where generic bad guys attack the hospital and our heroes defeat them.  When you’ve got someone like Nightow bringing his style and imagination to it that means the results will likely never be anything less than “fine.”  Still, I’m left hoping that the remaining two volumes in this cycle of “Battlefront” are more like the volume’s first story than its second.