I’m noticing I’m on a bit of a “Hiro Mashima” binge with the last few posts- his series and One Piece, mostly. Can’t say why. For One Piece, there’s some…………………. BIG STORY THINGS Happening For A 25 Year Old Manga. And for Mashima, between this and Edens Zero(which is getting ready to end, which explains that)- He has become a Personal Favorite of Mine. 3 out of his 4 Main Series have been some of my best reads; I find his art style appealing; I’ve learned to enjoy both the Good and the Bad of his writing style; his character’s are incredibly memorable with striking designs; he’s just………………… EXTREMELY GOOD At His Job. And because I’m trying a “quality over quantity” approach to making, I guess I “honed in” on these 3. That said, I was in the middle of the recent “Edens Zero” review by the time this chapter came out. It’s not that I tried to “wrap things up quick;” it was more like “I lost the plot a little and wanted to get to the point so I can come do this.” Because– after what felt like MONTHS of being incapable of doing a proper review(which- you know- kind of literal)- I think I can FINALLY do a proper review for a chapter. “Famous Last Words” echoes in my clogged ear(yeah, I have a clogged ear at the moment. I’ll spare you the details and simply tell you that’s it’s kept me from getting a proper night sleep for the last few day)………………..

This chapter has something to it more in line with those early chapters; stuff that I can actually- ya know- “Dig Into.” Yakuto’s powers get explained a little more; more World Building; and more characterization for our Main character. I sh!t you not, Yakuto is my favorite character in this series- maybe my favorite Mashima Protagonist to date. Definitely ahead of Natsu, if nothing else(which ain’t sayin’ much, let me tell you); Haru and Shiki have a similar “quality” to them that Yakuto has- that “determination” and “strength of character” to protect that which they value most: Their Friends. Haru has moments of anger, but would sooner find a way to “have it all” than one or the other; Shiki will pick his friends and everyone who’s got a problem with it can suck it; Natsu and the Fairy Tail guild are all on the same page that “Us vs Them- Even if It’s The Entire World;” and then there’s Yakuto. His goal is not “Protect My Friends” or “Save The World-” He’s Out To Kill The Guy Who Took His Life Away From Him. The other 3 would “Find A Reason To Keep Living-“ Yakuto’s On His “Revenge” Arc. But…………. as we see with a certain One Armed Ninja- Revenge Leads To Self Destruction. This chapter reveals what Yakuto’s “Trade Off” was. And what he plans to Do About It. Let’s Begin. Dead Rock Chapter 12: “White Calamity.”

Overview

Picking Up From The Previous Chapter: Vice Principal Bren Has Come For The Book That Contains God’s Weakness– and he’ll stop at nothing to get it back before God finds out he screwed up. To this end- he’s taken his Full Gigant form. Reisen does not want to be involved with this right now, but…………  no choice at the moment. Even Zelecia goes into “Battle Mode,” to Mikoto’s surprise.   Bren doesn’t feel like it right now, and decides to just kill them all with a tree he ripped out of the ground. Everyone narrowly avoids the attack, and Frey jumps in to burn the tree. Hani and Zel pull off a Joint Attack, and Bren- tanks both hits. He attacks, and Zel is okay- but Hani’s broke all over again. Reisen figures any Giants weakness would be their legs, but that line of thinking is proven so embarrassingly WRONG when Bren jumps over his attack- then thunderously lands on the ground. 

Mikoto tries her Zombie Horde. Crushed in one hit, with Yakuto only barely able to save her. Yakuto tells Reisen to give him a boost up to Bren’s face. He’s flung up there with a Powerful punch, but– Nada. Swatted like a fly. But then– Bren starts to become……………….. incoherent; as if he’s starting to lose himself in the form. So as bad as he was BEFORE- he’s about to be a Whole Lot Worse. Class F realizes this, and ponder the idea of bailing. Not that he’d let them do that even if he was still in his right mind. He picks up the old Level Gate of Deep Cry Forest, and tries to slam it on them- only to end up activating it and undoing Magoo Magee’s Seal On it, releasing The White Calamity From Level 2007 Of The Demon Realm. Some people think it a tribute to Akira Toriyama. Considering he chose to draw Shenron over Weisslogia from Fairy Tail- I’d Believe It.

In whatever case: The White Calamity starts blasting everything in sight, and turns its attention to Bren. Before we get to the Kaiju Battle, though: Magoo Magee reveals that she’s alive, having made a magic double of herself before Bren could grab her. And she’s none to happy with these Kids for setting such a Monster free- it’s was sealed off for a F*ckin’ Reason. As such, she tells them to “take responsibility” and stop it from destroying her home. And Yakuto is all for it. He latches on to the Dragons, planning to seal it away again- WITHIN HIS OWN BODY!! Zelecia Explains: Yakuto put a Curse on himself; in exchange for the ability to go Full On Black Dragon– in exchange for some of his own Life Force. And he’s going to do the same thing to the White Calamity- giving up some of his life force to seal the Calamity within himself, to the shock of everyone. Zelecia warns him that excessive usages of the curse will result in his death, but Yakuto refuses to back down in his pursuit of Power– In Pursuit Of Defeating God. He fully absorbs it, becoming a Mostly White(his right arm is black) version of his Full Dragon Mode. 

Bren can only look on in abject shock as to what’s transpiring in front of him, as Magoo reveals that this merger of the Dragons of Black and White is an entity spoken of only in the Creation Records Of the Demon Realm: The Mythical “White-And-Black Dragon!!!” Not my “favorite” name, Mashima; I think you could have done better than that……………….

REVIEW

You know what? I only came to the realization as I was rereading the end of the chapter to make the “Overview” section: This is a f*ckin’ Pokemon reference. For the sake of not having to say “White-and-Black” a million times over, I’m just going to call them “WB Dragons.” I know Warner Bros isn’t the Western animation world’s favorite place at the moment(doesn’t seem like any major studio is at this point(Disney)), but he specifically did “White-And-Black” instead of the regular “Black-And-White(he said like this couldn’t be an English release only thing for this sole chapter),” so we’re just gonna roll with it. NOW: The Pokemon Kyruem is known for being an “Incomplete” pokemon- the main body of some Mythical Dragon from like Legends: Arceus time, in which Kyruem was split into a weakened version of itself, Zekrom, and Reshiram. It’s Black 2 And White 2 data even suggests that it’s “awaiting the day it becomes whole again.” When I made that connection to Kyruem, and taking what Magoo said at the end about it being in the Demon Realm’s “Creation Records,” I started thinking: 

WB Dragons Are The Originals.

Some time after the creation of the Demon Realm- when the dust settled- the WB Dragons were split into “Black Dragons” and “White Calamities.” Black Dragons went off and bread with Demons, bestowing them with Black Dragon Blood and thus Yakuto’s Village was born. While the White Calamities were locked into level 2007 somehow. Which is just- CRAZY to me that there are still levels lower the 666- the Number associated with H#ll. Didn’t expect that, Mashima. Then again, it never was said that Level 666 was the “deepest part of the Demon Realm-” that’s just something I figured because of the number. Which makes me question how many levels this place has. We now know that it goes as high as 2,007, but Bren doesn’t specify if that’s the “lowest level.” I looked into that, by the way; why a Dragon Ball reference was put at level 2,007. I couldn’t find anything “Dragon ball” related for 2007. And yeah; I think it’s a reference to Shenron. Toriyama’s passing was A Big Shock to the world, so I imagine Mashima wanted to pay tribute to him. And he’s always liked drawing Dragons- they’ve somehow made their way into all 4 of his works. But I think this might be his first time ever drawing an Eastern Style Dragon; he mostly draws ones closer to the western idea. 

Now that I’ve rambled to get myself back into the post, I can continue my earlier point. I don’t know what happened to split up the WB Dragons, but I think it might have something to do with their powers being to much for…………… maybe even God. So he split them in 2 and separated them, and maybe even decided to create all of these levels and make realm travel a challenge for anyone who’d want to bring back those original Dragons. Though that gets into why God may have separated them. Was he afraid of their power? Probably. But…………….. That’s The Thing. If GOD decided that the WB Dragons would “be,” then why would he choose to separate them? For the same reason the Original Demon was split in Seven Deadly Sins; they tried to rebel against him? Or was it just the fear of that happening? There’s something in this chapter that might give us a hint as to what’s going on. Which is something I think Mashima is doing here that’s different from the other 3; I think I said it one other time before, but Mashima seems to be choosing to tell the story through his Worldbuilding, rather than through the characters like in Rave Master or the power systems in Fairy Tail and Edens Zero. 

What Mashima did with this chapter was introduce the idea of a curse that allows one to tap into the Full Potential of their roots, becoming the Full version of whatever creature they’re based on- at the cost of 1)Mental faculties as seen with Yakuto and here with Bren, and 2)One’s Life Span. Yakuto is killing himself for even a little more strength. And based on his “performance” against God- it wasn’t even worth it. And he can’t even do it anymore because he has his power’s drained. But this chapter shows us another application of that curse: Absorbing Other Demons. Yakuto used his curse to absorb the White Calamity, becoming one of the Original Dragons. And Bren used it to tap into his Gigant roots. THEORY: Yakuto said in chapter 6 that “God Was An Imposter.” And the end of that chapter lingers in on his inverted eye. And we see in the panel where Yakuto’s WB form is revealed that his right arm– the one he was left with after Lilith drained him- is still black. Maybe the True God was Absorbed By Someone Else, just like Yakuto has done to the White Calamity. And whoever this is had some knowledge of the Black Dragon’s potential to challenge him- to challenge God, just as the Original Dragons did to the Real God when the Demon Realm was formed. SO- he snuffed them out, and didn’t both with the White Calamities because they were already locked off from the rest of the realm. And even then, he figured all the Black Dragons were dead. Probably didn’t think he had much to worry about……………..

Though in talking about all this, I think that we’re beginning to see some of what Mashima means to say with this story. You’ve seen his other 3 works: The idea’s of “Friendship,” “Moving Forward,” and “The Will To Live” are very prevalent themes in his story- very important ideals for Mashima’s writing style. This is NOT those other 3- he makes sure that we know that. It may explore those ideas in the future, but probably not to the extent that he did with his other 3 works. Or, well; maybe 1 of them, and not the one you’re thinking of. This chapter highlights another aspect of Yakuto’s character: His Obsession- his willingness to just “throw his life away” in exchange for strength that he’s not even sure will help him defeat God. He’s letting his quest for revenge kill him and he doesn’t even know if he can do it. It’s not healthy- no revenge quest ever is. It’s taking more and more from him- potential friends; his strength; his life. Someone has to talk to him about his reckless behavior. I think this is the type of story that would do an important “downtime” scene like that. 

On the One Hand: Mashima could be going for his tried-and-true “Keep Finding A Reason To Live-” that Yakuto needs to “let go” and try to find something else to fight for- to one day change his reason for fighting God. OR: This is the story about “The Price of Revenge;” that he’s losing more than what he’ll gain from this path. Because of his little “1-Man-War” on God, he’s: 

1. Lost His Strength. 
2. Gotten his friends in trouble.
3. Lost a Friend. 
4. Marked Himself By The Vice Principal and The Demon Teachers.

He’s biting off more than he can chew. And it’s getting him nowhere. In the “Consequence” storyline, the ending tends to be “Bittersweet-” the Goal is Accomplished, but he’s either lost the new family he’s making with Class F- or will die himself. Either way, he’ll be worse-for-wear. And while this isn’t like his other works, I don’t think he’ll go out of his way just to make it “Edgy.” Making it “Edgy” would be Mikoto refusing to help him and then seeing him abuse her; NOT establishing himself as a character by killing the homeroom teacher in chapter 1. He made his Mission Statement known- it’s not like he tortured Maxwell or he’s actively forcing everyone in Class F to work for him on this; he’s not a Monster. As such, I doubt that this story will have a “bitter sweet ending” like that. If anything, I can see Yakuto dying at the end, taking God out with him, while the members of Class F that survive just…………….. Remembering Him For What He Did. Something simple and sweet like that. As chapter 10 showed us, it’s not as if he’s just “Not” doing those themes; they just won’t be at the “fore” like before. 

Other things in the chapter: Frey using an Ifrit variant of the “Fist Of Obliteration” implies that there’s some kind of fighting style unique to “Brawler” types like she and Yakuto. That or she made it up on the spot as a reference because she likes Yakuto. And- just as a side note– I wrote down that what Yakuto did in this chapter is sort of like the process of becoming a Jinchuriki in Naruto. He’s “sealed it with in his body,” just like a Tailed Beast. And much like when it came to sealing Kurama within Naruto- it took someone’s life force to do it. In this case- Yakuto’s. 

Conclusion

Huh………………. That was actually everything I meant to say; I actually managed to hit every point on my list. Considering how I’m feeling right now, that feels like a miracle. To make a long story short: My ears have been……….. swelling for some God Forsaken reason, and it’s been keeping up for the last few nights. The only way I’ve been able to get any sleep is by either forcing myself back to sleep in the middle of the night(I’m a light sleeper with Insomnia, anyway), or staying awake until I lay down at night and letting my sheer exhaustion keep me unconscious. That second method has been working a lot better, I might try that one more. Especially since it’s left me with a lot of time to make posts. I tell ya: I decided to take advantage of the timing and made a Preview post at my old site, planning to put it out at midnight and let it “sit” for a day before posting this- because I didn’t think I’d be finish this post this quickly. I mean, this works out for me right now because I have 3 “Mass Reviews” to work on and other’s Blog posts to read, so………….. works for me. I have something to put out on Sunday now, too, so it all works out. 

Ah…………. I wanted to say more about this series, but…………… guess I’m too tired to come up with something. All I really wanted to say was: I love this series, and I’m glad that Mashima decided to go ahead with making it. And that I know with all the projects he’s working on- character designs for Farmagia; the upcoming 100 Years Quest anime while still doing storyboards for the manga; working on Edens Zero weekly; his Youtube channel and everything else- that something would have to give out on him. And I guess that something had to be Edens Zero, since it was further along in its story. Ah……………. I’m sad that “Edens Zero” is ending, but- you know– “one less thing” he has to worry about. If it means that this series can be at an even Higher quality, then I’m all for it. And while I mean everything I’m saying- I can’t lie: I mostly made this paragraph so I could use this image of Mikoto I found. Gotta keep these posts “quality-“ even when I’m just messin’ around!! Stay Safe- Stay Healthy- Stay Magic. Later, everyone!!