Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn vol. 22

This is a thicker-than-usual volume of the series, which implies that SOME STUFF is about to go down inside of it.  That it certainly does, except it happens in a way that doesn’t really play to “Pandora’s” strengths.  The series has really done a good job conveying the emotional intensity of its characters’ individual plotlines, and that’s continued here to a certain extent as we see what happens after Clarion finally confesses to Nene that she’s an android and not the full-body cyborg that Nene thought she was.  While it’s nice to have  some closure on this, and the wordless yuri-infused sequence that follows is lovely to see, it’s lacking in drama because anyone who has read up to this point will know exactly how Nene is going to respond and there are no surprises there.

What follows is “Pandora” trying to trade on spectacle over drama as Labrys finally encounters the one character with plot armor stronger than hers.   I’ll admit that it’s a little impressive to see things scale up to cyber-Japanese-divinity levels of power, and a little satisfying to see the villain actually struggle for a bit here.  The problem is that this series doesn’t deliver on the awe-inspiring nature of the fight they’re trying to convey.  Again, “Pandora’s” strengths have always been character-driven as opposed to what the creators are trying to show off here.  It all makes for a climactic volume that, while not completely unsatisfying, feels like it has misjudged what has kept me reading up to this point.  Hopefully writer Koshi Rikudo and artist Rin Hitotose will be able to scale things back down to relatable levels as this series moves into its final act as it’ll be wrapping up in vol. 26… sometime in 2028.