Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn vol. 20

Robert Altman is back, baby, and he’s fully embraced his inner weeb in the process (Believe it!).  After saving his crew, he’s ready to arrest the head of Poseidon, Labrys.  Before he can do that, he’s got to make it through her sales pitch to have him join her secret science organization.  It turns out that Poseidon’s ambitions will see humankind spread throughout the galaxy.  Well, everyone who’s aligned with them – all those other “insects” can just remain on Earth.  She’s clearly misjudged her audience in this situation, which means that the only thing awaiting Altman now is a final showdown with the robot that almost took his life the last time he encountered it:  Caduceus.

Credit where credit is due:  Labrys gives a properly unhinged megalomaniacal monologue about her plans that she fully believes in and clearly marks her as the villain in this story.  Mangaka Koshi Rikudo and artist Rin Hitotose also go hard with the visuals to showcase the over-the-top nature of her plan.  It almost makes up for the fact that anyone with half a brain will know from the start that there’s no chance in hell that Robert is going to join her.

After that’s done, the volume kicks into high gear as he and Caduceus face off.  It’s honestly surprising how much effort Rikudo and company have put into making this robot have more depth than you’d expect. Caduceus has been deeply conflicted between his programming to obey Labrys and his drive to eliminate Robert and it’s actually interesting to see him struggle with Labrys’ directives.  You still want Robert to kick his ass, and there’s a lot of satisfying work put in here as he and his team try to pull that off, but the robot winds up being a more sympathetic and tragic character than something with his demonic design arguably has a right to be.

I’ll admit that I was so invested in the conflict that I didn’t realize it effectively made vol. 20 a volume-length fight scene until it was over.  I know that this series is set to wrap up in its 26th volume, and now I’m starting to feel a little worried that this current arc is going to continue all the way up until that point.  Volumes like this help me keep the faith that Rikudo and company know what they’re doing even if there’s this nagging feeling that the story might run out of cleverness before it runs out of steam.