Drifters vol. 6

Man, I’d forgotten that vol. 5 was published at the end of 2017.  I thought it had only been a year since it came out and “Drifters” was actually managing something resembling an annual schedule.  Silly me. Anyways, the latest battle in the war against the Black King is getting underway at the start of this volume as Nobunaga attends to its final preparations and Toyohisa  beams with excitement at the fighting to come. Which is pretty impressive as the Black King’s army musters armored giants, dragons, and a ton of orcs to attack the Drifters’ fortified hillside position.  Fortunately they’ve got Nobunaga’s smarts on their side to help counter this numerically superior force. Problem is that the Black King’s team has someone in their ranks who is veeeeeeery familiar with these tactics and is looking to take him out once again.

It’s a good thing that mangaka Kohta Hirano delivers on the action here as it’s the only thing this volume has to offer.  Things like watching the golems get taken down, or seeing Toyohisa commandeer a dragon and turn it on the Black King’s army are pretty awesome.  Problem is that it’s all for naught because this is the part of the story where the protagonists have to lose before they can win again. Seeing that happen is about as much fun as it sounds, especially since it feels like the Ends didn’t really have to do any actual work to succeed here.  I’ll give credit to Hirano for delivering a slam-bang finale as Toyohisa leads some dwarves on a final rampage while Hijikata’s supernatural PTSD looks to get the better of him in the end. Vol. 6 of “Drifters” is a pretty decent read overall, but I expect more from a series when I know that its next volume isn’t likely to be out for another two years.