Comics / Manga

Beast Master: Volume 2

By Leroy Douresseaux
February 22, 2010 - 19:14

Beast Master Volume 2 cover image

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

When Yuiko Kubozuka first met Leo Aoi, Leo looked like a wild animal.  A transfer student to her school, Leo was raised in the wild by his guardian, Toki.  When he feels threatened, Leo becomes beastlike and savage.  Yuiko, an animal lover, befriends Leo, and she becomes his “master,” the only person he listens to when he has one of his violent fits.

Beast Master, Vol. 2 closes the story of Yuiko and Leo.  Leo will shortly turn 18-years-old, and that’s when he will inherit 130 million dollars from the estate of his late grandfather.  However, conniving relatives mean to put an end to Leo, which would give them the inheritance, and Yuiko is the pawn in their plot.  Meanwhile, Leo’s history is revealed, and a figure from his past makes a surprising return.  And what is the future of Yuiko and Leo’s relationship?

[This volume includes the bonus short story, “Cactus Summer Surprise.”]

THE LOWDOWN:  Being a relatively short manga, Beast Master’s main narrative ends early in Vol. 2.  Even with a bonus Beast Master story, the entire saga has concluded by the half point mark of this volume.  In spite of its size, Beast Master offers something a little different.  In most aspects, it is a typical shojo manga, high school romance comic, but the lead characters are almost a little too odd to be shojo stars.

Yuiko’s schizophrenic attitude – one minute she is a fighter and the next minute she’s too lovelorn to speak – and Leo’s childlike innocence and the savage lurking in him add spark to Beast Master.  You never know what’s going to happen from page to page.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for some wildness in their manga may like Beast Master.

B+

 

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12